Global Compact International Yearbook Ausgabe 2010
A profound retrospective of the first decade of the UN Global Compact, challenges in the light of the year of biodiversity, and instruments for an adequate Corporate Citizenship are some of the issues highlighted in the new 2010 edition of the “Global Compact International Yearbook”. Among this years prominent authors are Ban Ki-moon, Bill Clinton, Joschka Fischer and Achim Steiner. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “As the Global Compact enters its second decade, it is my hope that this Yearbook will be an inspiration to bring responsible business to true scale.” Formally presented during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York, the yearbook is now for sale. Looking back at the past ten years, the United Nations Global Compact has left its mark in a variety of ways, helping shape the conservation about corporate responsibility and diffusing the concept of a principle-based approach to doing business across the globe. Chapter two deals with Biodiversity: UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner emphasizes the importance of protecting the nature: “Climate change has been described as the biggest market failure of all time – the loss of biodiversity and nature’s economically-important services must surely be running a close second, if not an equal first. Year in and year out, the world economy may be losing services from forests to freshwaters and from soils to coral reefs, with resulting costs of up to $4.5 trillion or more. Decisive action needs to be taken to reverse these declines or the bill will continue to climb – and with it any hopes of achieving the poverty-related Millennium Development Goals and a sustainable 21st century for six billion people, rising to nine billion by 2050.” Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, adds: “Now is the time for concrete action from the business community to save life on earth. The alternative is an impoverished planet that can no longer support a healthy, vibrant global economy. The stakes in this fight could not be higher. As the slogan of the International Year reminds us, ‘Biodiversity is life. Biodiversity is our life.’”
A profound retrospective of the first decade of the UN Global Compact, challenges in the light of the year of biodiversity, and instruments for an adequate Corporate Citizenship are some of the issues highlighted in the new 2010 edition of the “Global Compact International Yearbook”. Among this years prominent authors are Ban Ki-moon, Bill Clinton, Joschka Fischer and Achim Steiner. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “As the Global Compact enters its second decade, it is my hope that this Yearbook will be an inspiration to bring responsible business to true scale.” Formally presented during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York, the yearbook is now for sale. Looking back at the past ten years, the United Nations Global Compact has left its mark in a variety of ways, helping shape the conservation about corporate responsibility and diffusing the concept of a principle-based approach to doing business across the globe.
Chapter two deals with Biodiversity: UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner emphasizes the importance of protecting the nature: “Climate change has been described as the biggest market failure of all time – the loss of biodiversity and nature’s economically-important services must surely be running a close second, if not an equal first. Year in and year out, the world economy may be losing services from forests to freshwaters and from soils to coral reefs, with resulting costs of up to $4.5 trillion or more. Decisive action needs to be taken to reverse these declines or the bill will continue to climb – and with it any hopes of achieving the poverty-related Millennium Development Goals and a sustainable 21st century for six billion people, rising to nine billion by 2050.” Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, adds: “Now is the time for concrete action from the business community to save life on earth. The alternative is an impoverished planet that can no longer support a healthy, vibrant global economy. The stakes in this fight could not be higher. As the slogan of the International Year reminds us, ‘Biodiversity is life. Biodiversity is our life.’”
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Agenda<br />
Corporate Citizenship<br />
the Organizational<br />
Implementation of<br />
Corporate Citizenship<br />
The Communication on Progress (COP) policy is the central component<br />
of the UN <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong>’s integrity measures. The policy establishes a<br />
mandatory reporting requirement for businesses to report annually on their<br />
progress in implementing the Ten Principles of the United Nations <strong>Global</strong><br />
<strong>Compact</strong> (UNGC).<br />
By Dr. Dorothée Baumann and Prof. Andreas Georg Scherer<br />
Since the introduction of the COP policy, a total of 1,840<br />
companies have been delisted for failing to submit a COP,<br />
and over 1,200 companies are currently being flagged as noncommunicating<br />
(February <strong>2010</strong>; www.unglobalcompact.org).<br />
The COP reports are available on the website of the UNGC.<br />
Georg Kell, the executive director of the UNGC, argues that<br />
“a commitment to public disclosure on performance is critical<br />
to the transparency and integrity of the <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong>.” To<br />
further strengthen the COP policy, the UNGC also started the<br />
“notable COP program.” By rewarding the best COP reports with<br />
the “notable” distinction, the UNGC office highlights reports<br />
that set an example for excellent reporting. Of the more than<br />
5,000 business participants, currently almost 350 have submitted<br />
reports receiving the “notable” distinction.<br />
Current integrity measures of the UNGC<br />
Despite these efforts, the UNGC’s COP policy is still a limited<br />
safeguard against what many UNGC critics call “bluewashing.”<br />
The “bluewashing” issue refers to the assumption that the<br />
low entry requirements of the UNGC, paired with the largely<br />
positive reputation of the UN, may invite corporations to sign<br />
up for the UNGC and use it as a way to cover up problematic<br />
corporate practices. Whether the COP reports disclose Corporate<br />
Citizenship (CC) performance in a meaningful and informative<br />
way is therefore unclear. Most critical is the lack of evidence<br />
for a relationship between the company reports and the actual<br />
implementation of CC. Whether the improved quality of a<br />
report reflects progress in implementation remains ambiguous.<br />
The reports are not verified by an independent third party that<br />
could ensure the appropriateness of the reporting process and<br />
the factual correctness of the published data. Furthermore,<br />
voices of critical stakeholders are not typically integrated into<br />
the reports, nor do most reports refer to industry benchmarks<br />
that would allow a comparison of performance levels. Due to<br />
this lack of guidance and oversight of the reporting process,<br />
it is possible that a company report merely presents a facade<br />
that was created as part of a strategic public relations policy.<br />
In that case, the reports further obscure the actual status of<br />
CC implementation, instead of revealing it.<br />
It is the UNGC’s objective to achieve CC through the corporation’s<br />
adoption of the UNGC Ten Principles and their<br />
implementation in corporations’ daily business routines. This<br />
<strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong> <strong>International</strong> <strong>Yearbook</strong> <strong>2010</strong> 53
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