Source: WBCSD

In addressing the 400 participants at the 11th annual meeting of BCSD Portugal, WBCSD President Peter Bakker emphasized the urgency to scale efforts to tackle the ever more pressing sustainability challenges the world is facing - including poverty, climate change and environmental degradation. “We need to revolutionize almost everything we do” Bakker said.

Bakker highlighted that - having the technologies, innovation capacity, resources and skills – business has a key role to play in providing the radical solutions the world desperately needs. He further pointed to capitalism as a powerful conduit for achieving the transition to a sustainable future, provided environmental externalities and social contributions are appropriately reflected in the valuation of companies.

“Let me explain what a capitalist is”, he said. “A capitalist is somebody who optimizes returns from capital employed. The mistake is that the current economic model is solely focused on optimizing the return on financial capital. We need to add two more elements of capital: natural capital and social capital, and tell capitalists to go and optimize that”, Bakker added.

Bakker also noted that by changing the focus from labor productivity to resource productivity, an economic development model based on sustainability will not only help tackling environmental challenges, but also provide a critical contribution to address growing unemployment.

Following the annual meeting, Bakker attended a high-level session with the Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, the Minister of Economy, and CEOs of leading companies. He commended the Portuguese government and business community for their continued commitment to Sustainable Development during an economically and socially very difficult period for the country. He noted that BCSD Portugal is one of the WBCSD’s strongest partner organizations and pointed out that Portugal is the country best represented at the global organization relative to the size of its economy with six member companies: Altri, Brisa, Cimpor, EDP, PortucelSoporcel and Sonae.