Cristian Nacu, IFC: I would say that this year the watchword was sustainability

Attending the BR Awards, Cristian Nacu, Senior Country Officer for Romania at the International Finance Corporation, member of the jury, showed the importance of sustainability and the paradigm shift the all business are force to take this year in order to stop using virgin resources, but renewable ones.

„As usual, it was a tough competition, with many candidates, valuable, strong companies. I would say that this year the watchword was sustainability and pretty much all the choices were made in that sense, but there were companies that would have done a lot for sustainability anyway. Serious companies have long understood that ESG investments in general are investments that pay off in the future. More often than not, the business and its profitability all depends on these factors and how well they are considered.

2024 comes with a paradigm shift. Business is no longer, for the first time, interesting only for profit. People, government and legislators, both local and European, are starting to ask how to change this paradigm at the micro level. At the macro level comes legislation that forces us to rethink business in the sense of sustainability, of circularity, because we all realize that resources are limited and if we don’t do something, we risk leaving nothing for the generations that come after us. Also, global warming is a phenomenon that exists, I think even the last sceptics have realised this and it can no longer be neglected. That’s why I think all businesses will go through a paradigm shift.

Economically, 2024 will be a good year, a year of growth despite the uncertainties of the election process, but we must understand that sustainability does not come cheap. If we continue to choose what is cheap, we will not achieve the paradigm shift. That is why we will have to find resources, both financial and legislative, to encourage business transformation from using virgin resources to using renewable resources. If we don’t have these resources, things will not happen by themselves, because they are costly processes, processes that require investment and that we need to stimulate.”