CSRwire - October 17, 2008
Paper by UN Global Compact for Public Comment
In today's interconnected global economy, the long-term value and success of business are inextricably linked to the integration of environmental, social and governance issues into corporate management and operations. This defines the modern corporate sustainability movement. The global crisis in financial markets raises a range of important and urgent questions regarding corporate sustainability generally and the UN Global Compact specifically. Among the five most relevant:
1. How can trust be restored in markets generally? Public trust in the private sector and "markets" has been seriously damaged. Amid this climate, many consumers and societal stakeholders may make little distinction between the "banking sector" and the corporate sector - that is, companies operating in non-financial industries.
2. What will this mean for voluntary initiatives and their relationship with regulation? The bailout and rescue packages announced by governments mark a historic move by the public sector in asserting more control over financial and investment markets.
3. Will companies still "invest" in corporate sustainability during an economic downturn? The financial crisis is clearly impacting the real economy and the prospect of a global recession is looming.
4. Will 25 years of global growth and rising prosperity - driven by multilateralism and open, ruled-based economies - be replaced by barriers to trade and commerce? Growing distrust in markets is fanning populist reactions to global economic integration.
5. Will governments re-order their priorities in ways that will place less importance on public-private partnerships? The public sector's unprecedented bailout of financial-sector institutions will put significant strain on government budgets, possibly leading to a re-ordering of priorities that could have implications in terms of public-sector investment in key sustainability and development issues.
Amid this context, it is our belief that the overriding objective and priority of all global actors and stakeholders must be: Restoring Confidence and Trust in Markets. We believe that the UN Global Compact can play a constructive role. More specifically, we propose that: A commitment to sustainability can help the private sector and markets regain the confidence and trust of the public and other stakeholders.
Read Full Article: Global Financial Crisis: Why Corporate Sustainability Is More Important Than Ever
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The article quoted above discusses some issues related to the UN Global Compact. As such it may be useful to provide a summary of that compact here, in the context of the importance of many of its aspects in the modern sustainability movement.
ten principles
The UN Global Compact's ten principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption enjoy universal consensus and are derived from:
The Global Compact asks companies to embrace, support and enact, within their sphere of influence, a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment, and anti-corruption:
Human Rights
Labour Standards
Environment
Anti-Corruption
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The blog of the Global Compact Critics may also be of interest to users of this forum.
As previously posted here: http://www.sustainabilityforum.com/forum/interesting-websites-videos/1670-global-compact-critics.html
This is an interesting critical website on the UN GLobal Compact:
http://www.globalcompactcritics.net/
Fabian
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