The event “Building Sustainable Futures” brought together 60 leaders from local businesses, municipal governments, academia, and third sector organizations. Concrete opportunities that are enhancing local development were shared, as well as regional and national impact business models.
With the aim of creating a space to rethink the development of Comodoro Rivadavia and the region from a sustainable perspective, this Monday, April 6, the Comodoro Conocimiento headquarters welcomed 60 leaders from the local productive ecosystem, the public sector, and the national B Movement.
The meeting was driven by Sistema B Argentina and local B Companies Elsus and Altamira, with the support of the municipalities of Comodoro Rivadavia and Rada Tilly, the Comodoro Conocimiento Agency, the Comodoro Tourism Entity, the Port of Comodoro, and the local Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Production.
Figures such as Mariel Peralta, Mayor of Rada Tilly, Digna Hernando De Blanco, Port Administrator, and Marina Arias, Executive Director of Sistema B Argentina, were present.
Débora Reitovich, Head of SME and Value Chain Dynamization at the Comodoro Conocimiento Agency, welcomed attendees, highlighting the importance of the meeting for “collectively building new opportunities”: “We cannot think of sustainable futures if not in a collective way and considering social and environmental value”, she said.
Challenges and Opportunities of the Territory
The first panel of the event addressed the current situation of the territory, which faces the challenge of rethinking and diversifying its productive development. “Both in Comodoro Rivadavia and Rada Tilly, the context led us to depend on a single industry, and that did not allow us to advance in transforming the productive matrix. Of course, the oil sector is still very important, but today it is time to have a different perspective”, stated Mariel Peralta, Mayor of Rada Tilly.
“The installed capacity is key: we have technical teams and a lot of history that make us capable of advancing in whatever we set out to do. And there is also a great advantage in our identity, nature, and maritime environment. It is a great opportunity, we have enormous potential for sustainable tourism, energy transition, and the knowledge economy”, added the municipal leader.
The mayor also expressed that development must be linked to a positive social and environmental impact and highlighted the importance of public-private articulation. In this regard, last year the Municipality of Rada Tilly and Sistema B Argentina signed a Collaboration Agreement to promote an inclusive, sustainable economic development model oriented towards positive community impact.
Solange Freile, Director of the Altamira Medical Institute (B Company) and Co-director of SOIFE Group, highlighted the role of companies in this context. “For many years we did not work as entrepreneurs, but rather as a community of contractors. We got used to contracts that were ‘secured’, but now everything is moving, and we have to create new value. Today there are many people and groups working on this diversification”, said the businesswoman.
“There are many sectors that have the muscle to pull through the current situation, such as the health sector. The city’s history developed it a lot, institutions grew, in many cases alongside the oil industry, with technology and medical specialties, and today it is in a very high position”, added the leader of Altamira.
The Opportunities Offered by the Sea
Eduardo Andrés Carrasco, Manager of the Comodoro Tourism Entity, addressed the opportunities of the territory as a sustainable destination. The great driver is the sei whale, which after almost a century without records in the area, was sighted again on the coasts of the San Jorge Gulf. “We have the obligation to develop corridors and enhance our province, which receives whales all year round, protect our local resources and the talents that bet on this sector”, expressed Eduardo Carrasco.
“Every crisis is an opportunity. We know that relying on a single activity generates a lot of problems, and today the sea offers us multiple and very diverse opportunities to generate investment and employment”, added Digna Hernando De Blanco, Administrator of the Port of Comodoro Rivadavia.
The official shared the advances of the local shipyard, which is in the process of reactivation after more than 20 years of inactivity and would begin operating in the second semester. “This project starts with an enterprise, but it allows new demands to emerge”, she added.
Energy Transition and Diversification
Then Rolando Rivera, President of Sustainable Energy Transition (TES), spoke. “We have wind farms that supply a population of three million inhabitants and we could multiply it by 10 or 15”, he expressed. He also shared that the organization is working on the development of green hydrogen.
“We have knowledge, infrastructure, and more than 100 years of history in this sector. The challenge is to transform those capabilities into development, addressing energy as a great enabler of new productive projects, taking advantage of the extensive territory and our world-class renewable resources”, he added.
