Barcelona, February 20, 2026. Spain has 25% youth unemployment, the highest rate in the European Union, and, in addition, 12.8% of young people between 18 and 24 years of age do not complete compulsory secondary education, nor continue their education. Early school leaving has great consequences at an individual and social level, since leaving school early leads to higher unemployment rates, lower economic security and greater risks of social exclusion.
Against this backdrop and coinciding with the World Day of Social Justice, we have joined forces with some twenty companies from Barcelona and its metropolitan area to promote the Board 2030, an ecosystem of committed companies that aims to make a fairer, more sustainable and inclusive city.
The companies and organizations that are part of the 2030 Board are: B Lab Spain, CBRE, Consorci Zona Franca, Cushman & Wakefield, EADA, Ferrer, Ship2B Foundation, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, ImpactCO, Medichem, Moritz, Nactiva, Quadpack, R4S, Reig Jofré, TRAM, Uriach and Volkswagen Group Spain Distribution, among others.
The Board 2030 is a joint initiative of B Lab Spain, EADA Business School and Ferrer, within the framework of Barcelona+B, whose mission is to project Barcelona as a benchmark city in the impact economy.
"The organizations that make up the 2030 Board firmly believe that true change is born from collaboration and commitment. As companies in Barcelona, we believe that we have the responsibility and the capacity to generate solutions that benefit the city and its citizens," says Jordi Díaz, Dean and Managing Director of EADA Business School.
The 2030 Board is made up of CEOs and members of boards of directors of large companies who seek to create a community of change capable of generating solutions that address challenges such as inequality, employability, housing or sustainability. Over the last three years, the leaders who make up the group have shared learnings, challenges and progress to accelerate the transformation of their organizations from impact. In these meetings, it has also joined strategic actors in the city such as Barcelona Activa, the Ship2B Foundation, Turisme de Barcelona, Barcelona Global and ACCIÓ, to share their initiatives and co-create a collective action that responds to a specific need in Barcelona, with tangible and measurable solutions.
This year, for the first time, they are making their constitution public and launching their first coordinated collective action.
First collective action initiative: Stopping school dropout
The first joint action is to stop early school leaving. Through corporate volunteering programmes, professionals from these companies accompany young people in vulnerable situations throughout the course with the aim of continuing their studies, guiding them on what the labour market is like, explaining their companies and their departments.
For this project, the Board 2030 is partnering with the Exit Foundation, an entity with more than 25 years of experience dedicated to reducing early school leaving of young people in situations of social vulnerability, through the involvement of companies. This 2025-2026 academic year, the aim is to sponsor 20 Training and Insertion Programmes (PFI)3 classrooms in public schools in Barcelona, guide 272 young people and ensure that all of them continue their studies.
"Early school leaving is a clear source of social injustice, at an individual and collective level. For this reason, we have partnered with the Exit Foundation to support young people in vulnerable situations. A collaboration that we hope will allow us to open the way for much broader and transformative collective action in Barcelona, driven by companies. Because the present demands that we be remembered, not for what we obtained, but for everything we gave back to society." Mario Rovirosa, CEO of Ferrer.
If you want to know more about this action and listen to some of the protagonists, click here.
Business Leadership in the Service of Social Justice
At a time when Barcelona is facing challenges of social cohesion, the Board 2030 claims the role of companies as key agents in promoting solutions that promote equity, quality employment and opportunities for all.
