The fourth Business for the Environment (B4E) Global Summit held from 22 to 23 April 2010 in Seoul saw CEOs, senior executives of multinational corporations, leaders from government, international agencies and NGOs discuss “Powering growth for the global green economy”.
During a roundtable entitled ‘Green Business: A New Growth Engine for the Planet’, Jochen Zeitz, CEO of PUMA and founder of the Zeitz Foundation, emphasized the role of the consumer in choosing sustainable products, and noted that companies have a responsibility to educate the consumer by translating their green messages into understandable terms and discussed PUMA’s innovative initiatives in doing so. He highlighted that innovation requires the courage to surrender certainty and that companies should use the goal of sustainability to drive innovation.
He further called for collaboration on standards among companies, NGOs and government. In this sense, the Zeitz Foundation’s Global Ecosphere Retreat Certification system does just that. As a driving force in promoting and developing sustainable thinking around the globe, the certification ensures that best practices in sustainability are adhered to and innovative approaches experimented with, whilst drawing on and incorporating other standards, such as the Fair Labor Association for labor standards or the Tourism Sustainability Council for eco-tourism operations.
On Thursday afternoon, CNN’s Anna Coren hosted a televised edition of Earth’s Frontiers shown at 8.30pm HKT during which Zeitz underscored that business will be part of the solution to climate change. Other panellists, including, Changhua Wu from The Climate Group, Mohamed Nasheed, President of the Maldives, and filmmaker James Cameron, gave their perspective on leading the world towards a low carbon future.
The B4E’s goal was to consider the outcome of the fifteenth Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and discuss the role of business in realizing a low carbon future.
In closing on Friday afternoon, participants agreed that the conference had produced fruitful discussions and defined business solutions for environmental problems and a range of new environmental strategies, approaches and innovations, such as incorporating development objectives and embracing new models of water management.
The meeting saw agreement on expanding sustainable procurement and green supply chains, and on promoting longer-range investment horizons incorporating environmental and sustainability considerations. Corporate biodiversity strategies that recognize the value of ecosystems to economies and societies were also adopted.
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