Talking responsible business with the great and the good

This week saw Ethical Corporation’s Responsible Business Summit reach its tenth year of bringing world business leaders together to discuss all things sustainable – an issue close to our hearts at The Good Agency.

The two day summit was opened by Ethical Corporation founder, Tony Webb, who introduced the event focus on turning policy into performance.  Speaking later at the event, Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks, described his company as an ‘agitator for change’, echoing our own brand beliefs by attributing their success to their simple vision, mission and values.

Our respect goes to Peter Bakker, CEO of TNT who spoke frankly and with great humour, openly admitting that his core business is ‘to emit CO2’ and Jeffery Hollender, Co-founder, former President and CEO of Seventh Generation who discussed the crucial difference between actually being good and simply being less bad.

Charlie Kronick, Senior Climate Advisor at Greenpeace and Loretta Minghella, Director at Christian Aid shared useful insights from the NGO perspective on how companies can work better with them on the corporate responsibility strategies, initiating the debate around where engagement and campaigning becomes free consultancy – and if this is an issue anyway.

Save the Children and Reckitt-Benckiser were just one of many not-for-profit/corporate success stories recognised during the Summit, highlighting a key theme of co-operation and collaboration.

Other hot topics from the two days were the difficulty in reconciling sustainable behaviour and business sense, and the opportunities and constraints of actually doing good versus talking about doing good.

Look for some interesting articles that come out of the event at www.ethicalcorp.com.

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