NEW YORK, N.Y. — Businesses around the world increasingly are taking into account that improvements in the social and natural environments are part and parcel of an improved business environment, and United Nations engagement with the business community is a substantial factor in greater social activism by companies, U.N. senior officials said at a June 9 meeting.
Their statements were backed up an independent evaluation of the corporate social responsibility initiative of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, known as the
U.N. Global Compact. According to McKinsey and Company, the Global Compact has "accelerated policy changes in companies, while catalyzing a proliferation of 'partnership projects' -- development-oriented activities that companies undertake with U.N. agencies and other partners."
"More and more, global companies associated with corporate social responsibility issues are developing a concept of corporate risk management that includes social and environmental dimensions," said John G. Ruggie, special advisor to the Secretary-General on the Global Compact, at the June 9 briefing. "They are beginning to look at social risks and mainstreaming broader concepts of risk management within firms."
Georg Kell, executive head of the Global Compact, announced that Secretary-General Kofi Annan will convene a Global Compact Leaders Summit at U.N. Headquarters on June 24, the largest gathering ever of chief executive officers, government officials and leaders of civil society and labour on the topic of corporate responsibility. "At the Summit, participants will assess the progress of the Global Compact initiative and chart its future course," he said.
The Global Compact has grown since its founding in 2000 to include more than 1,400 participating corporations, from all regions of the world, up from 50 companies when the initiative was launched.
