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"I am delighted to welcome the new Local Network in Belgium, situated at the heart of Europe, to the Global Compact family. There is much that Belgian businesses and other stakeholders can contribute to our mission of advancing corporate responsibility around the globe."
Mr. George Kell - Executive Director of the UN Global Compact in New York
The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to align their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
Since its official launch in July 2000, the Global Compact today stands as the largest corporate citizenship and sustainability initiative in the world, with over 7700 corporate participants and stakeholders from over 135 countries.
In June 2008 the Rosy Blue Group signed the UN Global Compact, signifying our commitment to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner. We will promote the Global Compact's ten principles and report our progress toward implementing them. Our first CSR report (2008) has been submitted as Communication on Progress (COP) on April 9th 2009. This CSR Report (2009) has been submitted on June 17th 2010.
INTERVIEW WITH IRIS VAN DER VEKEN-Chair UN Global Compact Network Belgium
What are the main objectives of the Global Compact Network Belgium?
It is not about just connecting the current Belgian Participants, it is about incorporating CSR practices in small and larger organisations based on the 4 pillars-encouraging companies to do business with the utmost respect for responsible environmental practices, universal principles surrounding human rights and progressive workplace standards, all with uncompromising integrity.
Parallel to outreach efforts we want to consult with some champion companies to develop a strategy of core activities of a Global Compact Local Network in Belgium. We want to promote best practices from Belgium across the globe.
Although we are currently a small network, more important is that we want to focus on delivering quality and focused CSR solutions for topics and issues that are relevant for all the stakeholders in Belgium.
There are already several initiatives in Belgium concerning CSR. How does the Global Compact Network Belgium fit into the CSR landscape?
We believe the Global Compact Network Belgium40, with the great support we receive from the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in close cooperation with the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium (FEB) and different CSR organisations such as MVO Vlaanderen, KAURI, Business and Society Belgium and NGO's, can be a powerful tool and can serve as crucial entry point for fundamental change in a company's management system.
Today we as businesses all face the challenge to integrate three bottom lines: financial, environmental and social factors.
Governments can set the framework and introduce control mechanisms; the actual implementation is largely dependent on the seriousness of the actions undertaken by the various companies and their true commitment!
Stricter laws are not the ultimate solution; the challenge is to move the standards from paper to workplace.
Good business is above all joining efforts by the Government, NGO's, Voluntary Initiatives to explore practical solutions to challenging problems and create a culture of compliance and support for enforcement of laws.
Our ultimate goal is to create a benchmark across different industries in cooperation with other CSR organisations.
What are the plans for the next six months?
We have just organised our first workshop on Communication on Progress Reporting. On July 6th we are organizing a debriefing event at KBC Brussels on the results of the Leaders Summit UNGC in New York. We also work closely together with Business & Society Belgium and Kauri on key CSR topics such as Supply Chain, Human Rights...
We have conducted a survey to the other Global Compact Network participants in Europe to understand the priorities of CSR on their agenda and to see where we can collaborate.
It is my aim to work closely with the European Members of the Global Compact and others CSR Organisations. This vision also reflects the statement of Mr. George Kell - Executive Director of the UNGC in New York.
As you know, this year the UN Global Compact celebrates its 10th anniversary, which coincides with Belgium holding the EU presidency as of 1st July 2010. In this context, the Steering Committee of the GCNB thought it would be an excellent occasion to link those two important happenings through the organisation of a Global compact European regional event to be held on Friday 29th October 2010.
This Event will be organised the day after the launch of "The Responsible Enterprise 2020", a CSR Europe initiative supported by the European Commission and several European governments, including the Spanish and Belgian EU Presidencies.
As previously said our Global compact European regional event would aim to initiate closer contacts between the European Global Compact networks and serve as a follow-up to the outcomes of the Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York (24th-25th June 2010).
Looking forward to close cooperation and I invite other Belgian companies to join our CSR platform.
More information: www.globalcompact.be