Events

UNEP FI 2003 Global Roundtable

Sustaining Value: A Meeting on Finance and Sustainability

20-21 October, 2003 | Tokyo, Japan

Agenda: Reporting Sustainability: Standards & Guidelines

• Examination of the future direction of international sustainability reporting standards and guidelines.
• Changes in scope of reporting and emergence of new standards.

Speakers

Sustainability reporting guidelines:
Mr. Ernst Ligteringen, Chief Executive, Global Reporting Initiative
Presentation (PDF: 561 KB)

ISO's corporate social responsibility standards:
Prof. Iwao Taka - ISO Strategic Advisory Group on Corporate Social Responsibility; Department of International Economics, Reitaku University
Presentation (PDF: 116 KB)

Canada's Public Accountability Statement:
Mr. Robert Waite, Senior Vice President, Communications & Public Affairs, CIBC
Presentation (PDF: 326 KB)

Mr. Gerry Salembier, Director, Financial Institutions Division, Finance Canada
Presentation (PDF: 74 KB)

Chair
Mr. Eiichiro Adachi, Senior Researcher and Head of Socio-Incubation Cluster, The Japan Research Institute Limited, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group
Presentation (PDF: 185 KB)

Speaker biographies

Mr. Ernst Ligteringen, Chief Executive, Global Reporting Initiative

Ernst Ligteringen has been serving as Chief Executive of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) since November 2002. The GRI is a multi-stakeholder process and independent institution whose mission is to develop and disseminate globally applicable Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and make sustainability reporting as routine and comparable as financial reporting. Started in 1997 by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), the GRI became independent and moved to Amsterdam in 2002. GRI is an official collaborating centre of UNEP and also works in co-operation with UN Global Compact.

Mr. Ligteringen brings a management and leadership background in international organisations. As its first Executive Director he led Oxfam International from 1995 to 2001 and subsequently he worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross. As the Director of Program Coordination he led a re-organisation to strengthen the Federation's support for the 178 Red Cross and Red Crescent societies worldwide. He has furthermore been a management consultant for the International Labor Organization's World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization.

Mr. Ligteringen is a Dutch national, who returned to his home country for the GRI assignment after 24 years of work and study in former Zaire, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, the United Kingdom and France.

^ top

Prof. Iwao Taka - ISO Strategic Advisory Group on Corporate Social Responsibility; Department of International Economics, Reitaku University

Dr. Iwao Taka is a professor of Reitaku University and a chief director of the Reitaku Business Ethics and Compliance Research Center (R-BEC). With regard to the ISO CSR standard, he is a member of the High Level Strategic Advisory Group, representing the Asia/Oceania Region.

From 1991 through 1993, he studied business ethics at the Wharton School in the United States. After coming back to Japan, in 1996, he carried out a comprehensive research on business ethics for a special edition of Diamond Weekly. In 1999, he led a CSR initiative to issue ethics compliance management systems standard (the ECS2000). In 2001, with the help of 21 experts, he also published Japanese SRI screening framework (R-BEC001).

Recently, he has been serving on various councils/committees established by the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW), and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT). He is also a chairperson of the Business Ethics Committee for Nippon Meat Packers Inc (Nippon Ham).

His publications include "Business Ethics: A Japanese View," (Business Ethics Quarterly), Business Ethics, Compliance Programs for Financial Institutions, and Corporate Social Responsibility.

^ top

Mr. Robert Waite, Senior Vice President, Communications & Public Affairs, CIBC.

Robert Waite is Senior Vice-President, Communications and Public Affairs, for CIBC, one of North America's largest financial services institutions. Mr. Waite was appointed to his position by the CIBC Board on April 6, 2000. His areas of responsibility include internal and external communications, financial communications, investment bank marketing, government issues and advocacy, donations and community relations.

Prior to joining CIBC Mr. Waite served from March 1994 to April 2000 as Vice-President, Corporate Relations and Marketing, for CAE Inc., the world leader in simulation technology. His areas of responsibility included investor relations, internal and external communications, marketing and government relations.

Mr. Waite began his career a journalist, editing several newspapers, writing a weekly column and working as a correspondent in the United States and Europe. During this period he won a National Newspaper Award and was selected three times as "Best Columnist" by the New England Press Association. In 1978 he joined the staff of Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass.) as Press Secretary. He subsequently worked three years as Press Secretary to Senator Bob Dole (R-Kansas) and then served as Vice-President, Public Affairs, The Export Import Bank of the United States, during the Reagan Administration.

^ top

Mr. Gerry Salembier, Director, Financial Institutions Division, Finance Canada

Gerry Salembier was born in Calgary, Alberta. He holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree and an M.A. in International Affairs.

Gerry began his career with the Institute for Research on Public Policy where his research on international economic policy was published in several books and journals. Gerry subsequently joined the Department of Finance in the International Trade and Finance Branch, providing advice on Canada's trade policy. In 1991 he was seconded to Geneva to work on the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations which created the World Trade Organization. He was elected Chairman of the GATT Subsidies Committee for 1992-93.

Gerry returned to Ottawa and the Department of Finance to the position of Chief, Transport and Infrastructure, and subsequently took on responsibility for Industry, Innovation and Telecommunication Policy, in the Economic Development and Corporate Finance Branch.

In 1998, Gerry moved to the newly formed Financial Sector Review Group to lead the team advising the Minister of Finance on bank merger proposals. He now holds the position of Director, Financial Institutions Division where his group is responsible for financial sector policy development and its implementation in law and regulations.

^ top

Mr. Eiichiro Adachi, Senior Researcher and Head of Socio-Incubation Cluster, The Japan Research Institute Limited, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group

Eiichiro Adachi is a senior researcher and the head of the Socio-Incubation cluster at The Japan Research Institute Limited, which was founded in 1989 and sponsored by companies in the Sumitomo group.

He received his bachelor's degree in mathematical economics from Hitotsubashi University Japan in 1986. He worked for Mitsubishi Research Institute during 1986-1989 as an industrial analyst.

Mr. Adachi is now engaged in social and environmental screening of listed Japanese companies for UBS Global Asset Management and Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co., Ltd. He is also a project manager of research works regarding environmental finance that Ministry of the Environment Japan entrusted. He is the co-author of several books such as "Guide to Socially Responsible Investment" (2003, Nihon Keizai Shimbun), "The Illustration of Environmental Problems for Business Enterprise" (2002, TOYO KEIZAI INC) and "Ethical-ecological Investment: Towards Global Sustainable Development"(2001, Iko-Verlag fur Interkulturelle kommunikation).

He was a working group member of the Study Group on Market Evolution and Corporation in the 21st Century by KEIZAI DOYUKAI (Japan Association of Corporate Executives) in 2002 and is a member of the Asia Pacific Roundtable Cleaner Production (APRCP) Board of Trustees.

^ top