Global compact
The Global Compact was launched in 2000 by the then UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, on the occasion of the Davos World Economic Forum. It is part of an approach to improve responsible corporate citizenship.
The ten principles stated by the Global Compact are a synthesis of the ILO Conventions, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention against Corruption. These principles are adopted by member countries who then recommend their application to businesses operating on their territories.
The 10 principles cover three areas:
Social: Fighting against child labour and forced labour; upholding the freedom of association; respecting and supporting the protection of human rights; eliminating discrimination in respect of hiring and career.
Environmental: Managing environmental risks; implementing strategies to avoid their occurrence; developing environmentally friendly technologies.
Economic Value: Working against corruption in all its forms.
Its synthetic yet exhaustive character makes the Global Compact a good tool for businesses to promote all aspects of responsible corporate citizenship. Moreover, the participation of governments could lead to the implementation of internal laws, allowing for the standardization and the co-ordination of actions that for now still remain the initiative of individual businesses.
Only since 2007 has the Compact been equipped with a global procedure allowing it to withdraw from the list the signatory businesses that fail to fulfill their reporting obligation for two consecutive years without serious justification. This new procedure is a true advance as it strengthens the credibility of the Compact while guaranteeing a greater transparency of signatory businesses, but it still fails to offer any guarantees with regard to the completeness and the truthfulness of reports.
Bâtirente’s Commitment
In the fall of 2008, we joined the Seoul Initiative, sponsored by the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). We hope that these actions will show businesses that investors are paying attention to this kind of report, and that the quality of their reporting has an impact on investment decisions.
At the June 2007 Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) general meeting in Geneva, the British asset manager Morley Fund proposed to launch a campaign to contact a list of businesses having signed the Global Compact but not having fulfilled their reporting obligation. This campaign was also meant to congratulate businesses with superior quality reports. Bâtirente responded to this call along with the CPPIB (Canada), the USS (United Kingdom), the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (New Zealand) and many others.
