Daring to innovate: the buzzword in the opening plenary

New leaderships, innovations, daring and networks are the major demands of the global arena for a sustainable development, as highlighted in the special opening plenary of Instituto Ethos’ 2007 Conference. “Each one of us can do something to better the world. All it takes is realizing that a simple change can transform the lives of dozens of people. We must dare, even when that means doing the least”, said Ricardo Young, President of Instituto Ethos, when opening the plenary.

The debates were based on the report “Raising Our Game – Can We Sustain Globalization?”, launched by SustainAbility. The document brings novelties on the development of corporate social responsibility in the world. Young stressed that the report is deeply challenging and will take some time to be digested. “It may have different interpretations that will help us reach a more sustainable path”. But he also remarked that the report lacks discussion about the technological area. “We’ve entered the 21^st century, when everything is related to communication. It is a pity technology wasn’t addressed, because I can’t see evolution without technology”, he said.

Aron Cramer, President and CEO of BSR – Business for Social Responsibility, was the moderator. He opened the discussion with a challenging question to the founder and chief-entrepreneur of SustainAbility, John Elkington: “Is it possible to sustain globalization or is it globalization that can sustain us?” Elkington regreted not having the answer. In his opinion, we cannot go on with the traditional models in the corporate citizenship area: “We need new species; a new ‘ecosystem’ must be built.”

Daring is paramount to new leaders

According to Simon Zadek, the Chief Executive of AccountAbility, the large corporation leaders need daring and courage to face the system in force and seek sustainability to implement social responsibility in their corporations. He mentioned the leader of an oil multinational who defied his employers, broke rules by advocating sustainability – taking the top management by surprise – and managed to obtain important changes in the sector. “Some of our most important leaders have to break rules to take future decisions. I think the institutions tend to create leaders we don’t want”, he said.

Mentioning how tough a challenge this is, Zadek said that many influential multinationals in the world have not managed and may not manage to give up old concepts and reinvent themselves towards progress. He believes a new generation of companies will become the sustainability driver towards a better society. Some investors have already realized this and have become more environmentally-friendly, quit their short-termism, and have started thinking about sustainability and the future of companies in which they are investing.

The speed of information demands presence in collaboration networks

According to Ernst Ligteringen, president of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), companies must have information management, transparency and a broad vision to move aligned with the information era. “Information has reached the speed of light and is transforming the companies. Today, the individual can create his or her own communication through blogs or interact with the media. That’s why a clear, transparent and objective business management is so important”, he said.

When questioned about the world situation in the labor relations area, Alice Tepper Marlin, President and CEO of SAI – Social Accountability International, acknowledged that despite the progress there is a long way to go, for over two billion people still live on less than US$ 2.00 a day. According to Marlin, the problem lies in the fact that progress in this area has not reached all stakeholders in most production processes. In order to change this, Marlin believes that companies need to implement a system to classify all their suppliers.