"The environment must be protected to preserve essential ecosystem

functions and to provide for the wellbeing of future generations; environmental

and economic policy must be integrated; the goal of policy should be an
improvement in the overall quality of life, not just income growth; poverty must
be ended and resources distributed more equally; and all sections of society
must be involved in decision making"

"In essence sustainable development is about five key principles: quality of life;
fairness and equity; participation and partnership; care for our environment and
respect for ecological constraints - recognising there are 'environmental limits';
and thought for the future and the precautionary principle

We are on track to meet our commitments. We are making progress by adding advanced
technologies to all our products and offering high-value, attractive models that are more fuel
efficient while still meeting customer expectations for utility and performance. We also
continue to invest in energy-efficiency improvements at our facilities worldwide and to
assess carbon emissions in our supply chain through multi-stakeholder projects.

Continuously reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy usage of
our operations;

Developing the flexibility and capability to market lower-GHG-emission products, in

line with evolving market conditions; and

Working with industry partners, energy companies, consumer groups and policy
makers to establish an effective and predictable market, policy and technological framework
for reducing GHG emissions.
Our product plans in all regions are aligned with our overall goal of contributing to climate
stabilization. Our technology and product strategy to meet this goal is based on the modeling
of vehicle and fuel contributions to emission reductions and an analysis of market and
regulatory trends (see figure below). Our climate change strategy is supported by our
sustainable mobility governance, which establishes structures and accountability for
implementing the strategy.

The low rate of reporting on risks from climate change may be because
companies see climate change not only as a threat but also as an opportunity for
new products, services and trading. Risks could be perceived to be beyond
current business planning horizons, or companies may not have identified,
explored or quantified risks associated with climate change and may therefore
not be in a position to report on risks

. The report states that our actions over the coming few decades related to
climate change could create risks of major disruptions to economic activity
The report states that at higher temperatures, developed economies face a
growing risk of large-scale shocks, and provides examples such as increasing
hurricane speeds, floods, heat waves and costs of insurance. It warns that if
climate change is not addressed, it could create risks of major disruption to
economic activity on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and
the economic depression of the first half of the 20th century
With increasing public awareness and concern, taking action on climate change
is also starting to become a reputational and strategic issue for companies
In the field of climate change these services comprise corporate climate change
strategy and implementation, JI and CDM projects, assurance on greenhouse gas
emissions and carbon credits and financial implications of climate change issues.
Danones goal is not only to develop active listening with regard to the changing
situations and expectations of various stakeholders, but also to commit the
company to partnership or co-development processes with these players, as
illustrated by nume - rous initiatives and projects deve - loped in partnership with
NGOs, with the support of Funds established by Danone: the Danone Ecosystem
Fund, the danone.communities fund and the Livelihoods Fund (see deta

Danone has also the goal of encouraging all subsidiaries to integrate

stakeholders into their own strategic thinking. To achieve this, methodological
tools for this purpose have been developed since to firmly include stakeholders
expectations in subsidiaries medium-term strategic planning at local level.
These methodological materials are inte - grated into the Danones training
programs for the Executive Committees and expert working teams: Sustainability
Land and Credibility Land. Regarding Credibility Land, this program aims to
define a nutrition and health strategy for the subsidiaries based on in-depth
analysis of its stakeholders (consu - mers, public agencies, NGOs, employees,
etc.).

To achieve this transformation, we need the capacity of business to innovate and to execute,
meeting market needs swiftly, effectively and on a global scale. To do this in a way that "meets
the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs" , we will need new ways of doing business. The successful businesses of tomorrow will
be those that lead and create value both inside and outside the walls of the company.
This will mean managing for the long-term as well as the short-term, developing strategies that
balance competition and cooperation, designing and delivering products and services that meet
social and environmental needs, shifting to more resilient business models based on closedloop, open-source, peer-to-peer or service-based principles (to name a few), incorporating the

