6th IPBN Sustainability Conference focuses on community development and urban planning

Community development and urban planning was one of the three themes that dominated the 6th Irish-Portuguese Business Network Sustainability Conference that took place at the Martinhal Lisbon Oriente and Martinhal Residences on Tuesday.

Opening the morning event, Geoffrey Graham, the Chair of the IPBN Board highlighted that the theme of this year’s IPBN Sustainability Conference was Urban and Rural Cooperation.

Geoffrey Graham said that the IPBN’s theme for 2025 was ‘partnerships’ following on the heels of last year’s theme ‘innovation’.

“I think everybody at this event is an example of how we can partner up with individuals, SMEs, with large organisations and institutions and that’s one of our core values and something we will be looking to develop” he said, mentioning various academic partners such as the Universidade Europeia, Católica Business School in Porto, and the Universidade do Algarve.

The event was divided into three panels: Panel I – A conversation about Community Development and Urban Planning, creating local communities where people connect around technology, regeneration and togetherness; Panel II – an exclusive conversation about Vertical Farming Revolution and Farming Sustainability. The talk focused on the VF opportunities within cities and what Farming Sustainability means; and Panel III – A panel conversation about Sustainable AI-Scale Data Centres with Innovative Cooling and 100% Renewable Energy.

The Ireland Ambassador to Portugal, Alma Ní Choigligh touched on the relationship between Ireland and Portugal, St. Patrick’s Day, and introduced the Ireland Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works and Flood Relief , Kevin “Boxer” Moran in his first visit to Lisbon.

“I think that the IPBN is an essential part of the Irish-Portuguese relationship as two Atlantic-facing EU Member States committed to free trade and functioning multi-lateral institutions in the world”, said the ambassador.

“Ireland and Portugal find themselves looking at the challenges that we have globally from very much the same position, and it is one of the reasons why there has been such a marked increase in interaction and engagement between Ireland and Portugal in recent years”, the ambassador added.

500% increase in Irish relocaters in 10 years

In fact, the ambassador pointed out that there had been a 500% increase in the number of Irish citizens registered in Portugal over the last decade and a very significant increase in trade – in goods alone (excluding services) in 2024 Ireland and Portugal traded more than €2.6Bn. When this was compared to 2022 figures for combined goods and services, which was €3Bn, the increase was “remarkable”.

“The Irish taste for visiting Portugal and spending time in the country has increased remarkably becoming a post-pandemic phenomena” hitting a record in 2024, said Alma Ní Choigligh.

According to Travelmedia.ie, Portugal achieved its best year ever for tourism from Ireland in 2024, welcoming 557,647 Irish visitors—an increase of 6.3% compared to 2023. The number of bed nights also rose by 5%, reinforcing Portugal’s appeal as a top destination for Irish travellers.

“Passengers flying into Faro airport alone in 2024 stood at 967,000 passenger seats from Ireland – and of course people fly back and forth as well as for tourism purposes – but that is a really extraordinary number”, said the ambassador.

Alma Ní Choigligh remarked that St. Patrick’s Day was an opportunity for Ireland to tell its story on the international stage, but also an opportunity for Ireland to showcase its partnerships. “For us in the embassy one of our most important partnerships is with the Irish-Portuguese Business Network”.

Portuguese and Irish have a “lot in common”

The Minister of State, Kevin “Boxer” Moran noted that from everywhere he had visited and from all the people he had met, he understood that “we have a lot in common” with the Portuguese.

“The common ground we have between us is excellent, the trade we have is growing, and I believe that that trade can grow more and stronger, and with our governments, our people and partnerships working together we can create a bigger and brighter future for us all, not just in Ireland, but also here in Portugal,” he said.

The minister also revealed how he witnessed that spirit of partnership in 2022 when told about the Lisbon floods, drawing a parallel with the floods Ireland suffered in 2016, affecting the province of Connacht and Donegal counties. “It was the hardest days of our lives” in the town where I grew up”, Kevin “Boxer” Moran recalled.

“We move on to now and see the flood defences almost completed, and to be here in Lisbon to see the very same actions being taken, and have learned that it took six months to deliver whereas in Ireland it has sometimes taken six years we clearly have something to learn from that,” he said.

Martinhal hotels and resorts and ULIS – examples of community development

On Community Development and Urban Planning, Chitra Stern, the owner of the Martinhal Resorts and the United Lisbon International School, and host of the conference, gave a keynote speech in which she said it had been a great pleasure to see the Ireland-Portuguese Business Network grow in its footprint of events and activities.

“My husband and I Roman came to Portugal 26 years ago for business opportunities and the lifestyle. We do know Ireland and have a connection.

“Building sustainability into the DNA of your companies and ventures is something that we’ve done for the last few years that we have been building up businesses in Portugal. It comes with a long-term view”, explained Chitra Stern reflecting on the first project they had done, the Martinhal Sagres Beach Resort in the Algarve where 15% of their guests are from Ireland.

