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Since 2006, the B Movement has demonstrated that it is possible to think and do business differently. Progress has been important and we recognize that it is insufficient in the face of the exponential challenges we are experiencing, both climate and social. Even if we have managed to contribute to the construction of a new business culture, we must promote structural changes in the rules of the game.
According to the World Bank there are more than 125 million businesses in the world. How can we support them to behave like companies with the aim of taking responsibility towards their stakeholders and gaining the commitment to measure, manage and make transparent their impact? Precisely to respond to this challenge, legal frameworks have emerged that redefine the role of businesses in society. In 2010, the province of Maryland in the United States was the first to pass the law Benefit companies. Today, more than 50 different jurisdictions have approved the legislative proposal and 30,000 companies have adopted this legal figure in 44 states across the country. Globally, eight other countries have passed similar regulations, five of which are from Latin America: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Panama.
The most important climate conference in history has already begun. COP30 must mark a new moment: the transition from the era of negotiations to the era of implementation. Latin America has a historic opportunity to contribute to the transformation of this global economy. From Belém do Pará in Brazil, the COP30 Manifesto – developed by Movement B – proposes interdependence as a new economic intelligence and resilience strategy. The future of business is no longer based on extractivism, but on the legal obligation to care for the planet and communities: an architecture of change that can combine prosperity, justice and regeneration.
The linear and extractive model that has dominated the last century has brought the planet and society to a breaking point. Today, seven of the nine planetary boundaries have been crossed, while inequality continues to advance: the richest 1% captured almost two-thirds of the new wealth generated by 2020. It is a system of governance incapable of balancing growth and well-being.
It is in this context of economic and environmental crisis that the COP30 Manifesto emerges as a concrete roadmap. Based on evidence, it demonstrates that scaling the practices of B Corporations – organizations that lead the B Movement and meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance – can reduce global warming by 0.5°C by 2100, prevent 600,000 deaths due to extreme heat, and reduce the risk of extinction of thousands of species.
Key to this redesign is stakeholder governance, which forces workers, communities and nature to be formally taken into account in the decision-making process. This way, companies can build purpose into managers’ fiduciary duty to set science-based goals and thrive without destroying.
This architecture of change is based on three pillars: a just transition anchored in human dignity, due diligence across the value chain, and the transition from extractivism to ecodesign and circularity. Public policies must penalize the destruction of natural and social capital, while encouraging the creation of sustainable value.
Latin America, home to more than 40% of the world’s biodiversity, holds fundamental ancestral wisdom about the interdependence of humanity and nature. From Belém, we ask that the Amazon become the laboratory of this new paradigm to demonstrate that competitiveness and social equity are complementary objectives.
The Manifesto argues that this interdependence is the new economic intelligence. No business can thrive in a fractured society or a sick planet. Caring for people and the environment is not an ethical concession, but rather a resilience strategy and the best preparation for the future.
Latin America today has a unique opportunity to lead a global economic redesign, bringing together prosperity, justice and regeneration. The future of the economy will not play its decisive role only at the top, but in the consistency of the decisions made daily by businesses and citizens.
