The United Nations Global Compact

A review of the first ten years of the world's largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative.

Since the launch of the UN Global Compact, over 12,000 organisations worldwide have voluntarily adopted and promoted its values and Ten Principles. This edited volume brings together international contributions that explore specific implications for business from managerial, legal, behavioural and sociological perspectives.

This book examines the rise and spread of corporate social responsibility across the globe and its impact on corporate reputation and behaviour.

This book employs the UN Global Compact and its ten principles as a framework for discussing the issues facing global business managers. Contributors examine the intersection between business and ethical issues, including human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption.

Twenty-two essays document the work of Western companies, working through the UN Global Compact, to shape more peaceful and just societies.

This book, produced by a unique team of business experts and UN agencies, is designed to fill a critical void-between the support of more than 1,000 organisations for the globally recognised Principles of the United Nations Global Compact and the need for this support to be translated into the day-to-day running of business to create value and improve performance. The ten Global Compact Principles cover human rights, labour standards, environmental responsibility and anti-corruption. But what does it mean to implement the Compact and its principles? How can the broad brush strokes of the Principles form the basis of management change? And how should companies establish benchmarks and performance indicators for implementation? For many companies, the journey is just starting. How can they ensure that they align with the Global Compact in ways that continue to reward their other business objectives? How should they embrace and capitalise on the Global Compact's potential for bringing together business, the public sector, trade unions and civil society in new partnerships? The aim of this book is to answer these questions by providing a performance model clearly grounded on the total quality management approach to assist businesses in putting the Global Compact into practice. Raising the Bar collects together and categorises a wealth of corporate responsibility tools, good practice and case studies in a structure familiar to anyone aware of business excellence models and demonstrates that values create value-leadership commitment to the Global Compact can impact both the boardroom and the shop floor, public image and balance sheet. Full of graphics and designed with accessibility in mind, the book will be a goldmine for managers looking for inspiration on how their businesses can be good corporate citizens and real proof that good business is also good for the bottom line.

In today's global economy, business leaders need to develop new policies and practices aimed at promoting responsible corporate citizenship. The United Nations Global Compact, launched in 2000, serves as a forum in which multinational businesses work to promote human rights, prevent violent conflict, and contribute to more peaceful societies. Peace through Commerce: Responsible Corporate Citizenship and the Ideals of the United Nations Global Compact contains a foreword, introduction, and twenty-one chapters by major business leaders and scholars who discuss the issues set out by the UN Global Compact. The chapters address the purpose of the corporation; the influence of legal and peace studies; the experience of career NGO officials and of business leaders; how commerce can help promote peace; and how we might envision the future. Ten case studies document the efforts of individual businesses, including IBM, Chevron, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, General Electric, Nestle, and Ford, to successfully serve society's interests as well as their own. Peace through Commerce will lay the groundwork for courses in business schools on corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, and global environment of business. "This book makes a significant contribution to the literature on corporate social responsibility. While the general relationship between economic development and peace has been explored before, the practical exploration of corporate strategies embodied in this book is completely new. It will be of interest not only to those interested in corporate responsibility but also those who study development economics and those involved in peace studies." --Kirk O. Hanson, Santa Clara University "There are many books of readings on CSR and Corporate Citizenship available. But this book has a newness, a freshness and sense of quality about it, that I think makes it stand out. It is definitely global in perspective. Most of the articles and cases are very good and serve their specific purpose. Some new ground is broken and, of greater importance, this is an excellent book for a seminar on responsible corporate citizenship or for one focused on CSR on a global level." --Thomas A. Bausch, Marquette University

The Annual Review 2010 is organized following the three dimensions of the Global Compact Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability Leadership, a model for achieving higher levels of sustainability performance. This review assesses how - and to what extent - participating companies are implementing the ten principles; taking action in support of broader UN goals and issues; and engaging with the Global Compact locally and globally. At the center of the review are the findings from the 2010 Global Compact Implementation Survey completed by 1,251 companies from 103 countries, assessing corporate sustainability policies and actions being taken from the boardroom through the supply chain