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RSM professor in live debate about sustainable business with World Business Council

RSM professor in live debate about sustainable business with World Business Council

RSM’s Professor Gail Whiteman will take part in an online international debate about accelerating the pace and scale of sustainable development next Tuesday, 29 May. The debate will address the challenge of breaking the cycle of ‘business as usual’, which is central to finding solutions to the social, ecological and economic challenges facing the world.

It takes place online from 15.00 to 17.00 Dutch time, and is hosted by The Guardian, a UK newspaper. You can register to take part in the debate here. You can also use Twitter to comment or contribute to the debate.

Professor Gail Whiteman holds the Ecorys NEI Chair in Sustainability and Climate Change at RSM, and heads RSM’s department of Corporate Eco-Transformation. She was recently appointed part-time Professor-in-Residence at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

Other panellists include Peter White, director for global sustainability at Procter & Gamble; Claude Fussler, an expert on business innovation and issues management with a focus on sustainable development, climate change and corporate social responsibility and author of the WBCSD report Changing Pace; Dennis McGavis, director EHS and sustainability at Goodyear; and Peter Paul van de Wijs, managing director in the Communications and Business Role Focus Area at the WBCSD and member of the executive team there.

The debate takes place shortly after a new report by the WBCSD entitled Changing Pace, to which Prof. Whiteman contributed. It outlines a series of objectives to achieving action at the scale and pace required. Unlike the many reports that build a vision of a sustainable future but offer no clear way to get there, it identifies seven clear action points.

Whilst progressive policy frameworks will play a key role in protecting fisheries and forests, market reforms are also needed to help drive significant progress. The WBCSD states that current financial and multilateral governance "breeds the pursuit of business-as-usual, and resistance to change, except in the case of a close and direct crisis.

The private sector looks to government and policy makers for how to respond to the challenges facing the planet but unless the policies and budgets that are undermining sustainable development change, it is difficult to see how transformation can take place.

The debate will address the questions:

• What are the essential elements to setting the steady course towards global sustainability and where should the pressure for governments to create policies and frameworks come from?
• What incentives need to be in place for business to take heed and what will the role of civil society be?