About the Leaders Summit 2010

Our world is at a critical juncture.

Future advances in global integration, poverty reduction, protection of our planet and, ultimately, peace critically depend on our ability to collectively address the most pressing global challenges. Accelerating the practice of corporate sustainability and responsibility is an urgent task in these complex times, when crises – from financial market break downs to environmental degradation – are increasingly global and connected. The stakes could not be higher, given that climate change threatens the security of food, water and energy – the interlocking resource pillars which underpin prosperity and the productivity of the economy. Putting long-term sustainability, comprehensive risk management and ethics at the top of the corporate agenda must be a priority for business everywhere.

Building a new era of sustainability.

The UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2010 will provide the platform for business to convene, collaborate and commit to building a new era of sustainability. At the Summit, business leaders will tackle priority areas that are central to corporate leadership today and essential for the transformation to sustainable markets – and ultimately the protection of our planet and the livelihoods of future generations:

• Comprehensively integrating principles into business strategy, operations and governance
• Connecting sustainability issues and actions
• Tackling climate change and the Millennium Development Goals
• Scaling up collective action and public-private partnerships
• Building support for effective global frameworks
• Leveraging investors and educators as ESG (environmental, social, governance) change agents

Celebrating ten years.

Marking the 10th anniversary of the UN Global Compact’s launch, the Leaders Summit 2010 will highlight milestones, champions and best practices which have helped to advance the corporate responsibility agenda and contributed to UN goals – making the UN Global Compact the world’s largest corporate citizenship initiative with 7,000 signatories in 135 countries. While the global context and rationale for corporate responsibility has shifted since launching the UN Global Compact in 2000, the vision remains the same: for companies everywhere to integrate universal principles into their strategies, operations and culture, thereby having a profound effect on United Nations goals, particularly the Millennium Development Goals.