Since its very beginnings, the WBCSD has worked with a growing number of national and regional partners throughout the world. Today, as the Council moves from awareness creation to advocacy and action, the interaction with the Regional Network (RN) is intensifying.
This closer cooperation between the Council and its partners also creates a closer harmony between advocacy and action. The Council and each partner are connected by memorandum of understanding that gives the partner a great deal of latitude in choosing focus issues. Below we offer a few examples of the sort of actions in which the 60 national BCSDs and other partners of the Regional Network are involved.
Since its very beginnings, the WBCSD has worked with a growing number of national and regional partners throughout the world. Today, as the Council moves from awareness creation to advocacy and action, the interaction with the Regional Network (RN) is intensifying.
This closer cooperation between the Council and its partners also creates a closer harmony between advocacy and action. The Council and each partner are connected by memorandum of understanding that gives the partner a great deal of latitude in choosing focus issues. Below we offer a few examples of the sort of actions in which the 60 national BCSDs and other partners of the Regional Network are involved.
BCSD Mexico joined the Mexican Ministry for the Environment, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the WBCSD to implement a voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction program, the first of its kind in an emerging economy.
Recognizing that the first step in creating marketbased solutions to climate protection is accounting for GHG emissions, this pioneering public-private partnership aims to strengthen the capacity of business and other organizations in Mexico to develop publicly-available GHG emissions inventories. Such inventories must precede the identification of cost-effective GHG reduction opportunities.
The inventories are being produced on the basis the accounting and reporting principles of the WRI/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol developed to provide internationally accepted standards. Many companies and GHG trading programs use the protocol, but Mexico is the first country to adopt and implement the tool at a national level.
Since its launch in August 2004, BCSD Mexico has mobilized some 50 companies and organizations, responsible for about one-third of GHG emissions by Mexican industry, to participate in the program, including those from the most energy-intensive sectors. The entire cement and petroleum sectors are engaged, as well as major iron and steel companies. To date, 15 participating companies have produced public GHG inventories.
At the Montreal International Conference on Climate Change (COP 11) in late 2005 the Mexican Ministry for the Environment stressed the importance of the program for the creation of national climate change policies. Representatives from CEMEX (a cement company) and Altos Hornos (a steel company) highlighted the significant business opportunities that can be realized through the strategic management of GHG emissions, once you have measured them.
The program is still in its early stages, but signs are promising:
*strong political support (the program is headquartered at the Mexican environment ministry);
*voluntary commitment of business champions and peer engagement (allocation of staff and resources);
*common use tool (GHG Protocol) and technical assistance;
*the creation of an advisory committee including NGOs, industry associations and governmental environmental agencies; and
*financial support through the Global Opportunities Fund (UK).
This partnership is scaling up, as BCSD Executive Director Alejandro Lorea explains: he aim now is to move from a pilot to a regular program embracing 80% of Mexican industry GHG emissions.?It will also start focusing on GHG mitigation projects. Based on the newly released WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol for Project Accounting, the program will prepare Mexican business to participate in carbon trading markets and reduced GHG emissions.
The momentum of the Mexican GHG Program has caused other parts of the RN to consider replicating the initiative. Philippine Business for the Environment started a similar program with the Department of Environment, WRI and the Manila Observatory. Discussions are also advancing in China, India, South Africa and Brazil.
In another program, the Dutch development agency SNV, the WBCSD, and its RN partners in Central America and the Andean region have formed an unusual alliance to help companies identify new business opportunities with positive social impacts. The initiative aims to create awareness of these opportunities, promote an environment for success and broker concrete projects on the ground.
Leadership forums in Ecuador, Peru, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Bolivia, Guatemala and Nicaragua brought together CEOs, the public sector and civil society to explore new models for profitable, sustainable business growth that significantly contributes to alleviating poverty.
In Honduras the focus was on growing organic foods and selling them through fair trade, an increasingly popular scheme among European consumers. The meeting also looked at developing the country’s eco-tourism sector, as the world second largest coral reef is located off the country shore. Taking advantage of this potential market could benefit local communities by providing water treatment facilities, renewable energy technologies, and promoting the production of artisanal products and services.
RN partners are also participating in a WBCSD survey aimed at defining the role of business in society. The survey is being conducted through a series of dialogues and debates engaging companies, policy-makers, NGOs and the media to examine their respective roles and responsibilities in creating a functioning society.
Following dialogues in Geneva and New York, the WBCSD is collaborating with the regional partners in Hungary, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Hungary and India to capture local perspectives on the role of business and its stakeholders in different cultural settings.
In India, the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS), organized by WBCSD's RN member TERI-BCSD India, has emerged as a leading global forum on issues related to sustainable development bringing together world leaders, thinkers, researchers, and corporate visionaries.
The upcoming 2007 edition of DSDS will discuss the challenge before sustainable development practitioners to align the world's development imperatives with natural resource management in a manner that a balance is restored between human activity and environmental well-being.
The CEO Forum that will take place this coming Sunday is the curtain raiser for DSDS. It is organized in collaboration with the WBCSD. It will kick off the deliberations of the DSDS by discussing the issues of the Summit itself under the subject of business and society: partnering for a sustainable future'. These thoughts will then be taken to the plenary sessions of the DSDS.
