The initiative is for companies interested in joining the certification that promotes sustainable water management, which was open to applications on April 26 at www.certificadoazul.cl.
The Blue Certificate webinar “Application and Certification Process” was held on Thursday, April 29, with more than 300 participants. It was aimed at companies interested in joining this initiative that promotes sustainable water management.
The on-line meeting was organized by the Agency for Sustainability and Climate Change, Fundación Chile and the Embassy of Switzerland, with the aim of analysing the scope of the Clean Production Agreement (APL), the application requirements, the implementation and certification process, and the benefits involved.
In addition to closing the SuizAgua Project, the webinar focused on orienting companies and organisations interested in the APL. There were over 500, from sectors as diverse as agriculture, mining, the processed food industry, commerce, wine, retail, fishing, technology, water and sanitation, and trade associations, municipalities and public services.
The talks were given by Claudia Galleguillos, Water Strategies Lead of the Sustainability Management of Fundación Chile, who discussed the purpose of the Blue Certificate and its contribution to the country’s water security, while Johanna Guzmán, National Manager of Control and Supervision of Agreements of the ASCC, explained how the application and the APL process are carried out. Juan Esteban Butazzoni, legal advisor of the SuizAgua Chile project, referred to the incentives for companies that keep to the voluntary agreement.
In view of the country’s decade-long water crisis, the Executive Director of the Sustainability and Climate Change Agency, Giovanni Calderón, emphasized that “we have to adopt initiatives that are effective, quick and easy to implement and that, in the end, will produce the desired effect of having a sustainable water management system” and invited companies to “become aware that water is a scarce resource in Chile and in the world, to join the Blue Certificate and to carry out initiatives that mean having a better future for their investments in the country”.
The Blue Certificate was developed as part of the SuizAgua Project of the Latin American “Water Unites Us” Programme, which is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
Besides emphasizing that water management is a Swiss foreign policy priority, the Swiss Ambassador to Chile, Arno Wicki explained that a blue certificate for shared water management was created to close the successful SuizAgua program in Chile. “The Blue Certificate not only managed to include the water variable in production systems, it also generated a very attractive institutional framework for companies with tax incentives. It is very satisfying to know that, indirectly, Switzerland contributed to Chile’s climate ambition, integrating the water footprint in its NDC,” said Wicki.
Claudia Galleguillos, Water Strategies Lead at Fundación Chile, highlighted that the Blue Certificate “encourages companies to follow a management model that goes beyond what we are used to, because it encourages them to achieve efficiency in their production systems, but also to manage the risks imposed by the territory and other users in the sustainability of the resource, positioning the company as a driver of change and development, which is very necessary for our country’s water management”.
The Blue Certificate is a Clean Production Agreement which promotes sustainable public/private water resources management, through efficient and sustainable water use in goods and services production, and through mitigating possible associated impacts, in order to contribute to Chile’s water security.
Source: Fundación Chile
Links of interest:
Web The Blue Certificate Chile
Web Water Unites Us
Factsheet Water Unites Us project