true costs of environmental and social resources, and seeing transparency and collaboration as
sources of competitive advantage.
For these businesses, sustainability means not only eco-efficiency, but also eco-effectiveness.
Sustainability is absolutely about marketing and branding when that means identifying market
needs based on long-term prosperity and creating tribes of sustainable consumers. Sustainability
needs to be about greening' because businesses and communities depend on healthy,
productive ecosystems. Sustainability can also encompass corporate philanthropy when that
philanthropy is strategic.
Above all, we believe that for tomorrow's enduring businesses, sustainability will be about
making money by meeting real and fundamental human needs.
For one thing, deploying carbon capture and storage systems will be essential. Bentham
estimates that some 11 gigatonnes of CO2 per year equivalent to just over a quarter of societys
todays emissions will need to be kept from the atmosphere.
Another crucial point is energy efficiency. The world requires a truly remarkable increase in what
we get out of every unit of energy we put into driving, heating or cooling. Otherwise, the globes
total annual energy use could easily rise to at least 1,500 exajoules. It would not be possible to
grow enough biomass and build enough solar and wind power to accommodate that energy
demand and still achieve net-zero emissions.
Making cars lighter and equipping more of them with electric drives will help make road transport
more energy efficient. So too will the widespread use of heat-pumps and LED lighting in houses
and offices. But we must take care not to let increasing efficiency tempt us into increasing usage
to such an extent that it effectively wipes out the energy savings. It is therefore important to
focus on infrastructural changes, which lock in efficient behaviour and thereby achieve durable
long-term benefits, says Bentham. In practice, that means cities must avoid urban sprawl and
develop reliable and attractive public transport networks, with layouts that support cycling and
walking.
A prosperous world with net-zero emissions is within societys grasp this century, but Bentham
believes that it will require the co-evolution of emerging and established forms of energy
consumption and an end to lazy thinking.

in the environmental fi eld, it supports scientifi c research on the preservation of

our planets atmosphere;

1. Reduce carbon footprint

2. Meet sustainable investment criteria
3. Appeal to the growing wave of conscientious customers
4. Kick-start internal energy efficiency programmes
Giving a value to carbon emissions, or more precisely to cutting them, is a straightforward and
efficient way of driving investment away from dirty technologies and toward clean ones,

What is Business Sustainability?

Business sustainability refers to business models and managerial decisions

grounded in financial, environmental and social concerns. Sustainable companies:

Create long-term financial value.

Know how their actions affect the environment and actively work to reduce their
impacts.

Care about their employees, customers and communities and work to make positive
social change.

Understand these three elements are intimately connected to each other

Compared to companies that focus on short-term profits

and make decisions based solely on the bottom line,
sustainable companies think long-term. They forge strong
relationships with employees and members of the
community. They find ways to reduce the amount of natural
resources they consume and the amount of waste and
pollution they produce. As a result, sustainable companies
thrive, surviving shocks like global recessions, worker
strikes, executive scandals and boycotts by environmental
activists.

1. Create smart, integrated public policy.

2. Engage value chain members, including industry and NGO partners.
3. Build a national dialogue on responsible consumption.
4. Create organizational structures that support sustainability.
5. Embed sustainability in corporate culture.

6. Provide clear and equitable directives regarding Aboriginal rights and entitlements.
7. Create conditions that support sustainability-related innovation.
8. Incorporate a social license to operate into business strategy.
9. Prepare organizations and society to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
10. Lessen the burden of sustainability reporting.

1. Create smart, integrated public policy.

Companies need clear, steady direction from governments regarding issues like carbon
pricing, national cap-and-trade systems for greenhouse gas emissions or feed-in tariffs for
new energy-generation sources. They also need clarity around the intersection of
environmental, energy, economic and social policies.
Environmental regulations required the utility to replace equipment, thereby reducing the
water pollution associated with power generation. The equipment change, however, would
lower their production capacity and jeopardize their ability to deliver the obligatory amount of
electricity mandated through an ISO commitment.
Only with clear, consistent and integrated policies can companies confidently invest in new
technologies, new standards and staff training for sustainability.

