UPF-BSM and Agbar create a chair on institutional communication and sustainable development

 The Agbar Chair in Institutional Communication of the Sustainable Development Goals was born with the aim of promoting study and knowledge about the future of the 2030 Agenda

The UPF Barcelona School of Management (UPF-BSM) and Agbar have signed an agreement for the creation of the Agbar Chair in Institutional Communication of the Sustainable Development Goals, a centre born of the desire to promote study and knowledge about the future of the 2030 Agenda and the field of sustainability.

According to the professor and journalist Toni Aira, director of the chair, the aim will be to undertake “research and dissemination on the study of the institutional communication of sustainable development and growth as well as the objectives of the 2030 Agenda. Investigating how work is being done, with an international perspective, beyond the slogans, and looking at both the positive and negative consequences of real actions as well as shallow ones.”

Professor and journalist Toni Aira will direct it investigating the institutional communication of sustainable development

This chair, which will be coordinated by the researcher Daniel Rajmil, seeks to bring together the main debates and challenges around the United Nations agenda and how this affects the perspective of sustainable growth and development in the field of institutional and political communication. It will also promote research applied to this topic with impact and evaluation indicators of international policies and experiences in the world of institutional communication. 
According to Aira, such a chair is relevant because “the objectives of the 2030 Agenda, which are born from a bottom-up approach, need the collaboration of all actors in society in order to be implemented. In this sense, the framework and context during the first years will follow those of the sphere of action of the 2030 Agenda. It will therefore impact all actors, from all areas of citizenship.”

“This is a pledge to approach the knowledge of the 2030 Agenda in a different and clear way for Catalan society and the university community, from an interdisciplinary platform. It shows how the concern for sustainability and global well-being is more than a good objective of the actors from the business world and the university,” says the professor in relation to the creation of the chair. “We will contrast the concerns of public institutions, analyse them to learn what is worthwhile, and point out ways to improve and expand upon that which has been identified as lacking,” added Aira.

Àngel Simon, President of Agbar, emphasized the relevance of the SDGs “which provide us with a common framework for assessing progress in the challenges we face as a society”

In the words of the President of Agbar, Àngel Simon, “In the context of an increasingly globalized reality, the Sustainable Development Goals provide us with a common framework for assessing progress in the challenges we face as a society, in which the collaboration of all parts is needed: the administration, private companies, and the general public, and where the academic sector plays a key role.” “Cooperation is essential for moving forward: companies need the knowledge of universities and universities need the know-how of companies,” added Àngel Simon.

The General Director of the UPF Barcelona School of Management, José M. Martínez-Sierra, positively values the creation of the chair: “In addition to achieving sustainable development, one of the great global challenges of the future is to make it available to the public. The best way to do this yesterday, today, and tomorrow is rigorous and professional institutional communication. In this context, the UPF Barcelona School of Management contributes the best of our faculty, Professor Toni Aira, to the benchmark company with regards to its commitment to global sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals, Agbar.”