New Developments in Sustainability from the World Economic Forum in Davos
The theme of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos this year was “Shared Norms for the New Reality.” Several speakers communicated that the business world must come together in furtherance of sustainability goals because cooperation through government has been slow to progress. The conference celebrated the 10th anniversary of one such cooperative effort, the Global Compact. This initiative was introduced to encourage companies toward greater ambitions in the area of sustainability. This year, a new platform for corporate sustainability leadership, Global Compact LEAD, was introduced to challenge the member companies to implement the Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability Leadership, a list of approximately 50 action steps that companies can take to achieve improved sustainability. At this year’s conference, the renowned Harvard Business School strategy professor, Michael Porter, put forth his latest strategic concept: Shared Value . He suggested that the existing model for val...