2. Engage value chain members, including industry and NGO partners.

Effective collaboration is the key to accelerating sustainability across a value chain or an
industry. Companies can do everything possible to improve their environmental and social
impacts within their own operations, but the big advances are made when companies align
the actions of suppliers, distributors and all other members of their value chains.

Big brands need to share best practices and solve mutual sustainability problems, said one
professional. If other organizations see no value in collaborating and theyre buying from
the same suppliers as us how can we advance the sustainability agenda?

To extend their sustainability mandate in 2013, business leaders see the need to collaborate
with industry peers, suppliers and even environmental organizations to reduce their negative
impacts and potentially innovate new products and processes.
Build a national dialogue on responsible consumption. Build a national dialogue on
responsible consumption.
Companies can only do so much without the support of their customers. If consumers are
unwilling to buy or pay more for environmentally responsible or fair-trade products, the
sustainability movement will stagnate. As one business leader put it: Most people buy
products based on price and features not on whether the materials were sourced
sustainably or the product can be recycled after use.
Businesses need consumers to engage in national dialogues about sustainability so they
can make informed decisions about sustainable living and responsible consumption.
Canada succeeded in making recycling an accepted norm in the home in the late 1990s,
observed one senior leader. What are the tools we can use and the leaders we can engage
to ignite peoples commitment to cycling, carpooling or responsible consumption?

Build a national dialogue on responsible consumption.

Companies can only do so much without the support of their customers. If consumers are
unwilling to buy or pay more for environmentally responsible or fair-trade products, the
sustainability movement will stagnate. As one business leader put it: Most people buy
products based on price and features not on whether the materials were sourced
sustainably or the product can be recycled after use.
Businesses need consumers to engage in national dialogues about sustainability so they
can make informed decisions about sustainable living and responsible consumption.
Canada succeeded in making recycling an accepted norm in the home in the late 1990s,
observed one senior leader. What are the tools we can use and the leaders we can engage
to ignite peoples commitment to cycling, carpooling or responsible consumption?

4. Communicate sustainability goals throughout the organization.

Building sustainability into an organization is no easy task. Sustainability or Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) remains largely siloed in many companies, the responsibility of a single
department or even a single employee. Even when sustainability is more widely integrated
into companies business units, communication remains a challenge: One of our key
challenges is to effectively communicate the companys vision of sustainability, said one
executive, such that everyone, regardless of their role, understands and embraces that
vision.

As another business leader put it: How do you reach the factory workers, sales people and
marketing people in a 100,000-person organization? Its an impressive logistical challenge.

5. Embed Sustainability in Corporate Culture

CEOs are rotating through their jobs quickly. In 2007, the average tenure of CEOs for large
U.S. companies was less than six years.[i] This relatively short tenure represents a
challenge for a sound sustainability strategy, which requires long-term investments.
New leaders may perceive CSR departments or senior sustainability jobs as cost centres
and eliminate or significantly reduce them. With these CEOs, sustainability champions find
themselves having to make the business case over and over again to every new leader.
Businesses need to embed sustainability into their culture, so that sustainability strategies do
not lose momentum with a new CEO.
In our consulting role, we often see companies that get new leadership, said a
representative from an environmental non-profit consultancy. As a result, existing
executives have to make the business case for sustainability all over again to the new CEO.
The NBS conducted a comprehensive study on Embedding Sustainability in Organizational
Culture in 2010. The research was well received and many Canadian organizations, large
and small, have begun applying the findings to their own corporate structures. The process
of building sustainable business practice into corporate culture, however, does not happen
overnight.

