09 Julio 2021
The United Nations selected the Softys Water Challenge project in its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Good Practices program, which seeks to reward the progress and success stories that are contributing to the 2030 Agenda set by the international organization.
Softys, CMPC's hygiene and personal care products subsidiary, shared this recognition during the launch event of its 2020 Sustainability Report , which showcases its ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) management in the eight Latin American countries where it has production operations: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.
Nicole Sansone, Softys' Corporate Sustainability Manager , notes that “we are very proud to receive this recognition, which is directly aligned with our goal of empowering local communities through hygiene and health. Furthermore, it is an initiative that connects with the efforts we are making in our own water efficiency processes, water-related risk management, and work with the supply chain, among others.”
Solutions begin in Chiloé
The company also noted that Softys Water Challenge is in its first phase of implementing solutions in Latin America, following a 2020 competition held in partnership with the UC Innovation Center and the Amulén Foundation, which aimed to find ventures and startups dedicated to water innovation that improve access to this basic resource in the region's most vulnerable communities.
In 2020, the competition, which brought together 400 solutions from around the world, accelerated 19 projects with the support of the Innovation Center of the Catholic University, and awarded the three best initiatives: Isla Urbana (Mexico), Remote Water (Chile) and Watergen (Israel).
The implementation of the project will take place –in this first phase– in four communities in the region, located in Chile, Peru and Brazil.
The first project, implemented during May and June of this year, took place on Caucahué Island, located in the Chiloé archipelago, near the town of Quemchi. The community there consists of 16 families who, until this project, lacked access to potable water, despite the fact that the problem was not related to water scarcity, but rather to isolation and a lack of infrastructure.
In Isla Caucahué, the solutions of the Mexican startup Isla Urbana were installed, which allow obtaining drinking water through the collection and treatment of rainwater, and which was very well suited to the characteristics of the area.
The other Softys Water Challenge implementation in Chile is being developed in the town of Lumaco, in the Araucanía Region, benefiting 36 families in the area with the same Isla Urbana solution.
In the coming months, solutions will also be developed in communities near Softys' operations in other countries. This is the case in Caieiras, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, where the same rainwater harvesting solution will be implemented. In the province of Cañete, located near Lima, Peru, the solution from the Chilean-Israeli startup Remote Waters will be implemented. Remote Waters provides technology for purifying seawater or groundwater, transforming it into clean, safe drinking water.