sustainable development: role of the russian business - UNDP Russia

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Organizational Development of the UN Global CompactNetwork RussiaWithin this area, the UN Global Compact Network Russiaparticipants hold, on a regular basis and in due time, organizationalevents, including meetings of the Steering Committee and GeneralMeetings, coordinate their activities with respect to the UN GlobalCompact principles and prepare the relevant annual newsletters,develop and maintain the webpage of the Network, develop anddistribute the quarterly newsletter.Annual meeting of the UN Global Compact Network Russia (Moscow,December 2012)Exhibition of non-financial reports of the UN Global Compact NetworkRussia participants (Moscow, December 2012)Award ceremony recognizing the active work of the UN Global CompactNetwork Russia participants and media (Moscow, December 2012)BUSINESS COMMUNITY OBLIGATIONSJoining the Global Compact means to declarepublicly one’s commitment to the ten universalprinciples of this initiative.Participants of the Global Compact committhemselves to:• initiate changes to business operations sothat the Global Compact principles become anintegral part of the management and businessstrategy, culture, and day-to-day operations;• publish in its annual report or a similarpublic corporate report (e.g. a sustainabilityreport) a description of the ways in which theparticipant is supporting the Global Compactand its principles;• publicly promote the Global Compact andits principles via accessible communicationresources such as press releases, speeches, etc.;• in addition, companies are able, to the fullestextent possible, to enjoy the advantages ofparticipation in the Global Compact throughtheir involvement in the dialog with thesociety/stakeholders, activities of variousforums and partnerships, etc.3. Promotion of the activity results of the Network’s participantsand involvement of the Russian business into the Global CompactinitiativeThe UN Global Compact Network Russia participants make concertedeffort to increase the awareness of their activity resultsthrough Russian and foreign printed mass media, take part in publicand remarkable events in Russia and other countries, such as Rio+20Corporate Sustainability Forum (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 2012), theEuropean Local Networks Meeting (Rome, Italy, October 2011; Belgrade,Serbia, October 2012), the Global Corporate Social ResponsibilityConference (Seoul, Republic of Korea, November 2011), arrangetheir own events to promote international sustainability standards inRussia and engage Russian companies in the Global Compact initiative.The Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum: Innovation & Collaborationfor the Future We Want became a milestone event of 2012. Atthe Forum, Russian companies and organizations actively participatedin the sessions ‘Respect for and Support of Human Rights is theKey Sustainability Principle’ and ‘Collaboration of Business with IndigenousPeoples’, presented the brochure ‘Indigenous Peoples andIndustrial Companies: Best Practices of Collaboration in the RussianFederation’. A number of the Network’s participants presented theirbest practices relating to the implementation of the UN Global Compactprinciples in the brochure ‘The European UN Global CompactCompanies Towards Rio+20 and Beyond. A Best Practices Collection’.The effort of the business representatives that participated in eventsof the Forum on behalf of Russia was highly appreciated by GeorgKell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact, who sent a letterof gratitude to the Russian Network.On June 15–18, 2012, the Rio+20 CorporateSustainability Forum was hosted in Rio deJaneiro, Brazil. More than 2,700 global businessleaders, investors, UN representatives, NGOs,academic institutions and public authoritiescame to Rio de Janeiro in order to bringgreater significance and publicity to the ideaof corporate sustainability. As part of theForum agenda, over 100 sessions devotedto 6 key topics were held: Energy & Climate,Water & Ecosystems, Agriculture & Food, SocialDevelopment, Urbanization & Cities, Economics& Finance of Sustainable Development.The final outcome of the Forum was the official document ‘Overview andOutcomes: Innovation & Collaboration, Public Policy Recommendations,Commitment to Action’ presented to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moonon the eve of the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.The document contained an overview of the best corporate practices inkey sustainable development areas and a wide range of recommendationsformulated in the course of the Forum on innovation implementation,mutually beneficial cooperation and sustainability policies; the appendixto the document contained around 200 commitments assumed by leadersof corporations each of which would be reported on and tracked by thecompanies. The UN Global Compact Network Russia participants prepared atranslation of this document in Russian.BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATIONThe participation of companies and organizations in the UN GlobalCompact and the UN Global Compact Network Russia offers thefollowing benefits:• Global Compact is an international brand;• competitive advantages in developed markets (IPO, PRI, etc.);• corporate governance improvement;• opportunities for implementing joint development projects,including international ones;• direct access to CSR technologies and the best global CSRpractices;• active and constructive dialog with the civil society and otherstakeholders at the national and global levels, higher trust incompanies;• opportunities for engaging UN experts;• exchange of up-to-date information;• access to analytical materials in the sustainable developmentand CSR area.6 7