Can you discuss your or your company’s efforts relating to renewability, sustainability, or other environmentally-friendly activities?

In Pan American Silver we are committed with ESG standards, therefore, in Mexico we have a large portion of green energy that fuels our operations, also we not just comply with Mexican environmental regulations and good practices, we use the Canadian standard which provides further and strictly actions.

In addition, as part of our social commitments, on a yearly basis we agreed with the local communities to reforest a large field using local labor forces.

Why are in-house lawyers well-placed to drive change in their organisations?

As In-house lawyers we have the opportunity to take a deeper look at the company and its transactions, providing us with all the arguments and tools to implement, advise and overlook good practices, such as anti-bribery, compliance, money laundering among others.

In addition, the role of in-house lawyers has shifted, starting just as “cheaper” way to handle documents daily to have a real stakeholder that creates value within the company. The dependence between in-house and external lawyers is not intended to disappear, instead needs to be balanced.

It can be challenging to measure a company’s track record in environmentally friendly behavior. What, in your opinion, has mostly been missed in discussions about how green a company is?

Certainly, one of the most undervalue matters that needs to be measured are the toxic emission to the atmosphere, and in my opinion, the problem is the lack of commitment of the government on this matter (at least in Mexico). The local Governments tried to create rules, but their intention (clearly) is not to minimize the negative impact, instead to charge taxes to the companies.

So, if the view of the regulatory authorities keeps related to collecting more taxes, therefore the main issues will never be addressed. In that sense, even if the companies have the will to minimize the emission, the lack of expertise of the regulatory authorities and their short vision on the matter will enlarge the problem.