News and Cluster Activities

EBBF Toronto takes off

Submitted by François Couillard

There is exciting news from Canada following two recent EBBF gatherings in the Toronto area.

A first meeting was held on June 26 at Franois Couillard and Corinne Box' home and attracted 9 people. The participants got to know one another socially by indulging in a BBQ - pot-luck which was followed by an information session about EBBF. There were lots of questions asked and the enthusiasm generated was such that it was decided to meet again within a month to talk about the types of activities the group would like to be involved in. Samantha Fowlds, new to EBBF, volunteered to set-up a Yahoo work group, which is already in use.

The second meeting, held at Lou and Lorna Bergner's residence, attracted 16 participants, a 50% growth! There are still more who wanted to attend but were unable due to scheduling conflicts. The event again started with a social gathering around a BBQ. A 30 minute workshop on Ethics in Business followed. The rest of the evening was spent consulting on possible future activities.

The group decided to continue to hold monthly meetings while focusing on the organization of a one-day conference, which would be held later this fall. We will meet again at the end of August to start planning this event. Everyone was most eager to get involved and confirmed their desire to participate and bring friends and colleagues to future events.

It is uplifting to see the spirit of EBBF being embraced so wholeheartedly by Canadians.

Summary Report on the AIESEC International Conference
Warsaw, 27-31 August 2006

Submitted by George Starcher

EBBF has collaborated during the past ten years with AIESEC, the 20,000 member student organization. George Starcher and Cesare Fera were invited to participate and lead workshops at its recent International Conference.  There were over 550 delegates from 90 countries and over 150 “externals” like ourselves. It is difficult to summarize four full days of networking, participating in the Learning Networks Day, attending the International Advisory Council meeting, and meeting with various AIESEC officers to discuss collaboration.

Learning Networks Day

The day was organized around five themes: Corporate Responsibility, Energy, Finance, HIV AIDs, and Education. Cesare Fera (an Italian EBBF member and entrepreneur in the renewable energy field) led a workshop on renewable energy and shared his experience in starting up a company in this field, and then assisted in the learning circle that followed. George also led a workship in the Finance group on Ethical Finance and Microcredit. Later in the afternoon he was a panellist in the CSR network session, along with CR specialists from several sponsor companies (HP, Holsim, and Sony) and the IBLF. The day was crowned by a gala dinner with many impressive guests and a bowling party that began at 11:30 p.m. Cesare represented us very well at the bowling.

International Advisory Council 

The IAC and the Steering Group (really the governing body of externals) met together with members of the new AIESEC International team to consult on their plans and programmes. The important value of this meeting was to be informed and to be perceived both by AIESECers and externals to be part of the governance just as the major corporations that contribute in many very significant ways, including financial contributions and some 5,000 international exchanges.

AIESEC Presence at EBBF 2006 Annual Conference

Both Jeanne DU Plessis (AIESEC External Relations Officer) and Cornelia Raportaru (leading CSR initiatives at AIESEC) will be attending our AC, Jeanne will give a 15-20 presentation on AISEC on Sunday morning, and Cornelia will be a panellist on Saturday afternoon

European Commission creates European Alliance for CSR

Of the 35 participants in this event, in the historic Brewers House on Grand'Place in Brussels, three represented EBBF : Dan Moller, Joseph Van Keulen and Wim Ottermans. From the InBev Newsletter:
In collaboration with the United Nations, InBev launched the UN Global Compact Network for Belgium. The event brought together over 35 representatives from the European Union, UN, government, business and nongovernmental organizations at the historic Belgian Brewers' House in Brussels to generate a dialogue on the role Belgian business can play in moving towards the UN Millennium Goals.
A member since 2004, InBev discussed how companies can incorporate the principles of the Global Compact into their business strategy, culture and day-to-day operations.

Michel Lastchenko, Belgium Director of the Strategic Unit at the Ministry for Development and Cooperation, was joined by Lila Karbassi, UN Global Compact Network coordinator, and Franois Georges, head of international corporate affairs, EDF, at the event.

Ms. Karbassi congratulated InBev on its initiative in spearheading the launch of the Global Compact Network for Belgium, saying "The leadership and activities of Belgian companies will determine the way forward for the Compact in Belgium. The first steps have been made thanks to the initiative taken by InBev. Country networks catalyze the initiative's global mission into local action, and we look forward to working further with the Belgian network."

Show me the Money from UNEP FI

FOURTEEN of the world's largest investment companies launched a ground-breaking report for the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI).

The report, entitled "Show Me the Money", confirms the growing importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns to the global investment industry. UNEP FI is a unique public-private partnership between UNEP and more than 160 banks, insurers and asset managers.

"There is a growing worldwide understanding of the pivotal role the investment community and capital market actors have to play in addressing critical ESG challenges," explained Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director and United Nations Undersecretary General.

"At the same time, the mainstream investment community is waking to the burgeoning opportunities associated with sustainability promoting companies, technologies and investment funds. From clean-tech, to renewables and ecosystem services, the growth industries of the 21st century are emerging at an accelerated pace," added the head of UNEP.

"Show Me The Money" is a 47-page summary report synthesising more than 1,000 pages of research from the mainstream financial analyst community.Highlights from several of the sector reports include:

On corporate governance issues the Deutsche Bank AG's report states:"Recognising the materiality of corporate governance on equity performance and valuation is just one step on the path to more rigorous equity analysis...It is now increasingly accepted that corporate governance, environmental and social factors are components of a company's equity risk premium."

On obesity and the food and beverage industry JP Morgan Securities Ltd's report states: "Growing awareness of the relationship between diet and health and in particular of serious health risks posed by obesity is having a major impact on consumer purchasing behaviours and choices that will durably impact and reshape the food and beverages industry."

The media sector report by Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research states: "We find that companies that demonstrate leadership on our ESG framework, a proxy for quality of management over the long term, lead their sub-sector peers on long-term cash returns. In addition, we also focus on companies showing improvement in ESG performance as we believe that such companies possess a view towards management for the long term, likely to result in improvements in cash returns".

The auto industry report by CM-CIC Securities states: "The rise in resource prices and particularly the exploding oil price is the hard lesson that the automakers need, to understand that current modes of combustion probably do not constitute the long-term solution. The industry must begin looking for alternatives. Automakers, oil companies, governments and consumers all need to start preparing themselves today for the reality of long-term high prices for black gold."

"With the launch of both UNPRI and "Show Me the Money" we can see that some of the largest and most concentrated pools of capital are sending clear signals to the whole investment chain indicating that ESG issues are material and must be integrated into investment analysis, decision-making and action," explained Paul Clements-Hunt, Head , UNEP Finance Initiative.