Environmental Leader

A flurry of press releases have come out of the Global Compact leaders Summit that’s finishing up in Geneva.

Top executives of corporations such as Coca-Cola, Petrobras, Fuji Xerox, China Ocean Shipping Group, Tata Steel, L M Ericsson and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria adopted the 21-point Geneva Declaration (PDF), which spells out actions for business, governments and United Nations Global Compact participants.

Through the Caring for Climate platform (PDF), CEOsof 150 companies from around the world – including 30 from the Fortune Global 500 – pledged to speed up action on climate change and called on governments to agree as soon as possible on Kyoto follow-up measures to secure workable and inclusive climate market mechanisms.

The CEOs of six corporations – including The Coca-Cola Company, Levi Strauss & Co., Nestle S.A., SABMiller and Suez – urged their business peers everywhere to take immediate action to address the global water crisis. They launched The CEO Water Mandate (PDF), a project designed to help companies to better manage water use in their operations and throughout their supply chains.

GLN has also established a learning, benchmarking and leadership group to embed responsible business practices as a driver of long term, sustainable competitive performance. The partnership allows companies of all sizes, sectors and regions to use GLN’s frameworks and tools by providing them with free access to GLN’s interactive strategic planning and assessment tool.

Summing up the outcome of the meeting, Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon told participants that “through several groundbreaking reports, you have made it abundantly clear that market leadership and sustainability leadership go hand-in-hand. This will help us build the supportive measures needed to create more sustainable markets. And it will ultimately help improve the lives of many people around the world.”

Stressing that the voluntary character of the Compact “does not mean unaccountable,” Ban called on business leaders to convene board meetings to share developments at the Summit, and ensure that the Global Compact is fully implemented within their companies and through their suppliers and business partners.