The Business Role Focus Area targets WBCSD member companies, regional Business Councils for Sustainable Development (BCSDs) and future business leaders. It also reaches out to external stakeholder such as consumers, valuation experts, academics and policy-makers.
This Focus Area is dedicated to exploring issues around the role of business, but also looking at how it relates to the WBCSD's three other Focus Areas – Energy and Climate, Development and Ecosystems. The Focus Area aims to engage, equip and mobilize current and future business leaders to shape the role of business.
The Business Role Focus Area is categorised into three main workstreams, each with specific objectives:
- Exploring/Visioning the role of business to define the boundaries of responsibility around different sustainability issues, both now and in the future
- Influencing key stakeholders to help them understand to the contribution business can make to sustainable development
- Implementing sustainable development to help companies manage change and demonstrate progress.
Our key exploratory activity is the Vision 2050 project. WBCSD member companies (and others) have made tremendous progress in becoming more eco-efficient in terms of energy, water and resource use. But such progress is being overwhelmed by increased energy and resource use globally. Progress in eco-efficiency may have to be complemented by radical changes in business systems.
It is with this in mind that 26 WBCSD member companies have come together inVision 2050 to outline their view of the role of business in making the world sustainable, focusing on business models, lifestyles, governance systems, education needs, ways to gain public acceptance for change, financing systems, and interactions between all elements of society.
Another activity is the idea laboratory and learning arena where new issues are explored and tested. Called Learning by Sharing, sessions are held during our semi-annual member meetings.
For business to wholeheartedly take on the role of provider of goods and services that address global challenges, markets and market mechanisms need to be designed to promote sustainable development. The Business Role Focus Area is in particular trying to influence two key spheres – investors and consumers ‑ whose “framework setting” is crucial for how and to what extent our companies can develop and deliver sustainable business.
Influencing investors – valuation
This workstream joins a group of WBCSD companies with a group of financial institutions in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). The aim was to provide a platform for business and actors of the capital markets to come together to discuss common challenges and build consensus on how sustainable development can be valued in investment decisions.
A series of six global workshops were held in 2008. Over 140 representatives from companies, investment firms, service providers and international organizations have participated in these discussions.
The workshops revealed that the definition of sustainability differs quite broadly from business audience to investment audience; and from region to region.
Each workshop in major investment centres of London, New York, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, Vienna and Montreux offered fresh evidence of the tensions between the drive to establish the business case for sustainability in a locally relevant way, and how to interpret sustainability performance in the language of investors.
However, when companies are able to explain how sustainability issues are material, the investment community listens.
Influencing consumers – sustainable consumption
Sustainable consumption has been a delicate issue for business. Today, companies involved in this work state clearly that sustainable consumption and influencing consumers towards it is a natural part of their business activities.
They also clearly signal that addressing the sustainable consumption challenge is not necessarily about down-sizing consumption, but that innovation and capturing opportunities is an essential part of the solution.
The focus of our sustainable consumption work is on the role of business in influencing consumer choice and behavior towards sustainable consumption.
A key output is our 2008 facts & trends publication on sustainable consumption –Sustainable Consumption Facts & Trends.
Implementing Sustainable Development
The WBCSD's Implementing Sustainable Development program delivers value to members by providing a platform for leading-edge practices and improving the capabilities of a variety of stakeholder groups, particularly today's and tomorrow's managers.
Objectives include understanding the sustainable development implementation needs of members, building the capacity of today's and tomorrow's managers through the Future Leaders Team, and facilitating learning across and between member companies.
The program has a range of tools available to enable companies to implement sustainable development, including individual customizations of Chronos, our e-learning tutorial on sustainable development, a Human Resources Functional Briefillustrating the role of human resources in adapting to shifting sustainability challenges, and seminars and learning opportunities held with various universities worldwide, as well as at international congresses, conferences and other events.
These tools and programs can be delivered independently. However, the WBCSD also provides individual member services on a pay-per-use basis to enhance the value of membership and support sustainable development implementation.
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