17 May Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum

Companies around the world point to a number of systemic barriers to implementation of environmentally and socially sustainable practices. According to the United Nations Global Compact's (UNGC) Corporate Sustainability Leadership document, companies cite the lack of market incentives and the regulatory/political environments as primary systematic barriers. To address these issues, the UNGC is organizing the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum scheduled for June 15-18, 2012 in Rio de Janeiro. This event immediately precedes the world leaders' gathering June 20-22 for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). The Forum's objective is to breakdown barriers, increase collaboration, and bring greater scale and quality to corporate sustainability practices. Familiar corporate sponsors of the Forum include Whirlpool and Kitchen Aid.

The UNGC is the world’s largest corporate responsibility initiative but its 6,000 business participants represent a tiny fraction of the world’s estimated 70,000 multinationals and millions of smaller enterprises. Find more information about the UNGC and the Forum at www.unglobalcompact.org.