Cemefi’s seventh Latin American Meeting of Socially Responsible Enterprises took place from 7 to 10 April, with nearly 2,000 participants. During the meeting 934 corporations from Mexico, and 20 from elsewhere in Latin America (Costa Rica, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Honduras and El Salvador), were awarded the ESR 2014 badge (Socially Responsible Enterprise 2014).

The badge is a result of a complex compliance process in which corporations meet more than 140 standards in five areas of corporate social responsibility: ethics, environmental care, labour conditions, consumer care and community social care.

The four-day meeting included seven capacity-building workshops, three keynote speeches, four plenary panels, 38 concurrent sessions and a leaders’ forum in which corporate leaders addressed their individual messages and perspectives on corporate social responsibility. Keynote speakers included Dr Michael Hopkins, MHC International Ltd Corporate & Social (UK); Adrian Hodges, Hodges Advisory (UK); Bo Viktor Nylund, UNICEF; Fernando Prado, Reputation Institute (Spain); and Italo Pizzolante, Strategic Communications (Venezuela).

CSR practices are not just profitable; they have turned into a key element in businesses’ success. CSR practice communication needs to be part of a process in which corporations are transparent about the impact they have on the community, environment and social causes.

The meeting closed with a gala dinner and ceremony in which Cemefi’s corporate members and international corporations were given their awards. The awarded corporations thanked Cemefi and strengthened their commitment to build a different world.

For more information
http://www.cemefi.org