- The Industrial Union of Panama, a trade union representing the workforce of companies that promote sustainable development in the country, organized the 15th version of its International Sustainability Symposium and the 11th Golden Palm Award Ceremony.
The Industrial Union of Panama (SIP, for its acronym in Spanish) is a trade union that covers 14 productive and economic sectors. The Union has worked for the past 75 years on its mission to improve the competitiveness of the industrial sector through communication, education, and orientation aimed at providing solutions to address opportunities and challenges for sustainability. Within this mission, the International Sustainability Symposium was held this past 5-6 September for the fifteenth year.
The 2022 version was focused on Circular Economy. The event was organized to promote the implementation of best practices to drive the private sector toward the transition from a linear economy to a circular one for sustainable development. The symposium consisted of top-notch conferences with local and international presenters. This included the participation of experts Manuel Frávega (partner at the Beccar Varela law firm), who presented on the advances towards Circular Economy in the different cities of Argentina. Also, Milagros Díaz Saiz (Head of the Advisory Services Division for BID Invest) shared her perspective on why the private sector needs to be on the cutting edge of Sustainability and Circular Economy. Other topics presented include: The Role of the State: What does our country need to move towards a Circular Economy?; Circularity: The Immediate Challenge of Waste Management; Blue Economy; SMEs: Circular Economy and Sustainability. And the presentation of success stories implemented across the national industry.
The event was followed by the 11th Golden Palm Award Ceremony hosted at the Hotel Sheraton Grand Panama on 5-6 October. SIP is responsible for giving out the Golden Palm Awards for Circular Economy in collaboration with volunteers to promote sustainable development in the country through implementing best practices in the transition from a linear economy to a circular one. Its goal is to give special recognition to companies in the industrial and service sectors that demonstrate top achievements and performance through successfully implementing sustainable environment practices towards a Circular Economy integrated within their production processes, products, and services.
Each year, the award is given to the winning companies that have submitted their success stories in implementing sustainable environment practices to promote a shift towards a Circular Economy. These stories must demonstrate best practices in Circular Economy applied to production processes or products and services and provide evidence of successful results, better performance, and improved competitiveness. Awards are distributed among the categories of micro, small, medium, and large companies.
These events create a valuable space for dialogue so that Circular Economy can continue to be driven by the private sector, with the support of the government, civil society, and academia for the implementation of more circular businesses and communities.