“Buy less”. Audience stunned by words from Sonae chairman

“Yes, I know we are a retailer” – but Paulo Azevedo is committed to a circular economy and a sustainable world.

Paulo Azevedobeing the former executive director and now president of the board of directors of Sonae, would supposedly have a speech that appeals to consumption, commerce, shopping.

But the chairman of the large retail company surprised many people at a conference on circular economy, which took place this Wednesday in Lisbon.

At Innovators Forum’24, a Sonae initiative dedicated to circularity, Paulo Azevedo was clear: “Our appeal is: We have to stop transforming the world into pollutants and waste, but rather transform it into useful things. Let’s use less“.

“Yes, I know we are a retailer. And yes, I understand what I’m saying ‘buy less‘” he added.

These words left the stupefied plateia, describes the .

The chairman of the board of directors highlighted that the Sonae wants to “win in a sustainable world and not in an unsustainable world”.

But he left something extra, while smiling: “Buy less… preferably, buy even less from our competitors”.

These are statements that are not that surprising, because Paulo Azevedo has focused on issues related to sustainability, away from the business world.

At the same conference, Claudia Azevedo, Sonae’s executive director (and Paulo’s sister) also called for a sustainable consumption: “The linear model of ‘I extract materials, build them and throw them away’ doesn’t really work. It’s like driving a high-speed car into a wall.”

“And it can’t work either because we are extracting resources from our planet. Every year we consume around 100 billion tons of materials, and in the last six years more materials have been extracted than in the last century. At this speed, the percentage of circular economy is decliningit’s not keeping up with the pace”, said the businesswoman.