Accelerate 2013 - Participatory Breakout A: A Gold Standard for Sustainable Business - What Would it Mean for Stakeholders?

Bob Willard and Pong Leung hosted this session exploring the question “How would we recognize a truly sustainable business if we saw one?” A draft set of criteria for a Gold-standard for a sustainable business were presented, and then participants broke out into 10 tables, each hosted by a presenter from a particular stakeholder group to discuss possible concerns and possible opportunities that that stakeholder group may have with these criteria. The criteria cover the ecological system, the social system, and the governance & financial system. They are based on the premises that ‘the environment is too big to fail’, and ‘the economy and society are wholly owned subsidiaries of the environment’. A truly sustainable enterprise creates positive environmental, social and economic value. At the end of the table discussions each table host summarized the key points, and participants completed a survey sheet of their own thoughts and suggestions.

• Pong Leung slides (pdf)
• Bob Willard slides (pdf)

Agenda