By Fabiola Pena, Environmental Manager
When I decided to become an environmental engineer, I did so with the deep conviction of wanting to help create a more sustainable environment for future generations. Over time, I have realized that this is fulfilled not only through technical knowledge or the rigorous implementation of practices, but also from the ability to influence others, communicate, educate, and hold honest conversations.
We recently held our Environmental Transparency Event in Casanare, where with total openness we discussed with communities, local authorities, social organizations and partners how we manage our impacts, protect water and biodiversity, monitor the state of natural resources, develop our environmental investments, and seek continuous improvement. We did this through our fundamental belief that environmental information must be accessible, understandable and useful for everyone.
This initiative was another step on our path of good neighborliness, a concept that at GeoPark is built through active listening, understanding contexts, respectful dialogue, and sharing information and knowledge. For us, sharing is explaining, simplifying technical details, clarifying the operation and providing factual responses.
The oil and gas industry is in debt on this. For years, talk on environmental issues has been either very little or very technical, leaving room for disinformation and myths. Today more than ever we need to recover that ground through transparency, education, and continuous dialogue. Transparency must be viewed as essential, not optional, and communication should serve as a fundamental enabler of trust.
When people understand what we do and how and why we do it, they can form their own opinions. Trusting does not mean agreeing on everything but being certain that there is coherence and respect.
Accordingly, we recently launched our Environmental Transparency Portal, which gives open access to key information about our environmental practices, our environmental legal compliance, our monitoring and our contributions to the territories where we operate, in straightforward language.
Everyone is welcome to visit, explore and, above all, to give us their feedback, as communicating is also learning and improving together.
I would like to share three lessons learned from this dialogue exercise:
- Transparency is not just about sharing data, it’s about creating spaces for conversation, because when we are open to listening and we provide factual responses, trust starts to be created.
- Translating scientific and technical content into everyday language is highly valuable. It recognizes that environmental education empowers communities and enhances participation, enriching our processes.
- Good neighborliness is strengthened when there is coherence between what we say and what we do. In this order of ideas, transparency must be a transversal principle, not a specific strategy.
Sustainability is not imposed. It is built day by day, with coherence, openness to criticism and with the firm intention of being better neighbors, better professionals and better partners for the territories where we operate.
I call on my colleagues in the sector to open our doors and talk about what we do, what we learn and what we can still improve. Embracing environmental transparency as a standard practice will enable us to demonstrate that behind the data lies effort, precision, and importantly, a commitment to excellence.
