The Sustainability Consortium is a rapidly growing nonprofit organization,
with more than 100 participating organizations worldwide from industry, universities, research institutes and civil society, which includes NGOs and Government agencies. On December 14-15, 2011, The Consortium’s Tier 1 companies comprising different industry sectors had their inaugural Corporate Advisory Council meeting. The event was co-hosted by Henkel at its regional headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Consortium’s leadership team, led by Bonnie Nixon, Executive Director of TSC; Dr. Kevin Dooley, TSC Academic Director at Arizona State University; and Jon Johnson TSC Academic Director at University of Arkansas, joined more than 70 participants at this event. Recently elected Consortium NGO board members Helen van Hoeven (WWF) and Marcela Hahn (CARE) also attended the meeting.
At the opening, Norbert Koll and Rick Theiler of Henkel welcomed the visitors and presented their company’s new sustainability strategy toward 2030. Speakers from different taskforces and committees delivered special reports on key topics, which included The Consortium’s financial status, organizational building for future growth, value proposition, the Sustainability Measurement and Reporting System (SMRS), engagement with consumers and external partners. Representing The Consortium’s Retail Sector, Jeff Rice of Walmart and Andrew Yeo of Tesco presented their companies’ strategies and practices in driving sustainability through business processes and leveraging The Consortium’s work in those processes.
The presentations delivered during the two-day event triggered many lively discussions and healthy debates through moderated panels and Q&A sessions. “It was a productive meeting where we were able to give good input to The Consortium’s future direction,” said Jeff Rice of Walmart. “We are excited about sharing our plans for integrating The Consortium’s work into our business, and we appreciate the valuable questions and feedback that we received on our plans for the coming year”.
At the end, members framed a list of key issues and developed action items with responsible members to follow up in the next few months.
