Steve (host):
Welcome to the 10th edition of Wonderspace which was originally released as a video orbit on the 8th of November 2020. Since then we've been asking the same 6 questions to people from around the world. Our questions revolve around life and wonder, places of reset and stories of hopefulness, which I think we need more than ever. The Setting for all of our interviews is a virtual window seat on the space station, from where we see everything from a different perspective. This week our orbit takes us from Peru to Northern Argentina And joining us in this ultimate window seat we welcome Pedro Tarac.

Steve (host):
Pedro is the co-founder of Imprendia B which is the first benefit corporation in Argentina. He is also the co-founder of Sistema B which is dedicated to promoting B corporations in South America. Pedro is also an ambassador for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance. I start by asking Pedro from this window seat 250 miles above earth which place city or country would you want us to fly over and why?

Pedro:
The place I would love to fly over is Monte Video, capital city of Uruguay. The reason is because when I was a kid, my family would take me in my holidays, and I would experience a wonderful encounter with people from any social sector walking along the river in this capital city. And people would just talk to you and people would share the gourd or the mate. And that's the basis of Uruguayan civilization where the feeling of common unity and the valuing of a quality conversation is really high and it's the basis of respect to others, of inclusion of others and in my view the reason for which you have very very low rates of COVID with no compulsory measures and with responsibility by society taking care of each other.

Steve (host):
Pedro give us a glimpse into your life story so far with an emphasis on what you are doing currently.

Pedro:
My life so far has to do with a journey where I come from segments of interest and focuses to a holistic and systemic way of approaching large-scale solutions. At the beginning, I used to be an environmental activist through environmental law. Then I expanded to social and economic development through leadership. And then finally, I realized that I had to find a new design in my own life to be able to become holistic. And that has been finding markets and the economy and business as the new space for large scale social and environmental solutions.

Pedro:
When I just think of the business as the most numerous of all organizations after family, and when I think that the market decisions are the most numerous of all decisions on a daily basis, then my focus became business and every single market mechanism. My urge is to find mechanisms where we can regenerate what we have impoverished, where we can actually reduce and see how we can live together with equality. And of course, my basic aim is to contribute to the life-regenerating and life-supporting mechanisms and systems in every single economic mechanism. And that's why I'm completely focused not on System A but on System B.

Steve (host):
Where on earth is your place of reset or recharge?

Pedro:
My place of reset is the summit of a hill called Jao Jao in Bariloche in the area of the Patagonian Andes in Argentina. At its top there is a natural couch where I go and contemplate and discern what are my next phases and cycles that I have to be focusing. Whenever I had a difficult moment, whenever I had like a crisis of direction, that's where I go and listen, listen to nature and then actually take decisions for my next phase of life.

Steve (host):
What wonder of the natural world excites you the most?

Pedro:
The wonder of the natural world that excites me most is the area of the Fitzroy, an amazing Patagonian mountain where once you actually hike upwards you can see not only the mountains but you can see the Patagonian steps with amazing distances in the horizon where you feel that you have no limits to your imagination and you're just marvelled with what you're seeing. That's the kind of place I love sharing with others and say, hey, come over, I'm going to show you 1 of those little secrets in this part of the world.

Steve (host):
Pedro, what is your story of hopefulness that's not your own, about a person, business or nonprofit who are doing amazing things for the world?

Pedro:
My story of hopefulness are companies that are completely devoted to the common goods. There's 1 called Krebs and Waffles, which is a restaurant chain in Colombia with over 6, 000 employees in only that country, although it's a multinational in 6 countries. Its purpose is the inclusion of single mothers in society and in the labor market. Now, what's so marvelous of Crepes and Waffles is that they guarantee wonderful quality of food for everybody because it's very affordable by many social classes and you have quality food which is sourced from single mother suppliers of vegetables and fruit. And they also pay them from 40 to 60% above the market value if they clean up the water courses in their plots, They regenerate the quality of soil and biodiversity.

Pedro:
So when you go to these restaurants, you participate in a solution which is of global need, which is bringing back the biodiversity and cleaning up the waters. And it makes me think that business like Crepes and Waffles can become like the future Peace Noble Awards because what they do is they connect us all through the market and enable the different parties of the market system to be part of those solutions. So the more they grow in terms of value creation, the more solutions we have. That actually reaches to my heart.

Steve (host):
Finally as we prepare to re-enter what insight, wisdom or question would you like to share with us?

Pedro:
An insight I would love to share with you is that business needs to add 3 new attributes to what it does. It needs to move hearts through purpose. But it also needs to offer the possibility of building community. We all need to belong. Beyond families, we need to belong to communities.

Pedro:
Business needs also to enable us to be part of legacies on a daily basis. And that you can achieve by actually having a very powerful purpose, regeneration, cleaning up the oceans, reducing poverty rates as purpose. Together as a sector, as a market, we need to include those 3 elements, the heart and the emotions, building community and building legacy on a daily basis. If we include these elements in business and in the market, we will humanise the economic system.

Steve (host):
If you want to find out more about Wonderspace, join the community or listen to previous episodes, the website is ourwonder.space. I want to thank Pedro for joining us on Wonderspace and I hope you