THEME - SUSTAINABLE MARKETS
International network
Sustainability and finance
Sustainability Ambassador. Bart Jan Krouwel's passionate belief that business has a contribution to make to improving the state of the world recently won him the title of Environmental
Professional of the Year. He sees himself as an ambassador in the financial sector: 'Sustainable enterprise holds the key to future markets and the prosperity of tomorrow. It's high time the
financial world woke up and took steps to actively support it.'
on issues ranging from child labour, the tobacco industry,
the child sex industry and the environment.
Rabobank Group was the first Dutch financial services
provider to join the World Business Council for Sustain
able Development (WBCSD). I bis international network
organization brings together 160 companies from more
than .30 countries. The participating companies (including,
for example, General Motors, Sony, Shell, Volkswagen,
Xerox, AT&T and Proctor Gamble) want to be actively
involved in the debate on sustainable development and
the role which business and industry can play in it. The
Council Members are the CKOs of the participating com
panies who then appoint Liaison Delegates to be involved
on an operational basis. Bart Jan Krouwel, Managing
Director of the Sustainability and Social Innovation
Division, is the Rabobank Group Liaison Delegate. '1
would say that the WBCSD is the number one active or
ganization when it comes to sustainable development. lts
work is structured into council projects which are decided
on and funded by the WBCSD itself, and into ntember
projects which are chosen, funded and run by the mem
bers themselves, with support from the Secretariat in
Geneva.
Rabobank recently chaired the Sustainable Reporting
Initiative and, together with Deutsche Bank, was one of
the initiators of the Sustainability and the Finance Sector
Project. Says Bart Jan Krouwel, 'We're working with 11
financial institutions from around the world to report on
how the financial world looks at sustainability. 1 would
have liked us to chair this project but as Hans Smits was
already chairing the Sustainable Development Reporting
Project, this job went to ABN-Amro. The working groups
meet regularly and it's clear to me that all the companies
involved are committed to making the world a more sus
tainable place. Some members, like Dow Chemicals and
British Petroleum (BP), have even seconded some of their
professionals to the Secretariat to manage certain proj
ects. It's a fantastic network for us to be involved with.'
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