| World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) |
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| 2009-05-14 09:48 |
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a CEO-led, global association of some 200 international companies dealing exclusively with business and sustainable development.
Its origins date back to the 1992 Rio Summit, when Stephan Schmidheiny, a Swiss business entrepreneur, was appointed chief adviser for business and industry to the secretary general of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), better known as the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit of 1992. He created a forum called "Business Council for Sustainable Development", which went on to Changing Course, a book that coined the concept of Eco-efficiency.
The WBCSD was created in 1995 in a merger of the Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World Industry Council for the Environment and is based in Geneva, Switzerland with offices in Washington, D.C. and Brussels, Belgium.
The WBCSD sees itself as a catalyst, both in the sense that it can catalyze business to buy into the concept of sustainable development and to change the way they run their operations. The organization also sees itself as a catalyst in the process of global policy development, by representing and promoting the role of business in achieving sustainable development.
The Council provides a platform for companies to explore sustainable development, share knowledge, experiences and best practices, and to advocate business positions on these issues in a variety of forums, working with governments, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations.
It works on a variety of issues related to sustainable development. While its focus is on the overarching areas Energy & Climate, Development, Ecosystems and the Role of Business in Society, it also executes sector specific projects on cement, mobility, tires, chemicals, water, energy efficiency in buildings and forestry.
The Council’s objectives are to:
Be a leading business advocate on sustainable development;
Participate in policy development to create the right framework conditions for business to make an effective contribution to sustainable human progress;
Develop and promote the business case for sustainable development;
Demonstrate the business contribution to sustainable development solutions and share leading edge practices among members;
Contribute to a sustainable future for developing nations and nations in transition.
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