Mexico City – March 22nd, 2023. – Jointly with BBVA, PwC and the UN, González Calvillo (“GC”) will be co-hosting the first edition of the ESG Summit Mexico on March 29th, with the participation of experts and aimed at owners, chairwomen(men) and CEOs of the most relevant companies in Mexico. This first edition of the ESG Summit Mexico will be addressing financial, legal, business, and operational issues involving ESG, and case studies by Grupo Bimbo and BlackRock. It is the first event of its nature to be held in Mexico and Latin America.
ESG is a corporate strategy which focuses on three pillars: environment, social and governance, aimed at lowering pollution, CO2 output and reduce waste in the decision-making level and operations of a company. It also means having a diverse and inclusive workforce, at the entry-level and all the way up to the board of directors.
“The close economic ties between Mexico, the United States and Canada by virtue of NAFTA, and more recently the USMCA, brings to our country the eminence of ESG”, says Enrique González Calvillo, Founding Partner at GC. But there is also Europe, especially Spain, which accounts for the second largest foreign investment into Mexico, where ESG is rapidly expanding. Government, agencies, and regulators, including the Central Bank of Mexico and the Ministry of Finance are taking concrete actions on this regard.
But the main engine behind ESG is financially driven, amid growing concerns deriving from climate change and net-zero urgency and social needs, along with banks and private equity funds increasingly requiring adherence to sustainability standards and criteria. According to Paola Hernández, Senior Counsel at GC, who previously worked as former head of Legal Environmental and Compliance area at Grupo México “Companies throughout Mexico and Latin America will find it difficult to fund their future expansion by ignoring ESG factors. It is very important that corporate governance understands why ESG risks are material risks. Incorporating them into its risk management is essential for a company to add value and remain over time”. Paola joined GC in 2022 to coordinate the firm’s ESG practice.
“There has been an important evolution on the side of ESG financing as well”— says Bernardo Reyes Retana, Corporate Finance and Capital Markets Partner at GC. “Companies and investors are avidly seeking financing through ESG related products, and we’ve witnessed a booming market and demand in Mexico for green and sustainable bonds placed in the Mexican stock exchanges during the last three years, and a strong pipeline of transactions expected to launch in 2023. The development of ESG financing in Mexico comes along with new regulatory requirements for issuers and investors, not only through the stock exchanges setting new standards and disclosure obligations, but we are also expecting the CNBV (banking and securities regulator in Mexico) and the Ministry of Finance to enact reforms and secondary regulations in ESG and D&I.”
Today there is not a single large, long-term player in Mexico and Latin America that is not moving in the direction of ESG. Medium size to large companies alike, closely held, and public, are increasingly looking at it or already in the implementation phase, it will therefore be inevitable that the legal profession and law firms across the region will find in ESG an interesting challenge and opportunity.
The first edition of the ESG Summit Mexico will be an exclusive by invitation only event. Further details and coverage are below.
About González Calvillo
For over 35 years, González Calvillo has been at the forefront of the legal market in Mexico as a full-service leading law firm due to its transactional core and expertise in a wide range of practice areas. The firm is recognized for its ability to build cross-disciplinary teams for the most complex legal challenges and long track record of successfully providing groundbreaking business and regulatory advice to high-profile domestic and international companies. Often described as a pioneer of the Mexican legal services industry, the firm is known for its commitment to do things differently, bespoke solutions, and creating transformational legal changes that enable clients to achieve their objectives.