WBCSD Annual Review 2006 NEW.qxp - Sustentabilidad.uai.edu.ar

the best environmental NGOs. In New York our Executive Committee decided to
turn our year-old Sustainable Ecosystem Initiative into a fourth Focus Area, given
the huge amounts of attention that companies, NGOs and governments have
been giving to the challenge of declining ecosystem services.
Business in the World of Water: WBCSD water scenarios to 2025 became a
powerful tool for engaging not only companies but also NGOs and
governments in the challenges of water, moving beyond the complex array of
statistics that usually characterize water reports.
The Electricity Utilities Project published Powering a Sustainable Future: An agenda
for concerted action, which provided a unanimous agenda for action from the
planet’s major utility companies.
A very short (six-page) but important publication was Energy & Climate - A
contribution to the dialogue on long term cooperative action, a “preview” of the
final publication in our energy trilogy – Policy Directions to 2050 – which will be
published in 2007. We launched the contribution at the Nairobi Conference of
the Parties to the climate convention meeting in November, where it received a
great deal of attention from ministers.
The issues surrounding Energy & Climate in particular forced us to wrestle with
the question of how far business can go on its own and how governments can
facilitate and enhance business actions to use energy more efficiently and to
decarbonize the global energy mix.
Whether it is thanks to our revamped communications department or growing
media interest in sustainable development, we got much more press uptake of
our printed and web material this year than in the past.
Other highlights in the year included the signing of an agreement in Beijing
with the Dutch development agency SNV, followed by the rapid action of that
alliance in organizing high-level meetings with business leaders in eight Latin
American nations to find ways to create more sustainable livelihoods among
poor communities.
Throughout the year, my monthly Executive Member Updates chronicled the
fact that sustainability issues were moving out of science journals and NGO
newsletters onto front pages, business pages and the front ranks of business and
government concerns. This rapid change challenges us to sharpen our collective
thinking, communicating and advocacy to take advantage of it.
“We have the power to reconcile human affairs with natural laws and thrive in
the process,” says the first page of the Brundtland Report. “In this our cultural
and spiritual heritages can reinforce our economic interests and survival
imperatives.”
The Council is working ever harder with a growing number of partners to
reconcile human affairs and natural laws.
Björn Stigson, WBCSD President
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