CFOs for sustainability
Fernando Hasenberg's Story
How Fernando made ESG goals became Fernando made ESG goals more tangible and immediate at CMPC
Fernando Hasenberg is the Chief Financial Officer at Empresas CMPC, and sits on various steering committees. Part of the company for nearly 24 years, he helps to integrate ESG in the business’ strategy and operations. He is guided by his mission to create a better world for his four children.
About Empresas CMPC
Founded in 1920, Empresas CMPC has worked for over 100 years producing and marketing solid wood products, pulp, paper, tissue, personal care and packaging products in the US and Latin America. Their business is divided into three main areas: cellulose, biopackaging and softys, with 54 production facilities. Their products reach 45 countries across the world.
Sector: Integrated forest industry
Employees: 25,351 (2023)
Geography: Headquarters in Chile, operating across Latin America
Website: www.cmpc.com
Challenges
faced
When Fernando first joined CMPC’s mission to embed sustainability into the company’s DNA, he faced several key challenges.
The first was making ESG goals clear and relevant for everyone at the company. Sustainability targets, like reaching net zero by 2040, often felt distant and abstract. Fernando realized he needed to connect these long-term objectives with daily operations, making sustainability a part of every interaction at CMPC.
Technology was another challenge. Meeting CMPC’s ambitious new goals would require new solutions, ones that were not yet readily available, and Fernando had to engage his team to actively seek technologies that could help them achieve their targets.
Another key task was helping others recognize the ‘greenium’, or added value, of their investments. He needed to encourage a perspective that looked beyond financial returns to appreciate the benefits of environmental sustainability and social well-being.
In his role, he would need to find a way to manage contradictory goals – such as trying to balance sustainability with cost efficiency and competitiveness, or partnering with local suppliers and helping them become more competitive, while trying to avoid them becoming too dependent on CMPC.
Actions
taken
CMPC’s Executive team assigned 10% of the annual bonus of employees to their performance on sustainability to ensure that they are connected on a day-to-day basis with the company’s sustainability ambitions.
For Fernando, it was really important to keep things simple. He only introduced 2 KPIs to reduce complexity – reduction of water use and emissions.
By integrating sustainability with other business imperatives such as cost efficiency and competitiveness, he works to ensure there is balance between these contradictory goals. For example, within the objective of water use reduction, CMPC implemented a ghost price for water to reflect the true value of water within the company’s operations.
Fernando also places emphasis on consistent communication about sustainability within his team. He actively celebrates success stories and recognitions, hosting a weekly 15-minute conference call and 2-hour quarterly event with his team across all regions, comprising close to 750 members across all countries where CMPC operates. These meetings reinforce the connection between everyday work and the company’s sustainability objectives, encouraging everyone to share their challenges, large or small, and fostering collaboration and problem-solving skills.
In addition to his role as CFO, Fernando sits in various steering committees, such as the water use committee. In these roles, he has been able to bring more focus to his goal to embed sustainability into the company’s operations.
Resonance
of impact
Fernando has witnessed significant transformation across his company since implementing new initiatives.
His regular conference calls with his teams allow them to see the impact of their work on both large and small scales.
Fernando continues to drive and implement CMPC’s sustainability goals. Inspired by achievements so far, he plans to introduce new KPIs in the coming future for sustainability-linked financial instruments such as bonds to address new challenges as a company. The interest in such initiatives is shown in the runaway success of its existing green and sustainability linked bond, issued in 2023, awarded best ESG bond of the year by two prestigious institutes, and originally oversubscribed by six times.
He is also planning to establish a KPI related to the well-being of communities around CMPC’s operations. He hopes to build a robust methodology for measuring this well-being, working together with universities in Chile and Brazil to develop and implement a human well-being index that could be applied at large scale.