CSR Press Release

LONDON - The Responsible Competitiveness Consortium has been created to explore the strategic role of "corporate responsibility" in contributing to the competitiveness of nations and communities. Its overall goal is to increase the impact of corporate responsibility practices on sustainable development.

The Consortium was formed at a two-day, international Responsible Competitiveness event (1-2 October) in London organised by AccountAbility, in association with The Copenhagen Centre, and hosted by the UK Government's Department of Trade & Industry. Business, civil society and public sector participants from nine countries spanning four continents, assessed the current state of corporate responsibility and how its impact on business and society might be enhanced, as well as possible enabling roles for the public sector.

The Consortium has emerged from a growing recognition of the need to amplify corporate responsibility's impact on competitiveness and sustainable development. It will undertake and communicate the results of research into the strategic dimensions of corporate responsibility, focusing on the links between company-level practices and macro-level competitiveness and development processes and outcomes. This research will include the continued development of the Responsible Competitiveness Index - a multi-country ranking evaluating corporate responsibility's contribution to nations' competitiveness - the first annual version of which will be released in early December 2003, at the same time as the formal launch of the Consortium.

The Consortium is being developed by business, public sector and non-profit organisations including AccountAbility, The Copenhagen Centre, the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship (South Africa), the Centre for Social Markets (India/UK), Fundãçio Dom Cabral and Instituto Ethos (Brazil), Fundación PROhumana (Chile), Business in the Community (UK), and with the support of organisations including the European Commission DG Trade, the UK DTI and the UK Department for International Development .

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