WEF and WBCSD report

Ken, as you requested, I am participating in the World Economic Forum's task force on Corporate Citizenship/Corporate Responsibility and attended the first meeting last week in Geneva. In addition, Mike Terraso and I met with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Here is an update on those meetings and next steps.

WEF

Goals of the task force are:

To assess the business case for and practice and measurement of CSR.
To develop recommendations for consideration by members; and
To promote cooperation among companies, experts and stakeholders.

Companies attending included Van Heusen, 3M, Budimex (a Polish construction company), Deutschebank, ITC (an Indian packaging subsidiary of BAT), Accenture, Arthur D. Little, Suez, Electricite de France, and Siemens. Representatives from these leading NGOs were guests: CERES, Business for Social Responsibility, the Price of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, the Conference Board and the Global Compact. WEF staff Richard Samans, director of the Global Issues Centre for the Global Agenda, and Donna Redel, Managing Director, moderated the meetings.

While a few of the companies have been active in CSR, many had not yet examined these issues internally and were just starting to think about the implications. We had the types of discussions that companies typically have when they are embarking on something new, the same discussions we had at Enron over a year ago. I don't think this was negative for a first meeting, and broadening the understanding of and interest in these issues will require a climb up the learning curve for many. I did urge staff to broaden the group and involve companies such as Shell, BP, Reebok and others that have been leaders in the CSR arena.

Outcomes of the meeting:

1) Our task force will continue to evaluate best practices as well as policies, community investment, accounting and disclosure methodologies recommended by experts and companies. We will also focus on emerging trends in CSR expectations among investors and lenders.
2) Chairmen/CEOs will be asked to discuss the CSR issue at a macro level and potentially adopt a position at Davos. Task force members felt it was important that this be elevated to the Chairman/CEO level and to Davos if it is to be given the proper weight as a major issue for multinationals today. I want our task force to have more discussions first, but I expect that I will ask you to consider participating in this component.

WBCSD

Mike and I met with individuals from all across the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. We are delighted that you have agreed that Enron will join and think this effort it critical to both our environmental and corporate responsibility strategies. I know that you reviewed WBCSD's materials, but their focus areas are wide-ranging and include sustainability, climate change, community involvement, emissions trading, corporate social responsibility and reporting. WBCSD has six sectoral projects, and among those energy, forestry and mining and minerals may all be relevant to us.

Each member company is expected to have one council member, who are the most senior officers of the companies, and may have up to two liaison delegates (LDs), who are a variety of EHS, CSR and policy people. Our recommendation is that you accept the Council member slot if you are willing. Your main time commitment would be one meeting annually. Mike and I would suggest that the two of us take on the LD roles since the topics seem to be equally split in relevance to each of our areas. We also are allowed to appoint other staff people to work on specific initiatives as appropriate.

Please let me know if you agree with this. I promised the membership director that I will advise him of your decision this week so he can get the paperwork in motion and announce our joining.

Let me know if you have additional questions. Thanks. Kelly.