IMPROVING SUSTAINABILITY

During the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit, I had the privilege of chairing two small roundtables on what business could contribute. The first was on sustainability. We had a particular brief. We came up with three conclusions which seemed very consistent with what others were saying too.

1. Work together to agree a range of global standards, such as for organics and fair trade, with a monitoring process to uphold them.
2. Promote the standards; share best practice so that more companies achieve them, especially small and medium size firms; build these expectations into business education programmes.
3. Acknowledge progress generously to encourage this, rather than dismiss others’ efforts towards these goals.

The pressure groups have much to gain by working with, instead of against, business.