A conference aimed at raising awareness of socially and environmentally responsible business practices was held today by the China Business Council for Sustainable Development (CBCSD) with support from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

The conference, at the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel, included 120 senior executives from Chinese and foreign enterprises, representatives from the United Nations and foreign diplomatic missions in China, as well as international NGOs and Chinese social organisations.

In his keynote speech Bertrand Collomb, Chairman of the WBCSD said that realising a sustainable future is a shared responsibility for governments, businesses and civil society. “Sustainable development makes perfect business sense,” Mr. Collomb said. “Achieving sustainable development requires continued leadership, transparency, a positive engagement with stakeholders and action.”

Addressing the conference Wang Jiming, Executive President of CBCSD, said that corporate social responsibility is not only vital for the sustainable growth of business enterprises, but is interdependent with the sustainability of economic, social and environmental development. Chinese business community and entrepreneurs should shoulder the grave social responsibility of promoting a continuously sound and balanced development of economy, nature and society, while looking at ways of putting resources into rational and full utilisation and taking great efforts to protect the environment.

Major findings from a WBCSD sponsored project on sustainable mobility were presented at the conference. The project, based on four years of collective efforts from 12 leading international automotive and energy companies, examined ways to achieve sustainable mobility worldwide in the period to 2030 and beyond, focusing on areas where industry can play a crucial role.

The project report makes it clear that finding solutions to sustainable mobility will require input from a broad coalition of governments, industry, non-governmental organisations and society and a major step-change in vehicle and fuel technologies.

Inaugurated in January with 11 members, the CBCSD has recently started to recruit new members. During the conference 19 foreign and Chinese companies from a wide spectrum of businesses and industries formally joined the CBCSD . Many more companies have expressed deep interest in becoming members of the council.