The Sustainability Learning Forum

Beyond Commitment: An Introduction to the UN Global Compact Management Model

United Nations Global Compact (UNGC)

This articles describes an updated performance model that guides companies through the process of formally committing to, assessing, defining, implementing, measuring, and communicating a corporate sustainability strategy based on the Global Compact and its principles. more[...] login_required

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GC Advanced Level

Editorial Team

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GC Active Level

Editorial Team

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The Learner Platform

Editorial Team

The Global Compact recognizes that its transparency and disclosure requirements can present a greater challenge for some companies, especially the smaller and less experienced ones. The Learner Platform was created to help those participants who have demonstrated a commitment toward progress and transparency by submitting a COP, but have not yet achieved the level of disclosure and transparency expected for the GC Active level. more[...] login_required

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Joining the Dots

Teresa Fogelberg, Global Reporting Initiative

The trend toward transparency on corporate non-financial performance is gaining momentum and there are a number of frameworks, systems, and principles that help companies disclose information. A key requirement for making sustainability disclosure standard practice for companies and other organizations worldwide is harmonization between these guidance sources. more[...]

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Differentiation Programme

Editorial Team

The Global Compact Differentiation Programme represents a new phase in the Global Compact transparency and disclosure policy, designed not only to improve transparency among smaller and less experienced participants, but also to stimulate continuous progress and performance improvement among the more advanced companies. The Programme is designed to provide incentives and recognition (based on self-assessment) for businesses at all levels to make meaningful progress towards a comprehensive implementation of the principles in governance, strategy and operations. more[...] login_required

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Communicating Progress

Editorial Team

When joining the Global Compact, companies make a commitment to issue an annual Communication on Progress (COP), a public disclosure to stakeholders (e.g., investors, consumers, civil society and Governments) on progress made in implementing the ten principles of the UN Global Compact, and in supporting broad UN development goals. more[...] login_required

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Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability

Dr. Elmer Lenzen

Global interconnectivity lets consumer markets constantly grow together. Modern communication technologies accelerate this phenomenon: The brand image as well as the self-perception of any company lies in the hands of millions of people using social media or their buying power. more[...] login_required

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United Nations Global Compact Milestones

Matthias Stausberg, United Nations Global Compact
Dr. Elmer Lenzen

Following a call to action by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the 1999 World Economic Forum in Davos, the operational phase of the UN Global Compact was launched on July 26, 2000, at UN Headquarters in New York. more[...]

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UN Global Compact Milestones

Dr. Elmer Lenzen

Following a call to action by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the 1999 World Economic Forum in Davos, the operational phase of the UN Global Compact was launched on July 26, 2000, at UN Headquarters in New York. more[...]

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The Global Compact at 10: Review and Outlook

Georg Kell, United Nations Global Compact

Looking back at the past 10 years, the United Nations Global Compact has left its mark in a variety of ways, helping shape the conversation about corporate responsibility and diffusing the concept of a principle-based approach to doing business across the glob more[...]

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Overview of the UN Global Compact

Editorial Team

The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as a primary driver of globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere. more[...]

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Georg Kell about the Global Compact

Georg Kell, United Nations Global Compact

Since the very beginning, Georg Kell has been Executive Director of the Global Compact. Due to his ongoing fervour the Global Compact today is fully integrated into the UN system. We spoke with Georg Kell about the economic crisis, the search for new confidence, and the renaissance of politics and ethics. His message is clear: We have to reward sustainable business models. And we have to take climate change much more seriously, or the future might be rough. more[...]

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Visiting the Global Compact Office

Dr. Elmer Lenzen

When I went to New York in March 2009, it was during the peak of the banking crisis and the self-doubts of the investment sector. There was a prevailing certainty that one economic era had come to an end, but ambiguity as to how the new era would look. Some of these elements are being intensively discussed and developed at the Global Compact Office: It is about lasting nature, transparency, responsible merchants, and the respectful handling of our planet. more[...]

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From Global Compact to Global Leadership

Prof. V. Kasturi Rangan, Harvard Business School

The global financial crisis of 2008 was a stark reminder of business’s role in society. When well governed and well led, the role of business transcends one of profitability for its owners and incentives for its managers. Its role is to create value for society. Profit is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Without profit, there is no growth, and without growth there is no development. But if business does not create value and instead divvies up the same pie over and over again for personal gains (remember the subprime mortgages, collateral debt obligations, and credit default swaps?), then it is bound to fail and cause havoc for society. more[...]

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