World Business Council for Sustainable Development

About the WBCSD

The WBCSD is a CEO-led organization of forward-thinking companies that galvanizes the global business community to create a sustainable future for business, society and the environment. From its starting point in 1992 to the present day, the Council has created respected thought leadership on business and sustainability. The Council plays the leading advocacy role for business. Leveraging strong relationships with stakeholders, it helps drive debate and policy change in favor of sustainable development solutions.

The Council provides a forum for its 200 member companies – who represent all business sectors, all continents and combined revenue of over $US 7 trillion – to share best practices on sustainable development issues and to develop innovative tools that change the status quo. The Council also benefits from a network of 60 national and regional business councils and partner organizations including the US BCSD, a majority of which are based in developing countries.

By thinking ahead, advocating for progress and delivering results, the WBCSD both increases the impact of our members’ individual actions and catalyzes collective action that can change the future of our society for the better. For more information on the WBCSD, visit their website by clicking here.

Vision 2050

The WBCSD’s cornerstone Vision 2050 report calls for a new agenda for business laying out a direction to a world in which nine billion people can live well, and within the planet’s resources, by mid-century. Under the Vision 2050 project, 29 WBCSD member companies developed a vision of a world well on the way to sustainability by 2050, and a pathway leading to that world – one that will require fundamental changes in governance structures, economic frameworks, business and human behavior. It emerged that these changes are necessary, feasible and offer tremendous business opportunities for companies that turn sustainability into strategy. Read more…

WBCSD Activities of Interest

Energy and Climate

The Energy and Climate Focus Area provides WBCSD members with a platform to engage with their peers and stakeholders in energy and climate, to address critical industry issues and to share ways to solutions. The project delivers business input to the design and implementation of the post-Kyoto climate architecture through an active involvement into international processes.

Ecosystems

The WBCSD has been working on ecosystem issues for 15 years. The Focus Area helps build capacity and develop tools to assess risks and opportunities related to business impacts and dependencies on ecosystems; and also engages in the global biodiversity and ecosystem policy debate.

Water

Since 1997, the WBCSD has managed to raise the profile of water on the corporate agenda and has increasingly been recognized as the leading business voice on water. The overall mission of the project is to provide a cross-sectoral collective business voice which addresses sustainable water management and key policy initiatives. It will more specifically focus on proactively addressing companies’ management response and stakeholder expectations regarding water use and discharges, and enhance stakeholder recognition of global companies as effective water management solution providers via goods, services and technologies.

Buildings

Launched in 2006, the Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB) project focused, during its first phase of work, on delivering an understanding of the international building sector’s use of energy. The project produced recommendations and a roadmap for a transformation of the building sector to reach an 80% cut in energy use by 2050, while being economical and socially acceptable. Since early 2011, EEB has been scoping its future phase of work to actually trigger implementation within this complex and fragmented sector.

Tires

Established in January 2006, the goal of the Tire Industry Project (TIP), working under the umbrella of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), is to identify and address the potential health and environmental impacts of materials associated with tire making and use. This project is chaired by the three largest tire manufacturers – Bridgestone (Japan), Goodyear (US) and Michelin (France) – and includes a total of eleven companies representing approximately 70% of the world’s tire manufacturing capacity.

Future Leaders Team

The FLT is a unique professional development opportunity to develop sustainability leaders of the future. The program creates a global network of dynamic business leaders capable of acting as sustainable development ambassadors in their companies and in society. Tomorrow’s leaders will need new skills and competencies to cope with increasing social and environmental challenges across a changing competitive landscape. A sustainability perspective will be critical to managing relationships, bringing about change and planning for the future.

US BCSD