IE Foundation and Banca March promote Sustainability Strategies in Spanish Family-Owned Companies

• This is the first project arising from the collaboration agreement signed between the two entities in 2020 with the aim of addressing projects on the megatrends that will define the future: Sustainability and the Environment, Revolution 4.0, and Demographics and Lifestyle.
• The agreement includes four case studies that delve into the environmental sustainability strategy of four successful family businesses: Actiu, Calvo, Enhol, and González Byass.
• This initiative is framed within Banca March’s commitment as a referent for family businesses and in its effort to integrate sustainability into its business model.

Madrid, June 2021 – The IE Foundation, through the IE Center for Families in Business, has formalized an alliance with Banca March with the aim of generating academic knowledge and giving visibility to the sustainability strategies of Spanish family businesses. This alliance is framed within Banca March’s Next Generation investment strategy, launched in 2019, which is based on the global trends that are transforming society and the economy.

As part of the project, four cases of Spanish family companies have been analyzed which, like Banca March and IE, have committed to sustainability in their business development: the furniture manufacturer Actiu (Folla de Castalla, Alicante), the cannery Calvo (Carballo, A Coruña), the Enhol Group (Tudela, Navarra) and the González Byass winery (Jerez de la Frontera).

This initiative will give visibility, in a multimedia format, to these cases that illustrate how Spanish family-owned companies face the challenge of sustainability, and stand out as best practices in the market regarding social investment and shared creation of social and economic value. The cases show that the practice of sustainability represents a fundamental part of business strategies and is fully linked to their family values.

This is the first project arising from the collaboration agreement signed between the IE Foundation and Banca March in 2020, with the aim of tackling academic-based content generation projects on Sustainability and Environment, Revolution 4.0, and Demographics and Lifestyle. These are the three megatrends that Banca March identified in 2019 as potential sources of profitability in the coming years. On that basis, the entity launched Next Generation, a proposal of investment products in these major trends, which in March 2021 exceeded €500 million in assets under management, an increase of 395% over the same period of the previous year.

Each project in this agreement will focus on one of the three megatrends, making it possible to analyze different angles and offer an enriched vision of the family businesswomen involved.

Cristina Cruz, academic director of the IE Center for Families in Business and principal researcher of this study said: “The four cases are a clear example that, for family businesses, the practice of sustainability is not a fad or a public relations issue, but a fundamental part of their identity as business families. That is why generation after generation has committed to integrating sustainability into their strategy”.

The Banca March’s CEO, José Luis Acea, said: “As a bank specializing in wealth and family business advisory services, we have taken on the challenge of continuing to develop new forms of responsible and sustainable investment and financing. Within the framework of this project, we are proud to count on the IE Foundation to give visibility to the exemplary cases of González Byass, Enhol, Calvo, and Actiu, family groups that show the path that companies must follow to create, together, a more integrated economy and society”.

Find more information on the project here (ESP)