Journalists' Business Briefing for Johannesburg World Summit-Sustainable Development Goverance

Article13, the leading corporate social responsibility experts, have created a minisite on their website at www.article13.com called the Journalists' Corner. This mini-site is designed to provide journalists with the business implications of the World Summit for Sustainable Development 2002 (Johannesburg, 24th August to 4th September 2002).

Making it happen...

We have identified five issues on the agenda that are relevant to business and in the days running up to the Summit will be posting briefing papers on Corporate governance, Reducing poverty, Making globalisation work, Sustainable levels of consumption, Reversing environmental degradation.

Number 1 in a series of 5 below.

Sustainable Development Governance
- to enable sustainable development to take place governance is key as it provides the framework in which business operates. Without governance efforts to eradicate poverty, change unsustainable patterns and consumption of natural resources, and meet other key challenges in sustainable development will be severely disabled.

What business can do/is doing: Transparency and accountability within the corporate sector has improved dramatically since the Rio Earth Summit 1992. But in most industry sectors there are only a few companies actually reporting in such a manner that ensures transparency and assesses performance improvements. Businesses should develop processes, performance indicators and risk management practices to ensure that they meet society's expectations and report back in a meaningful way.

Business opportunity: Better governance can result in improved working relationships. This can facilitate the unlocking of business opportunity enabling a quicker response to stakeholders needs. Business can help build the global framework of rules and established practice that meets global expectations and develops the new responsibilities that lead to new global opportunities.

Business risks: In recent years there have been a number of high profile cases of companies mis-judging the public mood and making ill informed decisions e.g Monsanto's aggressive GM campaign in Europe and or Shell's disposal of Brent Spar. Coupled with pressure from consumers, NGO's and Governments businesses have been looking again at their governance structures.

Case Study: Governance in Aventis

The pharmaceutical industry has come under increasing focus over recent years with regards to its policies on access to vaccines and health care in the developing world and the development of genetically modified crops.

In developing its governance and risk management structures Aventis has worked to ensure that its products are linked backed to societies' values and needs. This means that the business conducts research and produces goods for markets that are linked to the specific cultural value systems, political frameworks and tested against an internal sustainability framework.

As part of the companies Governance structure and sustainable development, Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) issues are managed strategically. The vision, tools and responsibilities for EHS are defined at corporate level. A sustainable development forum has been set up to operationalise the concept of sustainability and ensure that the business understands its stakeholders needs and perceptions. Its objectives are:

1. Clarification of the sustainable development commitment and positions
2. Identification of, and consultation with, external stakeholders who have active interests in the field of biotechnology, bioethics and healthcare;
3. Development of internal capacity to respond constructively to emerging agendas.

This system of Governance has resulted in:
·   Partnerships for Health with the WHO - partner in Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation seeking to improve access to sustainable immunisation services
·   Aventis Forum - an internal journal bringing future challenges into the businesses
·   Aventis Foundation - promotion of international, interdisciplinary and future-oriented projects at the interfaces between culture, science, business, politics and society.

Ends

Article 13 work in the area of corporate responsibility and corporate governance for global businesses right across industry, UK and EU Government and the voluntary sector to deliver a new way of doing business. Areas of expertise include scenarios, business planning, supply chain management, culture change, performance measurement and management, web consultancy services, dialogue and communication. Article 13 approaches business responsibility from the mainstream business angle and works through dialogue to unlock the opportunities of business responsibility to deliver innovation and competitive edge.

Article 13s co-directors, Neela Bettridge and Jane Fiona Cumming, have extensive experience in a number of critical fields: commerce and communications, social and environmental arenas, legal and business strategy. Article 13 also draws on the wisdom of distinguished advisors: Dr Paul Toyne, Professor Chris Baines, Chris Hoare, Professor Colin Gilligan, Susan Clayton, Neill Irwin, Professor Dave Owen and Andrew Acland. This panel, in turn, is complemented by a network of specialists drawn from the social, environmental, economic, ethical and business worlds.