From Ideas to Action: What are the Winning Strategies for a Sustainable World?
Developing a new business model in the potent cocktail of problems is not so straightforward. Throughout the world, businesses are experiencing existence crisis as a consequence of recent economic slump, climate change and environmental degradation, joblessness and frustration among sections of societies, and terrorism. Many are looking at how their business models could be changed to make them more relevant to shifting markets and political structures. Rather than following a conventional business model covering traditional economic fundamentals, some have opted to focus on particular areas, often radically different from current business context.
It is exactly this move towards radical transformation that drives the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development to bring visionaries together to get many more businesses and institutions adopt winning strategies for a sustainable world. “Winning Strategies for a Sustainable World” is the theme of the 4th Sustainability Summit: Asia 2009, scheduled for 25-26 November 2009, New Delhi. It is focused on how visionary businesses and institutions are turning crisis into opportunity to change our world into one that is sustainable and all inclusive.
The two-day international event will be inaugurated by Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy.
The Summit shall also be graced by Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Environment & Forests (Independent Charge); Mr. Salman Khurshid, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Corporate Affairs and Minority Affairs; Mr. N K Singh, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha; Mr. B.J. Panda, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha; Dr. T Ramasami, Secretary, Ministry of Science & Technology; Mr. Y C Deveshwar, Chairman, ITC Ltd.
The Summit has been designed to provide real-world experience taking participants through the experience of ideating to transformation through action. It provides a diversity of winning experiences in the two days, because it enriches the learning, creating a stronger participation experience. It will bring together companies and institutions who are interested in winning, and who are excited by the developments in technology and markets driving innovation.
In the last three years, some 1200 people have participated in the annual Sustainability Summit to discuss partnerships in building sustainable businesses, and how sustainability is shifting the competitive paradigm. It is encouraging to note that the Summit interests a variety of stakeholder groups and they continue to maintain their engagement in the process.
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The Summit has evolved to be a point of confluence for sustainability practitioners and thinkers to raise awareness and debate on issues of sustainable development and business. It provides a platform for a cross-section of stakeholders to share and learn good practices and get clarity on various issues related to sustainability. The attraction of the Summit has been the convergence of international and national policy makers and business leaders to share best practices, challenges and opportunities in sustainable development. The success of the Summit is manifested by the increase in participation and loyalty of a growing number of participants who wish to come back each year.
Where many sustainability conferences are focused along functional lines, this Summit has specific focus on elements of green economy through clean technologies and infrastructure, technology development and innovation, better corporate governance, where sustainability is critical to eventual business success for large companies, small and medium enterprises, and social enterprises. The Summit provides a diversity of winning experiences; it enriches learning, creating a stronger participation experience. Since its inception in 2006, Asia Sustainability Summit has established itself as one of the most valuable sustainability events in India.
Business experts and think-tank leaders believe the sustainability-focused approach taken by the Centre for this Summit will be replicated by growing numbers of businesses and institutions around India and elsewhere in the world. The Summit will bring together the best of brains to present the ‘how’ of their success stories through various plenary and panel discussion sessions over two days.
There are seven thematic areas - Climate Change, Natural Resources, Corporate Governance, Emerging Economies, Sustainable Infrastructure, Tourism, and Information Communication & Technology - which shall be discussed and deliberated upon in focussed sessions during the Summit.
International speakers include Ricardo Young, President of the Ethos Institute, Brazil, who shall be delivering the keynote addrss at the summit; Dr. Steve Howard, CEO, The Climate Group; Mr. Simon C Martin, Head – Group Corporate Sustainability, HSBC Holdings Plc.; Mr. Stephen Harper; Director – Environment & Energy Policy, Intel; Mr. Carlos Eduardo Lessa Brandao, Chairman of the Sustainability for Companies Study Group, Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance; Mr. Marcel Engel, Managing Director, WBCSD Regional Network; Mr. David Hillyard, Director – Partnerships, Earthwatch Institute; Mr. Dennis Pamlin, Senior Associate, Chinese Academy for Social Sciences; and Mr. Edward Schwarz, General Manager, Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction.
Some of the key speakers at the Summit include Mr. Jitesh Khosla, Officer on Special Duty, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs; Mr. M P Bezbaruah, Permanent Representative, WTO & Former Secretary, Ministry of Tourism; Mr. Rajesh Agrawal, Executive Director (Heritage), Ministry of Railways; Mr. A L Kapoor, Managing Director, Ambuja Cement; Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM; Mr. Cyrille Jegu, Executive Director – The Natural Step in Asia; Mr. R N Mukhija, President (Operations) & Member of the Board, L&T Ltd.; Dr. Nik Senapati, Managing Director, Rio Tinto India; Mr. Ravi Singh, Secretary General & CEO, WWF India; and Mr. Rajat Gupta, Director, McKinsey & Company.
The Sustainability Summit has received tremendous support over the years, both from the government and corporates, which underlines the growing acceptability of the event as a platform for addressing issues and finding pathways for sustainable growth for India and the world.
The 4th Sustainability Summit: Asia 2009 is supported by Ministry of Corporate Affairs & National Foundation for Corporate Governance; Ministry of Environment & Forests; Ministry of External Affairs; Ministry of Science & Technology, ITC, InWEnt Capacity Building International, Germany, ONGC, Ambuja Cements Ltd, HSBC, Intel, NTPC, Rio Tinto, and WWF India.
The annual CII-ITC Sustainability Awards will be announced at the Summit. The awards, one of the most coveted in the industry, were instituted in 2006 to identify and recognise Indian businesses with exemplary performance in environmental, economic and social dimensions. The awards shall be given out by Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Environment & Forests (Independent Charge) this year. These Awards help to promote role models in Indian industry in order to transform them by embedding tenets of inclusive and sustainable growth into their strategies and processes. Based on the Sustainability Excellence Model adapted from the internationally acclaimed European Foundation for Quality Management (EQFM) approach, the CII-ITC Sustainability Awards assigns equal weights to the three dimensions of sustainability performance: Economic, Environment, and Social. A pool of specially trained assessors from diverse professional backgrounds carries out the assessment spread over ten months utilising about 1,000 hours per application. The findings of the assessment are reviewed in two stages by the 13-member international Jury led by Mr Suresh Prabhu, Former Union Minister, which takes the final decision. The number of applications has steadily increased, and reached a total of 300 so far. In 2009 alone, despite the economic slowdown, 84 companies expressed their interest in participating in the Awards process. This is a testimony to the increasing awareness and relevance of the subject.
Note to Editors:
The CII - ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development is an institution that creates a conducive, enabling climate for Indian businesses to pursue sustainability goals. It creates awareness, promote thought leadership and build capacity to achieve sustainability across a broad spectrum of issues. The Centre has pioneered and incubated environment management systems, sustainability reporting, and sustainable innovation in India. With a work foot-print that spans beyond India, it has transformed many companies from a state of business-as-usual to sustainable businesses. It works closely with Central government and many State governments to develop low-carbon or sustainable development pathways.