Promoting sustainability through communication

How can communication be a tool capable of promoting sustainability? This was the focus of the 1st Conference "Communicating at Comillas" organised by the Department of Translation and Interpreting and Multilingual Communication. The aim of the meeting was to highlight the importance of taking into account the fact that sustainability covers a wide variety of areas on which the future of the planet depends.

The Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Comillas CIHS), Susanne M. Cadera, welcomed the event, where she pointed out that "through effective communication we can raise awareness and inspire". Lecturers Andrea Schapers and Ingrid Gil then introduced the day, reinforcing the message of the power of communication to catalyse social projects.

Lecturer and Dean of the Iberdrola Chair, José Luis Fernández, then spoke about the importance of being critical when communicating. He emphasised that it is key that "current generations meet their needs without putting future generations at risk of not being able to meet theirs".

During the event we enjoyed a round table, formed by different academic and business profiles related to the world of sustainability and communication. Beatriz Aylagas, head of CSR and sustainability at Ecoembes, highlighted the "permeability of communication" and the fact that "sustainability appeals to all of us." On the other hand, Pilar Suarez-Inclán, Director of Institutional Communication and CSR at Reale Seguros, highlighted the value of integrating CSR within the business and how in this discipline what is done has to be real. On behalf of Nestlé Spain, its Public Affairs Manager, Alberto Vega, emphasised that his company seeks to "improve the quality of life of people through food". From Comillas, the lecturer and director of the Integral Ecology Service, Jesús Sánchez, and the student Mónica Montero, explained the focus given to sustainability at our institution. As Sánchez pointed out, the focus is on designing and building a sustainable campus.

In order to obtain a perspective on sustainability from the point of view of research and the application of new technologies, we had a round table with the participation of: Laura Illia, lecturer at the Université de Fribourg; Jens Peters, lecturer at the University of Alcalá; and Arancha Larrañaga, lecturer in Marketing at Comillas. Ilia explained the relationship between sustainability and Artificial Intelligence. Peters, for her part, explained the practice of sustainability in our day-to-day lives and highlighted a series of good practices. To conclude this block, Larrañaga presented her thesis: Categorisation of green consumer goods by consumers: An integrative review and a research agenda.

Finally, the first year students of the International Relations and Communication Degree presented a series of posters and infographics that they had prepared together with Lecturer Daniel Wuebben for their Stategic Communication class. Each poster took as its main theme the concept of "greenwashing" in different sectors such as fashion, food, sport, politics, architecture... If you haven't been able to see their work yet, you can go to the hall of building B of the Cantoblanco faculty, where they are on display.

Without a doubt, the first day of Comunicating Comillas has served as a loudspeaker for the synergies that exist between the impact of communication and social transformation.