Closing Press Conference for Global Compact LEADERS Summit

 

On many fronts — its peace and security, development and humanitarian agendas included — the United Nations was partnering with the private sector in new and diverse ways to more efficiently tackle some of the world’s most entrenched problems, said Robert Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning.

At a press briefing to conclude the 2010 Global Compact Leaders Summit, Mr. Orr added that solutions to twenty-first century problems required a truly multi-stakeholder approach.  “For the Secretary-General, this is essential,” he stressed.

Joining Mr. Orr at the briefing were Georg Kell, Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact; Jeffrey Sachs, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General; and Chad Holliday, President and CEO of Bank of America, who shared their views on what the Summit had achieved and what would be needed in the next decade to advance corporate social responsibility.  (For coverage of the plenary meetings, see Press Releases ECO/178 and ECO/181)

Mr. Kell said the declaration adopted at the 2010 Summit captured key developments of the last decade and included discussion of the Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability Leadership, which challenged the Compact’s 6,000 participants to move towards organizational change, by enhancing responsible practices in the supply chain, making efforts to combat corruption and embracing an environmental stewardship framework.  The challenge now would be to move forward with large-scale implementation.

Similarly, Mr. Sachs said he had been “impressed and pleased” with the private sector’s efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and he would be following up with those companies that had made commitments.  The Goals and “the sustainability challenge” formed two parts of a package — neither one could be achieved without the other.  At the Millennium Development Goals Summit in September, where more than 150 world leaders would gather to review progress, there would also be an important message from the business community to take the problem-solving forward.

Mr. Holliday highlighted a recent survey of 700 CEOs, which found that the sustainability agenda had moved far up on their radar screens.  Some 23 companies were sharing best practices on implementing the agenda.  On a personal level, he had noticed that there were only three Compact principles, of a total 10, that related to the environment, but that the other seven principles were needed in order to follow up on them.

Asked to address the issue of electricity, and the importance of providing it to the 2 billion people who lacked access, Mr. Sachs said there were no institutional arrangements anywhere that made the link between their dire situation and what to do about it.  He would like to see the World Bank and regional banks step up with a strategy for how to close that gap.

Taking a question on whether the next ten years would see corporations transcending the immediate profit motive for embracing a sustainability agenda, and if so, what the implications of that might be for democracy, Mr. Kell said there had been an evolution in business and society.  Every corporation was the product of history.  Since the financial crisis, there had been a shift in mindset, from an obsession with value creation to a longer-term view of sustainability.  “How do you go local in going global?  Companies must pay attention to non-financial issues,” he said.

Mr. Holliday added that, while moving from 6,000 to 20,000 participants in the Compact would be a big step forward, 20,000 companies would not be enough to serve the 2 billion people living without electricity.  Pricing externalities — like carbon, for example — would put the right actions into the equation to make progress.

Offering his thoughts, Mr. Sachs said there were many models for social value creation.  Helping the world’s poorest fight disease was not a money-making venture, for example, but it must involve the private sector, which had the technology and expertise to address the issue.

Public-private partnerships were a good solution, he said, adding that he supported models in which Governments partially met the costs involved with problem-solving.  “We can turn to business to say ‘respect shareholder interests by taking a long-term view’,” he said.  “But there would come a point when companies must be asked about their responsibilities towards societies.”  Companies were vital for the delivery of tools, instruments and techniques that could not come from the public sector.

Mr. Kell was quick to add that the “business value proposition” must drive change.  He was sceptical about subsidies, which did not necessarily drive progress.  If business operations were ethically oriented and inspired by universally recognized values, over time progress would be made.  “We need to make sure it’s a race to the top,” he said.

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For information media • not an official record