Please click on the links below for the latest news on corporate citizenship both within the Global Leadership Network and beyond.

May 2008

2008 Ethos International Conference

From May 27th to 30th, GLN is presenting its OpenAccess Tool at the Sustainable Technology Showcase organized by the Ethos Institute in São Paulo, and held as the same time as the 2008 Ethos International Conference. It is a unique event in Latin America, gathering leading CSR companies, academic and institutional centers of all the region. On May 30th, during the morning, a public conference will be held to present the tool.
Further information

May 2008

May 14th in Washington DC will gather leading companies including GE, IBM, Omron, Cargill, among others to exchange experience and understanding in how to measure success.  Companies respond to a slew of questionnaires and gather data to report their treatment of sustainability largely to outside sources.  Do these measures truly capture what success looks like? How relevant are these measures to successful ventures?  The leadership group of the GLN hosted by Verizon at their global headquarters will also delve into when measures need to reach beyond company boundaries to include others in a shared responsibility for solutions.
Further information

Abril 2008

GLN CFCSR

On April 27th and 28th, GLN will deliver a training to the staff and members of the Chinese Federation for CSR in Beijing about the OpenAccess tool. The first day is an internal staff training followed by an evening press release, while the second day is an invitation-only training for all CFCSR members and invited guests.

February 2008

New Implementation Tool: The GLN OpenAccess Tool for Global Compact Signatories

(New York, 22 February 2008) – Today, the United Nations Global Compact launched the GLN OpenAccess tool, an interactive self-assessment tool to support Global Compact participants with the implementation of the ten principles as well as with the Communication on Progress. The GLN OpenAccess tool can assist companies to improve their understanding of how the management of social, environmental and governance issues impact the business and its stakeholders.

The tool is a product of the GLN OpenAccess project, a partnership between the Global Leadership Network (GLN), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the UN Global Compact. First presented at the Global Compact Leaders Summit in July 2007, the tool uses GLN’s framework to support Global Compact signatories, IFC clients and other private sector participants with the strategic alignment of corporate citizenship and core business strategy.

By looking at the company’s own functions and the industry context, the tool creates an explicit link between the ten principles and the company’s core business that enables signatories to:

• identify critical priorities, opportunities and risks;
• engage key colleagues and external stakeholders;
• assess performance in integrating the ten principles into business strategy;
• galvanize action and set goals and targets to support implementation and Communications on Progress

Based on GLN’s own corporate citizenship planning and assessment tool and co-designed with IBM, the tool gives Global Compact signatories the opportunity to explore the business, market and societal aspects associated with each Principle and decide which of the ten principles are the most strategic to the company. Designed as a learning and benchmarking system, the tool draws on an extensive database of good practice case studies, real-time benchmarking and automated reporting to provide Compact signatories with the necessary information on key strategic alignment efforts.

The results will enable UN Global Compact signatories build strategies that make possible the UN Global Compact principles to serve as productive drivers of business performance and value for society.

“The great merit of the GC GLN OpenAccess Tool is that it makes possible a very pragmatic exercise that encompasses both the existing strategy of the company and the value proposition of the Global Compact”, said Manuel Escudero, Head, Special Projects of the UN Global Compact. “This should be a very useful resource for assessment of priorities and for planning implementation, leading to the Communication on Progress”.

“For corporate citizenship to deliver on its potential it must become fundamental to strategy and operations,” said Steve Rochlin, Head of AccountAbility North America. “The partnership among GLN, the UN Global Compact, and IFC now enables companies around the world to reach this potential.”
Global Compact signatories can access the tool through an exclusive platform at www.gln-openaccess.org. The tool is currently available in English and Portuguese, with a Spanish and a Chinese version scheduled for March and April, respectively. GLN and the Global Compact will schedule a series of sessions with GLN and Global Compact signatories in various regions.

For more information, contact:

United Nations Global Compact
Manuel Escudero
Head Global Compact Special Projects and Academic Initiatives
escuderom@un.org

Global Leadership Network
Aris Vrettos
Senior Advisor
Global Leadership Network and AccountAbility
Tel: +44 (0) 207 549 0400
aris@accountability21.net

About the GLN:
The Global Leadership Network is an international, membership-based initiative established by AccountAbility, the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship (BCCCC), IBM and nine other industry leaders dedicated to promoting performance excellence in corporate citizenship. Find out more at www.globalleadershipnetwork.org

About the UN Global Compact:
Launched in 2000, the UN Global Compact brings business together with UN agencies, labour, civil society and governments to advance ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Through the power of collective action, the Global Compact seeks to mainstream these ten principles in business activities around the world and to catalyze actions in support of broader UN goals. With over 3,700 participating companies and hundreds of other stakeholders from more than 120 countries, it is the world's largest voluntary corporate citizenship initiative. For more information, please visit www.unglobalcompact.org.

