If, Plan A is business as usual, what is "Plan B for
business?"
Businesses have till date worked by taking the environment
as a giver and its degradation as a given. This as we know is fast changing.
With consumers demanding sustainability and governments
declaring social responsibility guidelines, in the short to mid-term, corporate
winners will be those who treat environment as a stake holder.
Sir Richard Branson and Puma Chairman Jochen Zeitz have
today launched a major new non-profit group, dubbed The B Team, with the view
to promoting a new set of progressive business values that "prioritise
people and planet alongside profit".
The group brings
together a host of high profile business and political leaders, including
Arianna Huffington, Unilever's Paul Polman, Ratan Tata of the Tata Group,
President of the United Nations Foundation Kathy Calvin, and former Irish
President Mary Robinson. These so-called "B Leaders" have pledged to
work on the development of a "Plan B for business" that seeks to
address the growing challenges businesses and societies face, such as high
unemployment, global inequality and the unsustainable use of natural resources.
"Today we want
to start a global conversation on a "Plan B" for business," said
co-founder Sir Richard Branson in a statement. We are keen to listen, learn and
share with others to build businesses that do what's right for people and the
planet."
Zeitz, who was responsible
for pioneering the development of the world's first ever corporate
environmental profit and loss accounts at Puma, said the goal of the new group
was no less than to redefine the way businesses operate. "Business is
integral to society, but it has also created most of the negative environmental
challenges of this century," he said. "We need a "Plan B"
for the way business is managed, starting with leadership more committed to
well-being, wisdom and sustainable business success."
The group, which will today host a live online broadcast to
over two hundred gatherings in sixty cities around the world, also released a
joint declaration setting out its goals and priorities. "The private
sector can and must redefine both its responsibilities and its own terms of
success; And the overwhelming conclusion we've reached is that businesses have
been a major contributor to the problems, and we as business leaders have the
responsibility of creating sustainable solutions." The declaration added
that there was now no alternative but for business leaders to develop a new
approach, which it many ways would constitute a new form of capitalism.
"Our vision of the future is a world in which the
purpose of business is to become a driving force for social, environmental and
economic benefit," the declaration states.
The leaders joining The B Team founders Richard Branson and
Jochen Zeitz are:
• Shari Arison, Owner, Arison Group
• Kathy Calvin, President and CEO, United Nations Foundation
• Arianna Huffington, Chair, President & Editor In
Chief, The Huffington Post Media Group
• Mo Ibrahim, Founder, Celtel
• Guilherme Leal, Founder & Co-Chairman, Natura
• Strive Masiyiwa, Founder & Chairman, Econet Wireless
• François-Henri Pinault, CEO & Chairman, Kering
• Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever
• Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Tata Group
• Professor Muhammad Yunus, Chairman, Yunus Centre
• Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Deputy Chair, The Elders
(Honorary Leader)
• Mary Robinson, Secretary, The Elders and President, Mary
Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice (Honorary Leader)
It will be interesting to see if the A- team pivots and Plan B becomes Plan A !!
Saving the environment starts with planting trees, the simplest way to combat climate change and global warming: Trees breathe in Carbon Di Oxide and through the process of photo-synthesis create food for themselves and breathe out Oxygen.
At Sustainable Green Initiative, we plant trees to help fight climate change and also hunger, poverty and rural migration. By planting a tree you help in doing your bit to mitigate your carbon footprint and carry on the fight against hunger, poverty and climate change.
Did you know a tree sequesters about 1 ton of carbon and processes enough oxygen for two peoples requirements in its life-time?
It will be interesting to see if the A- team pivots and Plan B becomes Plan A !!
Saving the environment starts with planting trees, the simplest way to combat climate change and global warming: Trees breathe in Carbon Di Oxide and through the process of photo-synthesis create food for themselves and breathe out Oxygen.
At Sustainable Green Initiative, we plant trees to help fight climate change and also hunger, poverty and rural migration. By planting a tree you help in doing your bit to mitigate your carbon footprint and carry on the fight against hunger, poverty and climate change.
