The Navigator Company: National and regional economic impact of the Navigator Company’s industrial units
Since the 1950s, the Navigator Company established three industrial plants and acquired a fourth one. Located in four different regions in Portugal, the plants have contributed to national and local economic development by promoting the settlement of younger populations in areas with an increasing population outflow rate.
In 2015, the Navigator Company undertook this study to gain a more complete understanding of its contribution to the economy of the four regions where its plants are located, as well as to the broader Portuguese economy. The work contributed to improving its enabling environment through communication on the company and on the forest sector’s positive contributions to the economy. The assessment also served to gain government support and to attract investments to industrial clusters within these and other regions.
- No
- Corporate
- Monetary
- EUROPE
- Employment & remuneration
- Direct operations
- Forest and Paper products
Key findings
The Navigator Company presented the results of the analysis at its Sustainability Forum 2016. The audience at the forum comprised national policy-makers, academics, NGOs, local government representatives and companies from the sector and value chain. The aim of the presentation was to raise national policy-makers’ awareness of the value created by the sector and to demonstrate the Navigator Company’s leadership in assessing and monitoring their value creation impact.
There were some challenges in deciding how to define and communicate the assessment’s key messages. As the study generates information for many external and internal stakeholders, including the Navigator Company employees, it was important that the main messages be understood by all these different stakeholders and not taken out of context.
The main value of this analysis for the Navigator Company has been the communication opportunities the work has provided. The Navigator Company would not use this methodology in its current form as a decision tool (for example, to decide where to invest in setting up a new operation) as there are too many other considerations that this analysis does not capture. Instead, the assessment can be used for locations where the Navigator Company has already decided that it would like to operate to demonstrate the benefits of the forest sector to local government. This would help to gain local and national government support for the proposed operations. This is particularly important for the forest sector because the industry relies heavily on measures that create a positive environment for forestation activities, and on local infrastructure (such as the building and maintenance of high-quality roads and harbor facilities) and this infrastructure is often funded by local governments.