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SBRT - Prospects and impressions from the past

The SBRT 2012 fall meeting

November 13-14, 2012

On innovation and sustainability

The SBRT 2012 spring meeting

April 26-27, 2012

"Integrating sustainability into branding and marketing strategy"

The SBRT 2011 fall meeting

November 15, 2011

"The role of Human Resources (HR) in creating a sustainable culture within organization"

Participants addressed their current challenges in relation to CR and HR and several touched on the connection between sustainability and change management. In break-out sessions, groups actively discussed challenges specific to their organizations and situations. The day was rounded off with a group plenum on mainstreaming the CR insights coming from the SBRT.

The SBRT inauguration

July 6, 2011

"Where sustainability meets profits: Is there a sweet spot?"

 

Impressions from the SBRT inaugural meeting

CB Bhattacharya opens kick-off meeting

ESMT professor CB Bhattacharya hosted the first meeting of his initiative the Sustainable Business Roundtable (SBRT) on July 6, 2011. The SBRT was inaugurated with the high-level panel discussion “Where Sustainability Meets Profits: Is there a Sweet Spot”, moderated by Manuela Kasper-Claridge of Deutsche Welle. The panelists Levin Zhu (President and CEO of China International Capital Corporation), Joachim Faber (CEO, Allianz Global Investors), Klaus-Dieter Maubach (Member of the Management Board, E.ON), Gabi Zedlmayer (Vice President, Global Social Innovation, HP), and Florian Sommer (Senior Strategist, Union Investment) discussed issues surrounding sustainable business and global investment.

Emphasizing the importance of "doing well by doing good," Professor Bhattacharya introduced a working definition of sustainability: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (UN Brundtland report). He also presented the aim of the SBRT—to make the business case for sustainability and to mainstream sustainability in companies.

Bruno Berthon of Accenture

Then Bruno Berthon of Accenture set the stage for discussion by highlighting the findings of the UN Global Compact-Accenture CEO Study “A New Era of Sustainability.” One central finding of the study is that investors do not care about sustainability, the topic of the ensuing panel discussion.

The five panelists found only some consensus on what is sustainable in investment. "A lot of so-called sustainable investment is not sustainable," said Levin Zhu, citing solar energy where production is difficult when there are many cloudy days. Klaus-Dieter Maubach admitted that E.ON and other large corporations must use short-term business models to convince investors, while Joachim Faber said that sustainability and better investment returns are not a contradiction. He cited a better risk-adjusted return in investment with sustainable investments. According to Florian Sommer, risk is the main focus of investors in any case, be it a regulatory risk, a reputational risk, or CO2. For Gabi Zedlmayer the focus is on more than just risk and risk reduction and also includes creating new businesses.

After the panel discussion, delegates from SBRT participating companies came together to define the key challenges to be addressed by the group. Main challenges include integrating sustainability practices into HR management, integrating sustainability into marketing, measuring sustainability, and dealing with trade-off decisions between sustainability and profitability.

SBRT panel discussion