6. Provide clear and equitable directives regarding Aboriginal rights and

entitlements.
Engagement between Aboriginal communities and resource development companies is
crucial as expectations evolve and the number of development projects increases. But the
differing perspectives of companies and communities can pose a challenge for constructive
interactions. Companies and Aboriginal communities can differ in the way they see, for
example, each partys responsibilities and the desired outcomes of the process.
Many business leaders recognize the value of working with rather than against aboriginal
groups: Forestry is an applied science you have to make decisions in the absence of full
knowledge, said one executive. Working with First Nations and Mtis communities that
possess generations of wisdom about local ecosystems, we learn new things about forest
stewardship we wouldnt otherwise know. Some organizations have started participating in
initiatives such as the Progressive Aboriginal Relations program a voluntary assessment

and certification program that helps Canadian businesses build relationships with First
Nations and Aboriginal businesses, communities and people.
While legal precedents are being set in court challenges, many companies in the forestry,
extraction and oil and gas sectors await clear public policy regarding their roles in aboriginal
rights and entitlements. Once companies and Aboriginal groups have clarity regarding
contractual obligations, they can focus on building mutually beneficial, long-term
relationships.

7. Create conditions that support sustainability-related innovations.

As long ago as 2009, the Harvard Business Review proclaimed that, because growing the
top and bottom lines are the goals of corporate innovation, smart companies treat
sustainability as innovations new frontier.[ii] Despite that perspective, many business
leaders still see sustainability-related innovation as risky. Large companies have investors
that demand rising, quarterly earnings as well as big brands that represent massive
investments of time and resources. Small companies, too, have little organizational slack. In
an era of razor-thin margins and just-in-time manufacturing, many business leaders struggle
to justify investments in creative pursuits and long-term projects that have unguaranteed
returns.
NBSs 2013 report, Innovating for Sustainability, revealed ways companies can reduce their
impact on the environment, create positive social change that benefits business, and reimagine their business models. Three things business leaders could start doing today to
drive innovation: look for trends in emerging economies or unrelated industries; initiate
partnerships with universities and colleges to fill internal knowledge gaps; and institute
incentive programs that reward employees for suggesting ideas that save energy, reduce
material use and improve products.

8. Incorporate a social license to operate into business strategy.

Social license to operate refers to community members tacit willingness to let a company
operate in their region. While the term originated with the mining sector, social license
represents a critical factor for nearly all businesses today. Maintaining social license is a
strategic imperative, so sustainability managers wonder how they can frame sustainability as
a way to manage risk and create efficiencies.
For many business leaders, social license to operate has changed in recent years:
Maintaining a companys social license to operate used to mean engaging stakeholders and

consulting them on projects that affected them, said one leader. Increasingly, however, it
means generating shared benefits for both the company and its affected stakeholders.
Regardless of what a social license looks like for a given organization or its stakeholders,
business leaders have to find ways of systematically incorporating the community into all
strategic decisions.

9. Mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Business adaptation to climate change was one of the first issues identified by these
leaders. The physical impacts of climate change will redefine entire industries, such as agrifood, tourism and insurance not to mention the industries that rely on them. What will
climate change mean for companies and for society?
Climate change global warming caused by human-generated greenhouse gases is not
an isolated issue, said one manager. It is a recurrent theme in business conversations and
is starting to overlap with other sustainability issues, such as carbon policy, water quality and
sustainable supply chains.
In 2009, NBS studied the sector-by-sector risks and opportunities associated with climate
change (see NBSsClimate Change report). But despite widespread acceptance of the reality
of climate science, the broader public remains largely unengaged and apathetic about the
issue.

10. Lessen the burden of sustainability reporting.

A plethora of reporting standards exists today to measure and award sustainable business
practice. Some of the better-known global reporting measures include: the Global Reporting
Initiative, ISO 14001, the Carbon Disclosure Project and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
Add to this list industry-specific standards, investor questionnaires and voluntary award
applications, and it becomes obvious companies spend a lot of time and resources reporting
on their sustainability programs. Were maxed out, trying to report on everything we do
whether its required from a regulatory perspective or voluntary, said one manager. It
requires a significant investment of human resources, and that time could be more
effectively used implementing programs to reduce the impacts we do have.
Companies are calling on investors and third party assessment organizations to create more
streamlined reporting methods. Whether that means agreeing on a core set of universal
sustainability metrics or reducing the number of items in a given questionnaire, companies

are unanimous in their desire to spend more time doing and less time reporting when it
comes to sustainable business practice.