Over 600 participants attend 'Accelerating sustainable trade'
November 5, 2009
The ‘Accelerating sustainable trade’ congress held on November 2 in Haarlem attracted over 600 participants. The event was organized by the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), AkzoNobel and NEVI. During his speech, Minister Bert Koenders praised the ambitious plans, promising collaborations and the broad support that the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) enjoys from NGOs, governments and industry after one year.
Sustainability Ambitions
In his opening remarks Chairman Herman Wijffels mentioned a shift in thinking about sustainability in the industry. He was followed by the first speaker, Hans Wijers, CEO of AkzoNobel - co-organizers of the conference – who explained the sustainability ambitions of his company, which include remaining in the top three of the most sustainabile companies in the chemical industry (PP presentation download).
When Minister Koenders addressed the delegates, he praised them for attending the conference in such high numbers and extended the mandate of IDH to 2015, assigning an extra €20 million for 2011 (speech Minister Koenders).
Keynote speaker Jason Clay, senior vice-president of market transformation at the WWF, explored the horizons of a sustainable economy in which businesses play an important role (download PP presentation), while Minister of Economic Affairs Frank Heemskerk advocated improving the traceability of raw materials that companies use. (speech Minister Heemskerk)
Workshops
After the plenary session, participants worked in six workshops, on topics relating to business sustainability after hearing presentations from various business specialists and leaders. Below is an overview of the workshops with downloads of the accompanying booklets and links to the presentations.
Panel Discussion
Herman Wijffels led the panel discussion with Nico Roozen (Solidaridad), Ton Geurts (AkzoNobel), Jason Clay (WWF U.S.) and Howard Shapiro (Mars) on supply chain responsibility, sustainability and related ambitions of business. Finally Joost Oorthuizen, director of the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) showed the results of one year IDH and revealed plans for the coming years.
Two types of companies
The conference ‘Accelerating Sustainable Trade’ has shown that there is momentum for sustainability and for ‘enlightened self-interest’ of companies, like Minister Bert Koenders mentioned in his speech. Building sustainable supply chains will in the coming years have to be expanded and further accelerated, because, as Joost Oorthuizen said in his speech: ‘We are on collision course. We can not afford to do nothing. I see only two kinds of companies: those that sell sustainable products, and those that will. (PP presentation Joost Oorthuizen)
A full report of the conference will follow.
_________________________________________________________
Deliverables on the workshops
Below is an overview of the workshops with downloads of the booklets that accompanied the workshops. The presentations of the keynotespeakers in the workshops can be downloaded on: http://www.dutchsustainabletrade.com/nl/nieuws/ruim-500-deelnemers-op-congres-duurzame-handel
Workshop 1: Future-Proofing Your Supply: Advanced Strategies for Sustainable Sourcing
Workshop 2: Maximising Social Impacts in the Supply Chain: New Strategies and the Business Case
Presentations by Pamela Batty, Stefanie Miltenburg and Dan Rees
Workshop 3: Sustainability as Vital to Business Strategy: Insights from Agri-Industries
Presentations by David Rosenberg, Harold Poelma and Leo den Hartog
Workshop 4: Who Pays for It? Innovative Market Mechanisms for Rewarding Sustainability
Retailers and Sustainability Booklet
Workshop 5: Supply Chain-Based Sustainability Marketing:
Presentations by Michiel Leijense and Robbert Jan Dekker
Workshop 6: Big Impact with Limited Resources: Fundamentals of Sustainable Sourcing for SMEs