Interview by Jaime Montemayor, Member of the Global Amrop Board and Managing Partner, Amrop Mexico.

Mr. Garza has a multinational mandate covering sustainability, public affairs and communications. “I report to the CEO, and we have specific teams reporting directly to me in each of Arca Continental’s five countries.” The sustainability teams also report functionally to their respective country leaders. Why the extra reporting line? It’s a question of operating freedom, he explains. Dual reporting liberates teams from corporate oversight and local compromise. “Maybe it is not the right formula for some, but for us it is very effective.”

Mr. Garza’s background is as eclectic as his role. “It’s part of my therapy to say out loud that I was a journalist for many years. I also have my bachelor’s degree in communications and my master’s in science, with the emphasis on policy and communications. I also have certifications in corporate relations, sustainability and risk management. But I think in this community, you have to complement yourself with very specific on-the-field knowledge that comes more from experience than from an academic background.”

ESG is often used as a shortcut for sustainability. What definitions guide Arca Continental today? Mr. Garza views ESG as a useful tool to quantify achievements that would be otherwise difficult to demonstrate. “For us sustainability is a broader concept — the capacity of the organization to succeed in the long run. So it is not about meeting a specific metric, but to have a sustainable business model for the viability of the company. This is how the whole company thinks about its way of doing things.” In short, sustainability is “a comprehensive, holistic way of doing business.”

A tour of Arca Continental’s 2022 Integrated Annual Report presents a large array of interconnected (and quantified) sustainability actions. How would Mr. Garza summarize the strategy? “It’s not easy. You always have the temptation to focus on the short term and specific metrics (mainly environmental).” But Arca Continental is resisting superficiality. “We want this to be a very strong pillar that goes from the board of directors, with a specific committee that oversees progress, to all business areas.”

So, sustainability is a way of acting, embedded in every department and process. “We don’t want a specific area to say: ‘this is my profile or mandate, and I do a few things on sustainability’. No. What we want is for specific areas to say: ‘the way I do business takes into account all the concepts of sustainability — what I’m doing on a daily basis.’ I’m trying to convey that sustainability is not a team or a group initiative. It’s the way we run the entire organization… not tempted to cut costs, or in times of crisis, to say ‘we’re not doing sustainability anymore’. We want the people who interact with us to see that we’re creating and sharing value with the community, in everything we do.”

Pushed and pulled from all directions, including different spheres of public policy from state to city-level, it takes a special kind of leadership to move from ambiguity to impact. What attributes help his teams (and indeed the whole organization) to stay on track? “You have to be very clear that sustainability success is going to be the success of the company, not of the CSO or sustainability team.” This approach also enables the CSO and team to avoid the inertia that can stem from a combination of naval gazing and a lack of organizational momentum. There are precedents for the sustainability movement, he says. For example, continuous improvement and quality assurance evolved from being unfamiliar concepts to becoming part of organizational life. “I think sustainability has to seek that same path.”

From realism, methodology and relevance, maturity will come

How has the sustainability agenda has evolved since he joined the organization in 2008? “We are the result of many mergers and many different ideas and approaches about sustainability. But I think we evolved from doing good with the value created within the company, to sharing value through a sustainable business model. Having the philanthropic approach of our founder families as a very solid legacy, we have complemented this with a sustainability management approach taking the same terms, metrics and key performance indicators as any area of the organization.” It’s not a question of business on the one hand and a handful of philanthropic or volunteering programmes on the other, he emphasizes.

What advice would he share with the C-suite of other organizations, including the CSO? “I’m not in a position to give advice because I think that every sustainability effort, every company, is very positive.” He does, however, counsel objectivity and focus - a methodical approach to defining specific impact areas and how they will be achieved and measured. “I think that definition is one of the main steps.”

It begins with a tough self-assessment. “How mature are you in terms of managing sustainability in the organization? You have to understand what the actual capabilities are and the evolution you want.” For example, if your materiality analysis yields a specific area of intervention, “you have to define the structure, the specific capabilities, the kind of management that you need generally in the organization to accomplish that.”

Relevance is also critical and there are no instant recipes. “Find what is specific to your organization. Not every organization is built equally, the mission, the ambition is different… You need to have something that makes sense to the organization in terms of what you want to accomplish as business objectives.”

This also means defining how sustainability will become a competitive advantage for the organization to sustain growth in the long run. “We always say that Arca Continental cannot be a successful company in a failed community. So you need to be aware of what happens outside the organization. I think it is very important to include those aspects in the organizational strategy. So define your focus, your maturity, define the external variables and your path as a competitive advantage.”