According to a study carried out in 2022 by the Edelman Trust Barometer, 88% of institutional investors put ESG issues alongside operational and financial considerations when making investment decisions; 60% of workers choose a workplace based on their beliefs and values, while 58% of consumers buy or defend brands that match their beliefs. It is therefore natural that a growing number of managers are increasingly seeking to understand how their activity should have other criteria for analyzing a company's risk than those used by the capital markets.

Recent times have been fertile in events, decisions, movements, positions taken and deliberations that not long ago we did not imagine possible. Even though, deep down, we believed in change, we did not believe it would unfold at this pace.

Twenty years ago, as a consequence of the definition of recycling targets by the European Commission, numerous awareness-raising campaigns on the subject emerged in Portugal. Currently, it has been possible to prove the positive impact of communication on the population, generating a change of habits.

Evidence of a growing problem, which we insisted on ignoring, has led in 18 months to measures and various initiatives that are beginning to change the status quo: I am referring to marine litter.