At the Metropolitan Santiago convention center, representatives from FISA and the GL events Chile group, organizers of Expomin 2025, held a meeting with their strategic partners to highlight the carbon neutrality of the fair and, along with this, to highlight the recent recognition given to the exhibition by the HuellaChile initiative, which rewards actions taken to mitigate and offset environmental impact.

The goal of quantifying and neutralizing carbon emissions was coordinated in January of this year, in partnership with Colbún and Anglo American, and was subsequently presented to the authorities and the trade association at the offices of the Mining Council. This joint effort between actors in the mining sector was recognized in October this year by the Ministry of the Environment’s carbon management program, HuellaChile, which is dedicated to calculating, reporting, and managing greenhouse gases (GHG) in public and private sector organizations.

Francisco Sotomayor, CEO of GL events Chile, attended a ceremony to award this certification, where he highlighted that this milestone is commendable on a global scale, “particularly because of what mining means in the energy and ecological transition. Being the first event of this magnitude, of world class in mining, to achieve carbon neutrality is a great achievement for our organization.”

Collaboration and commitment

Regarding this milestone, Patricio Hidalgo, CEO of Anglo American, commented: “We firmly believe that Chile should and deserves to play a leading role on the world stage, particularly in the context of climate change. To that end, we set out to create one of the best mining fairs in the world, on par with those we see in Europe and the United States. I am deeply grateful to Colbún, the Ministries of Mining and Environment, and the FISA team, who invited us to participate in this fair.”

The partnership with Colbún for this objective included measuring GHG emissions in the fair’s processes: assembly, exhibition development, dismantling, and participation of exhibitors and attendees. This assessment was carried out by Respect, an agency specializing in sustainability. The agreement also involved Colbún offsetting all emissions from the event through carbon credits from its Hornitos hydroelectric plant.

Meanwhile, Colbún CEO José Ignacio Escobar praised the changes that mining in Chile has undergone in recent years: “Mining has become more humane, and society is beginning to understand the importance of being an export powerhouse. Chile must stand out for the quality of our products and services; it must produce copper with low emissions, treat its people well, and not have major environmental problems. Actions like this are small but have a big impact. Hopefully, what this event is doing will spread to all the different activities we have in our cities.”

Meanwhile, Sotomayor added that “becoming one of the world’s carbon-neutral mining fairs is a milestone that positions not only Expomin and FISA as leaders in the organization of sustainable events, but also Chile as a responsible country, especially considering what national mining represents for sustainability and the fight against climate change at a global level. For the GL events Group, which has placed ESG criteria at the center of its global strategy, this is a clear sign of consistency between what we say and what we do.”

The Minister of the Environment, Maisa Rojas, was also present. When asked about the importance of Expomin’s achievement, she thanked the organization for deciding to reduce its environmental footprint, “not only by measuring it, but also by neutralizing it. We hope that the next exhibition will further reduce its emissions, a path that we, as the Ministry of the Environment, hope to continue accompanying everyone on.”

Rojas added that “since the Framework Law on Climate Change (2022) came into force, the use of the HuellaChile program, in its various instruments and developments, has increased exponentially, because the Framework Law on Climate Change recognizes the HuellaChile program.” At the end of the meeting, Carola Fuentes, general manager of FISA, presented Rojas with a quillay tree whose pot was made from slag from Anglo American’s Chagres Smelter, as a symbolic gesture of the importance of sustainability.