Source: WBCSD

WBCSD member companies, and Secretariat Director James Griffiths (Ecosystems, Forest Solutions and Water, WBCSD) joined the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)’s annual Sustainability Summit in Delhi on Monday, to highlight company case studies and discuss the business role in providing sustainable and inclusive products and services with summit participants.

ITC Chairman YC Deveshwar opened the Summit by addressing the importance of social value creation as a key component of a company’s core business strategy. He highlighted ITC’s experience that focusing on social value brings with it shareholder value, and explained that ITC is now working to scale up its social value creation now it has had proven success. He was joined on the panel by Steen Riisgaard, President and CEO of WBCSD member Novozymes A/S, and Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of WBCSD partner CII.

James Griffiths then joined a panel focusing on sustainable agriculture and food security. He highlighted the need for landscape-level approaches to sustainable agriculture and the importance of drawing linkages between agriculture and water, carbon and ecosystems to ensure that solutions developed are holistic and long-term. James highlighted the huge potential for innovation for social and environmental benefit around agriculture, and the importance of a transformational and action-oriented agenda from all stakeholders. James provided examples from the fibre products sector, where large companies in Brazil and Thailand have worked to aggregate small-scale farmers and ensure they are considered shareholders in the supply chain. Business needs to manage natural (and social) capital via its operations, supply chains and investments, while governments need to provide the policies and frameworks which make this possible, practical and scalable. James now travels to Hyderabad to represent WBCSD at the COP11 Convention on Biological Diversity where WBCSD Ecosystems work area launches a document on accelerating public policy for positive ecosystems outcomes.

Many WBCSD members supported the Summit including Ambuja Cement (Holcim Group), DuPont, ITC, Novozymes A/S, Rio Tinto and SABMiller.