Corporates vote to form new sustainability organisation
By Sustain Team,
Members of the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development have voted to form a new Sustainable Business Council (SBC) in association with BusinessNZ.
Phil O’Reilly
BusinessNZ’s Sustainable Business Forum will merge with the NZBCSD and the new body, the SBC, will begin operation on January 1 with more than 49 member companies, including some of the country’s largest, like Fonterra.
BusinessNZ chief executive Phil O’Reilly said it was an opportunity to build “a strong collective voice” on sustainability led by business.
“It makes sense for us to have one consolidated voice representing the New Zealand business community, providing businesses with leadership, best practice and advocacy in an area that is now a key issue in mainstream business all over the world."
The SBC will be chaired by Deloitte partner and sustainability leader Brett Tomkins and a transitional executive of nine people while more companies are recruited. A new executive of 12 will be elected in late February.
Tomkins said the formation of the new organisation will boost efforts to make sustainable business practices and solutions more mainstream – there are 76,000 companies associated with BusinessNZ’s four affiliated regional organisations throughout the country.
Outgoing NZBCSD chair Bob Field said the formation of the SBC was “a great opportunity to join forces with another organisation which will greatly advance the original aspirations of our founders to mainstream sustainability in business”.
The NZBCSD’s Vision 2050 project, which looks at the opportunities for businesses and New Zealand to survive and benefit in a country, is due to publish its report in December.
Comments
Paul Kayser
Great to see business getting serious about sustainability… but this sounds like a duplication of the Sustainable Business Network which is already working well through its various programmes, awards and most recently the Sustainable City held in Auckland last month. Can someone please explain what's different about the SBC?
Esther Goh
Challenge accepted. We're on the case!
DavidTrubridge
As long as Fonterra actively obstructs efforts to clean up New Zealand rivers and to limit our carbon emissions because such initiatives “affect profitability” then its association with SBC can only be a PR sham and a discredit to SBC. Big business has to lead, not hold the country back for short term selfish gain.
Vincent Heeringa
SBN is much more representative of mid-sized and entrepreneurial business. It's also been around longer and founded by pioneers of green business.
The SBC is more for corporate and mid-to-large businesses.
A small but significant number of companies are members of both.
Some cynics will argue about SBC's mandate (is it to slow down the greening of business?) but actually I applaud the merger of the SBC and NZBCSD. It was dysfunctional having both organisations operating in competition and we need corporates to push themselves towards a greener economy.
Paul Kayser
I'm inclined to agree with David in that big business needs to lead the way in making NZ business not only accountable in sustainable practices, but show that sustainability is a bedrock of how big and SME businesses use our resources and manage our environment in the pursuit of building wealth. Big business should not be a reluctant member of such organisations but a standard bearer. Let's see the likes of Fonterra leading the charge… still waiting to hear what the fundamental differences between SBN and SBC are. Size [of company] surely shouldn't matter?
Esther Goh
Our brand new intern Siobhan has compiled a rundown of some of the organisations championing sustainability. Bless. http://idealog.co.nz/blog/2011/12/sustain
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