We are currently at the world’s most important sustainability event: Río+20 in Río de Janeiro, with access to the conferences, debates and forums taking place at the Corporate Sustainability Forum that will determine the direction of sustainability for years to come. The "Cidade maravilhosa" is overflowing with colors, people and languages from all over the world. Arriving with different plans and our own agenda, we all have the same objective: to drive concrete actions in order to make space for sustainable development on a social, economic, and environmental level.
Before Río+20 the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development took place in Stockholm, Sweden June 5-16, 1972, June 2-13, 1992 in Río de Janeiro, Brazil, and August 23- September 5 in 2002. The Corporate Sustainability Forum is organized along with the UN Global Compact, Rio+20 Secretariat, UN System and the Global Compact Local Network Brazil.
What does Río+20 hope to achieve? To assure and renovate a political commitment to sustainable development, to evaluate the problems that came accompanied the implementation of solutions from previous conferences, and to recognize the newest, most urgent challenges.
Corporations play a key role in defining the agenda because in many cases businesses and organizations are ahead of governments in implementing new strategies. Responsible ventures can help to define and position the essential values of sustainable development within the economy. The established objective for the private sector is: to elevate and increase companies’ contribution to sustainable development through responsible corporate practices. The forum hopes to unify the efforts of business to offer viable solutions to global challenges including universal principles for strategy, operations and the production chain. It also hopes to support governments’ efforts in prioritizing sustainable development initiatives that accelerate the transformation for sustainable economies, mobilizing collaboration between governments, organizations, and civil society so that they can work together.
As of right now there are over 29,700 participants at the summit, and we are still expecting many more to arrive before the end of the event on June 22nd.