Starting the project in 2002 and opening in 2010, many of the things that they did on the project – such as preserving areas of pine forrest, and shrubs and using the large rocks that were excavated for the foundations – proved a challenge, such as fencing off different areas, the pre-installation for a desalination plant for groundwater used for irrigation, putting in the solar panels in stages over several years, and the capture and recycling of rainwater,- “all that takes long-term infrastructure planning and it is necessary”.

And the Sterns did projects for the community like a luxury art-design weekend in 2011 which has continued to this day, and has supported Portuguese artists and designers, and has become a big event each November.

“This has enabled us to meet amazing artists in our community, and as a result of that we have managed to invite eight Portuguese artists to collaborate with us and we have their art everywhere at Martinhal Lisbon Oriente” she said adding that the 45 pieces were a great example of “relationship and community building”.

Education and FDI go hand-in-hand

And the United International Lisbon School that the couple have built in the same area is a huge ecosystem for innovation and education – a hub where people come together and collaborate with 600 students from kindergarten to Grade 12.

“This project was much needed in Lisbon. I spent three years of my time doing pro-bono work for the government on their Foreign Direct Investment Task Force between 2017-2020, and during that time we did a swat analysis for the commission and I realised that the lack of international schools was a barrier to FDI.

“We had the Golden Visa programme and the strategy of the Web Summit to bring tech companies to settle in Portugal, but if you don’t have an international school with a curriculum taught in English for those people who move here, they simply wouldn’t move to Lisbon”, said Chitra Stern referring to the school and education hub as another example of community building.

Promoting business in rural Ireland

In the first panel discussion, Siobhán Finn, the CEO of Community Enterprise Association Ireland, discussed how the organisation was promoting business in rural Ireland.

Community Enterprise Association Ireland (CEAI) emerged from voluntary, peer-led community enterprise centre regional support networks in the early 1990s.

In 2021, the Association undertook a rebranding exercise, and today CEAI provides representation, support, training and mentoring, learning, independent advice and guidance, thought leadership, and best-in-class insights on an individual basis to boards, management, and key personnel across the community enterprise sector.

Siobhán Finn talked about how communities can make urban planning happen. “We work with around 150 government-funded enterprise centres and innovation hubs around Ireland.

“Basically they house businesses across the country, focusing on building and retaining companies within communities”, she explained.

Following the recession of the 1980s, Enterprise Ireland saw the need to pump investment into communities that had been badly impacted by the departure of large multinational employers such as Western Digital in Galway and Navan Carpets in Navan, 50km from Dublin.

“The concept was to create an environment and infrastructure that would offer a type of structured landing spot for small and micro businesses that already existed within communities but were being run from people’s homes and garages and successfully brought these businesses into a connected community within an enterprise centre”, she said.

B Lab Portugal – collective business action to address society’s critical challenges

Laetitia Arrighi de Casanova, the Director of B Lab Portugal (part of the global B Corp movement) talked about how business can and should be a force for good, contributing to a better world by mobilising businesses towards collective action to address society’s most critical challenges.

She discussed how B Lab created a different way of thinking about how business is done; one which directs and balances benefits that traditionally go to shareholders back to people and communities.

Laetitia explained how the ‘B’ in B Lab referred to “benefits for all” and that B Corps were companies that meet high levels of social and environmental performance, transparency and responsibility, integrating an active and committed community to include social and environmental considerations in business decisions on a continuous road to progress towards “building businesses for good”.

Through certification processes, these companies form a global community of over 7,500 organisations in 160 sectors which inspire and conduct business by working together on collective campaigns.

And according to a survey it carried out, these processes reinforce the resilience of businesses in 50% of cases, improves the visibility on opportunities for growth and risk management by 44%, and significantly impacts long-term strategies by 57%.

The B Corp certification process, which can last months or up to three years depending on the complexity and size of the business, means that companies have to attain a minimum score of 80 points out of 200 to get the certificates.

Currently, the B Corp community in Portugal is composed of about 50 companies: 30 certified Portuguese B Corps and 20 multinational B Corps with significant operations in Portugal.

“We have a community of companies from more than 10 sectors of activity: financial services (with emphasis on financing impact companies), legal, consulting, agro food industries (the entire chain), textiles and footwear, commerce, tourism and technology. We also have diversity in terms of the size of the organisations, with some large companies, many dynamic and innovative SMEs and some family groups”, she said.

B Corps’ mission is to consolidate a strong and dynamic community based on three core priorities: focusing on the community, leveraging it and helping it to grow; making partnerships with associations, public and private institutions, universities and think-tanks with a view to collective impact campaigns; and building a bridge between global B Lab certification teams and the companies that decide to embark on this sustainability challenge.

And from an environmental point of view, B Corps tend to be 2.5 times more carbon neutral than other companies, and last year protected over 1 million hectares of land and saved 3 billion litres of water.

Photo by Chris Graeme: IPBN Sustainable Tourism Conference: Panel I – Moderated by IPBN Board Member Susan Cabeceiras (Left) with speakers Laetitia Arrighi de Casanova, Director at B Lab Portugal (Middle) and Siobhán Finn, CEO at Community Enterprise Association Ireland.