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Business and UN team up to recognise sustainable partnerships at Earth SummitEMBARGOED for release until Friday, 30 August 2002 Johannesburg, 30 August 2002 – The United Nations and ICC: the world business organization today named ten business partnership programmes from around the world which are making an outstanding contribution to sustainable development. Ten of the final thirty-two recipients of the ICC/UNEP World Summit Business
Award for Sustainable Development Partnerships are to be presented at the Johannesburg
Earth Summit tomorrow – from four continents and representing a variety
of innovative projects involving companies, environmental groups, local communities
and governments - from gas exploration in the Philippines to organic spice farming
in Guatemala. - Alcan Inc (Canada) – for a schools-based recycling programme in Brazil,
Canada, Malaysia, Thailand and USA; (For full details on the projects, see the ICC website: www.iccwbo.org) Commenting on the awards, UNEP Executive Director Klaus Topfer said: “It
is good to see that the 2002 Awards have received such wide interest. I ICC Secretary-General Maria Livanos-Cattaui said: “ICC congratulates the winners and salutes their vision. It is vital that business is recognized for the constructive role it has to play in the pursuit of sustainable development. Business is not a philanthropic sector. It is interested in building strong markets. The strongest markets are those which are the most sustainable. In Johannesburg, as these companies have demonstrated, business must be recognized as part of the solution." The final partnerships were assessed and selected by a panel of 12 experts drawn from business, labour, research, environmental groups and the United Nations. Over 120 nominations, spanning 37 countries, were received via ICC National Committees and UNEP Regional Offices. The ICC/UNEP World Business Awards for Sustainable Development Partnerships will be handed out at a special ceremony tomorrow (Saturday August 31) at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (Hilton Hotel, Sandton,1830). ICC is the world business organization – the largest private sector association in the world. UNEP is the environment agency of the United Nations. This is the second time they have joined forces to recognise the sustainable development achievements of companies around the world. The award winners will be publicly announced in the Friday, August 30 edition of the International Herald Tribune. The award ceremony will take place in the Hilton Hotel, Sandton in Johannesburg, on the evening of Saturday August 31. For futher information, contact ICC Director of Communications, Bryce Corbett:
(in Paris) + 33 6 20 47 32 52 or (in Jo’burg) + 27 83 296 0740. A comprehensive
breakdown of the awards and all winners will be available on the ICC website:
www.iccwbo.org |