How Chile progresses in complying with laws with an environmental focus

The map of socio-environmental conflicts of the National Institute of Human Rights shows that there are currently 131 such disputes in Chile, 74 active and 33 latent. For this reason, in order to address the problem, the country has advanced in the implementation of various regulations that seek to establish responsibilities and sanctions on the effects of the productive sectors on the environment.

One of the milestones in this area was the implementation of the Framework Law on Climate Change in 2022, which creates a legal framework to address the crisis, in addition to establishing the local goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. Added to this is the creation of the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service and even the new Law on Economic Crimes, which includes as second category crimes those that threaten the environment, which has changed the scenario for companies in terms of compliance.

Compliance standards are a very useful tool to move towards the reduction of the environmental footprint,’ says Alliance Group partner Andrés Devoto on the importance of these regulations for the business ecosystem. In his opinion, incorporating these modifications allows industries to participate in the global market in a competitive manner, strengthening their reputation and commitment to sustainability.

A vision with which agrees the leading partner of regulated markets and public law of Albagli Zaliasnik (AZ), Antonio Rubilar, for whom all these policies and regulatory compliance will generate a defense for organizations ‘if tomorrow an employee of the company makes a mistake in environmental matters, leading to environmental damage’.

Greenwashing and other challenges

Rubilar also mentions that having this type of regulation is fundamental, because both in Chile and in the world a bad practice known as ‘greenwashing’ is developing, which refers to when a company gives the appearance of having an environmental compliance standard, but in reality these are policies that ‘are in a drawer or do not work’, the executive points out. In this context, he emphasizes that this practice is very delicate in terms of reputation, and gives as an example cases in the United States in which this has been the cause of lawsuits by consumers.

For the director of sustainability at Coca-Cola Chile, Paola Calorio, the main challenge facing companies in this area is to assume their responsibility as an integral part of society. “We are not a separate actor, we are one more in the search for solutions,” she says.

Regulation and legal compliance must be considered as a transversal task and not only associated to the regulatory or environmental area, if we want to have an effective and lasting compliance over time‘, says Empresas Iansa on how they have approached these legal modifications within their operations.

From the company’s perspective, designing a roadmap for how carbon neutrality will be achieved by 2050 is key to complying with the Framework Law on Climate Change. The company also highlights the efforts it has made to reduce the materials used in packaging, reduce the weight of packaging and prioritize the use of recyclable materials to comply with the REP Law. And although they state that, in general, the food industry already has experience in adopting and complying with these regulations, they value the implementation of this regulatory framework, because ‘together with the correct execution of those involved, it will allow us to advance more quickly in the matter’.

Regarding the inclusion of crimes against the environment in the new Law on Economic Crimes, Rubilar says that there is a tendency to think that the most exposed companies are those in the mining industry. That is not so true’, he clarifies, pointing out that there are many different organizations and industries that have the potential to generate damage of this type, for example, by evading the environmental impact assessment system or by providing false or incomplete information, something that any company could do, he clarifies. In his opinion, the business ecosystem should be concerned about having policies and standards that allow them to tackle any type of non-compliance in order to avoid these scenarios.

Among the factors that could affect the commission of a crime against the environment under the new law, Devoto identifies the lack of an adequate prior assessment and analysis of socio-environmental risks when planning projects or activities.

Source: Diario Financiero, August 16. [See here]