More than 200 Catalan companies have signed up to the “Manifesto for an Economy with Purpose” promoted by the country’s main business organisations, led by Respon.cat and with the support of the Chamber of Commerce.

The manifesto calls on the business world to advance in the active and committed development of companies’ responsibility towards society, with a triple-impact purpose: economic, social and environmental. It also seeks to show publicly how companies are a driver of change based on values of commitment and by creating shared value.

Leather Cluster Barcelona has joined the main business organisations which have promoted the manifesto under the impetus of Respon.cat: the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, the Council of Chambers of Commerce of Catalonia, Foment del Treball, Pimec, CECOT, FemCat, the Unió Empresarial de l’Anoia (UEA), the Association of Economists, ASCEF, FEGP, La Unió, the Grup Impuls per Girona, the Fundació Gresol and many others.

Respon.cat, a business initiative for the development of social responsibility in Catalonia, is an association that brings together more than a hundred companies of very diverse sectors and sizes committed to advancing their Corporate Social Responsibility and to making Catalonia a socially responsible territory.

Beyond the manifesto, the collaboration between Leather Cluster Barcelona and Respon.cat goes back a long way: in April 2022 the leading business body in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Catalonia held the assessment session of the RSE.Pime programme at the Adoberia Bella, the cluster’s headquarters, a space where Catalan SMEs come together to gain competitiveness by strengthening their social responsibility.

Taking advantage of the social responsibility forum of the RSE.Pime programme, Jordi Vidal, executive director of Leather Cluster Barcelona, explored in depth the concept of Shared Value, a business policy that Acció also promotes in the cluster ecosystem. This term covers the operational policies and practices that improve a company’s competitiveness while simultaneously fostering the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of the environment in which it operates. In this regard, Jordi Vidal championed the water treatment plant of the Igualada tanners, Igualadina de Depuració i Recuperació SL, as a precedent and an example of shared value.

The Igualadina de Depuració i Recuperació (IDR) treatment plant, as well as being an exemplary demonstration of the advantage of belonging to a cluster, is a pioneer in the integration of shared value, a business project that has a positive impact on society and promotes a balance between business competitiveness and social and environmental improvement, helping to build a fairer, greener and more equitable economy.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an accredited entity within the Catalonia Clusters programme and is supported by Acció.