Greenpeace’s Naidoo argues for greater accountability

21 May 2010

Supply chain sourcing and partnerships – key considerations for firms to tackle CO2.

Kumi Naidoo, executive director, Greenpeace, was speaking in Soho, London, on Wednesday at the launch of Good(Beta), a social enterprise set up specifically to provide brand strategy and communications support for commercial and non-profit organisations.

Speaking about the environment, Naidoo said: “We have to realise that we’re in a serious crisis. The science is telling us that by 2015, emissions must start coming down. That’s like 65 months away and time is running out.”

According to Naidoo, one of the  “most abused words” of the past decade has been the word ‘partnership’.

“Businesses, governments and non-profit groups need to find better ways of working together … we have to begin to talk about and contest the dominant social-economic paradigm that the business community operates within at the moment. What is that paradigm? It is one that is driven by over-consumption. The challenge (for global business) is to now go beyond what was expected of it 20 years ago – that ‘you should do no harm’.”

Sustainability and the supply chain

“We have to go beyond just being neutral, go beyond simply meeting ‘licence to operate’ regulations. Businesses need to be thinking about their product range, where they source every piece of their supply chain. I do believe we are going in the right direction but there is too big a gap between what is said and what is done. That is the reality,” added Naidoo.

By Carmel Doyle

Photo: Jochen Zeitz, CEO, Puma; Sharon Johnson, strategy partner, Beta; Kumi Naidoo, executive director, Greenpeace; and Robert Campbell, co-founder, Beta Communications. Naidoo was one of the speakers at the launch of launch of Good(Beta) – Beta Communications’ new social enterprise to help non-profit organisations with their communications strategy

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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