January 2008
GLN Open Access available for Global Compact signatories in Brazil
REVER Consulting, the GLN’s exclusive regional partner in Brazil, facilitated two GLN Open Access training workshops for Global Compact Signatories in São Paulo and Rio in December 2007, in advance of the soft launch of the new GLN Open Access tool on January 23rd, 2008. Additional training sessions on the GLN methodology, the Open Access tool and its application in managing to the UN Global Compact principles will be scheduled for February and March 2008 in São Paulo, Curitiba and Belo Horizonte.

January 2008
GLN in India
Steve Rochlin, head of AccountAbility North America, represented the GLN as a keynote speaker at the Sustainable Industrial Network event in New Delhi from 21-22 January 2008. The event, put on by the Confederation of Indian Industries’ (CII-ITC) Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development and the International Council of Swedish Industry (NIR) brought together international and national experts working in the diverse areas associated with the concept of Sustainable Industrial Networks to exchange knowledge and best practices between India and the European Union. Mr. Rochlin spoke of the need for companies to identify and focus on social and environmental issues where they can make the most impact.

July 2007
GLN launches new initiative with UN Global Compact and IFC
The UN GLobal Compact Leaders Summit in Geneva last week saw the launch of an exciting new partnership between the Global Leadership Network, the IFC and the UN Global Compact to build citizenship into corporate strategies accross the globe. Based on the GLN excellence framework, a new learning system will be available to Global Compact signatories and IFC clients that will help them embed the 10 Compact principles and other key sustainability issues into their day-to-day operations.

February 2007
Dow Chemical and The Home Depot join the GLN
Dow Chemical, the world's' second largest chemical manufacturer and The Home Depot, the largest retailer of home improvement products in the world have joined the Global Leadership Network.

January 2007
Wells Fargo joins the GLN
Wells Fargo, the leading US financial services provider has joined the GLN.

December 2006
GLN Global Tier 3 and Steering Committee meeting
Members of the GLN Steering Committee and GLN Global Tier 3 met in New York on November 27 and 28, 2006. The meeting saw the launch of the GLN Tier 3 Leadership, Learning and Benchmarking Group and hosted a session by Professor R. M. Kanter.

November 2006
Verizon and Accenture join the GLN
Verizon, the leading communications and informations provider and Accenture, the global management and technical services consultancy are the latest members of the GLN.

October 2006
Strategic Insight Series
The Strategic Insight Series, the new smart information service available to all GLN members provides a simple, fast insight into key corporate citizenship developements.

September 2006
GLN Brazil begins its work with the online tool
Philips LATAM has formed a working group focusing on the GLN online tool, with Vivo and Alcoa Brasil taking similar steps.

September 2006
Launch of the CC Strategic Planning and Assessment Tool, version 2.0.
The GLN is pleased to announce the launch of the latest version of the online tool. Version 2.0 features substantial enhancements, including a Multi-user functionality which enables members to benchmark their corporate citizenship performance internally, as well as externally.

August 2006
President of Alcoa Brasil on GLN and the Brazilian network
Franklin Feder, President of Alcoa Brasil, opened the 3rd meeting of the Brazilian GLN group outlining how the GLN links to Alcoa's goals and expectations.

July 2006
SK Telecom joins the Global Leadership Network
SK Telecom, Korea's number one mobile communications company and a leading player in the information and communications industry has joined the Global Leadership Network.

July 2006
ING joins the Global Leadership Network
ING, one the world's largest financial services companies offering banking, insurance and asset management in over 50 countries has joined the Global Leadership Network.

April 2006
Nokia and Pfizer join the Global Leadership Network
Nokia, the world's largest manufacturer of mobile devices and Pfizer, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical corporations have joined the Global Leadership Network.

April 2006
Five new companies join the Global Leadership Network
The Global Leadership Network and REVER Consulting, GLN's partner in Brazil, are pleased to welcome our latest members. Alcoa Latin America (aluminium), BASF Brazil (chemicals), Philips Latin America (electronics), Santander Banespa (financial services) and Vivo (the Brazilian telecommunications company) have become part of GLN.

April 2006
The Brazilian company REVER Consulting becomes a regional partner for GLN
The Global Leadership Network has joined forces with the Programa REVER network of companies to advocate and promote excellence in corporate citizenship in Brazil.

February 17 & 27, 2006
Launch of the Global Leadership Network (GLN)
Events in New York City and London signaled the inauguration of GLN - a global network of companies committed to achieving world-class performance in corporate citizenship.