“Driving Growth through Sustainability” is the theme for the Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC), also known as “Summer Davos”. The meeting will take place from 13-15 September 2010 in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China. Summer Davos was launched in 2007 by the World Economic Forum (WEF) to build on the momentum of the Davos winter meeting.
Driving awareness of growth through sustainability, as well as revitalizing global governance, business and governmental leadership and corporate citizenship, are among the goals of the meeting.
More than 1,500 participants from over 75 countries and regions are expected to participate in the Forum, including Fortune 500 companies, international financial institutions, and major media organizations.
The focus on sustainability initiatives supports the overarching goal of enhanced global citizenship and improved enterprise performance. At one time, many governments and corporations were more focused on the costs of, rather than the economic benefits potentially derived from sustainable business practices. Today, however, this is no longer the case.
“It is unusual to have a conversation of any length with senior executives these days in which the sustainability challenge – and opportunity – does not figure,” notes Jerry Leamon, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited’s Global Managing Partner for Services and Mergers & Acquisitions. “Some view the drive toward sustainable ways of doing business as tantamount to a second Industrial Revolution.”
“Deloitte has studied this trend and conducted surveys and workshops with CEOs from around the world. In fact, the notion that adopting sustainable business strategies and processes hurt profitability is a passé idea to which the most progressive companies no longer subscribe,” says Chris Lu, Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte China. “To the contrary, our focus, and the focus of ‘best practice’ enterprises, is to see the ‘profit in green’. Some of the world’s largest and most established enterprises report that sustainable business activities are adding as much as 20 percent to their bottom line.”
There is a global consensus that a new government-business partnership is requisite to achieving green growth and sustainability goals. This will play out differently in each country, but for China, a close government-business partnership is intrinsic to its growth model. Among aggressive, centrally planned initiatives, China has announced its intent to double the amount of renewable energy it produces by 2020.
In fact, governments around the world are investing billions in new high-speed-rail (HSR) ventures and other 21st century technologies in the expectation of gaining a competitive edge, reducing carbon emissions, and helping stimulate their countries’ economies. According to a report by CleanEdge Clean Energy Trends 2010, China’s Ministry of Railways spent US$88 billion on HSR projects in 2009, part of an existing US$300 billion plan to expand and connect all of the country’s major cities with a projected 10,000 miles of dedicated HSR lines by 2020.
“When it comes to sustainability initiatives, there is not much difference between societal change and market change. The two are closely related,” Lu says. “For example, China’s strong emphasis on green growth has changed societal views and habits about energy use at home, at work, and in travel. That change in societal view is bringing very large changes in market opportunities.”
China has already developed another stimulus plan that will be fully detailed in August 2010. This plan has an even sharper focus on sustainability, as China considers both the economic and security challenges of excessive dependence on imported oil and other fossil fuels. While China has aggressively shopped the world for energy resources, the long-term goal is to increase power-generating alternatives, reduce dependence on any oil-based transport, and curtail high growth levels in oil and coal imports.
“The global financial crisis has reminded everyone that rapid and unexpected change can impact society and business,” Lu says. “Sustainability is all about anticipating and planning for risk, so that even low-probability events in the financial, social, and environmental spheres do not have highly adverse impacts on enterprises and economic stability.”
Learn more about 2010 Summer Davos.
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