General Assembly 2011

CSR Europe's annual General Assembly meeting took place in Brussels on 9-10 June 2009. The event brought together more than 100 participants from CSR Europe's member companies, national partner organisations and stakeholder organisations to reflect on the future of responsible business.

The theme of this year "Value creation as the new challenge for sustainable businesses in 2020 and beyond," provided the backdrop for CSR Europe to launch a new strategy and service offer for members.

The event also served to further explain CSR Europe's Enterprise 2020 initiative and how members can get involved.

Overview of activities in 2010

On 10 June, the annual statutory meeting provided participants with an overview of CSR Europe's activities in 2010 (PDF), including the launch of CSR Europe's new strategic direction and service offer (PDF).

Additional documents are available to GA representatives here.

Expectations towards companies in 2020 and beyond

On the 10th of June, the annual meeting was followed by inspiring insight into how expectations are changing towards companies. CSR Europe was delighted to be able to welcome speakers from KKR, GLobescan and the European Commission. A Selection of presentations and videos can be downloaded below (members-only).

Changing expectations from financial markets

• Ken Mehlman, Head of Global Public Affairs, KKR (Video)

Changing consumer expectations

• Sam Mountford, Director, GLobal Insights, Globescan 

EU2020 and the expected business contributions

• Viola Groebner, European Commission, Director for "Industrial policy and economic analysis," DG for Enterprise and Industry
• Jean Francois Lebrun, European Commission, Head of Unit, DG Employment and Social Affairs

Putting sustainability at the core of business strategy

The second part of the session gave participants an opportunity to Engage in dialogue with company representatives on societal trends, environmental priorities and the CSR agenda to find cooperation opportunities.

This session included a panel discussion by representatives from some of CSR Europe's Member companies. Members can download the presentations below.

• Thomas Lingard, Director Global External Affairs, Unilever (PDF), or watch video
• Susanne Stormer, Vice President, Global Triple Bottom Line Management, Novo Nordisk (PDF), or watch video
• Eckhard Koch, Vice President Sustainability Centre, BASF, (PDF), or watch video

The lively discussion was moderated by Barend Van Bergen, Head of KPMG's Global Centre of Excellence for Climate Change and Sustainability.

Working together to increase sustainable value creation towards 2020

Finally, participants were given the opportunity to take part in an interactive session on one of CSR Europe's key topics/projects under the umbrella of Enterprise 2020. To find out more on the individual projects, please download the interactive session guide.

Supply chain and business and human rights

1. This session started with a presentation by Koen Coppenholle (Arcelor Mittal) concerning current human rights and supply chain issues . Emphasis was put on human rights (HR) and ‘Code for responsible Sourcing’ as a practice within the AM. Download presentation. 

2. Secondly, a presentation was given by Maria Alexiou (TITAN) concerning the Portal for Responsible Supply Chain Management which should become a useful tool to understand ‘what to do’ and ‘how’. Download presentation or visit portal. Download presentation.

3. Finally, CSR Europe’s Jan Noterdaeme outlined the next steps for the project, including the engagement of CSR Europe members and NPOs in a mutual learning process through training modules and learning tools that will be developed and piloted during the project. A first step would be the transformation of the portal into a new e-learning tool.

For more information, and to find out how to get involved in this collaborative venture, please contact Jan Noterdaeme at jn@csreurope.org

ESG Disclosure and reporting

At CSR Europe’s interactive session on ESG reporting and disclosure, some 30 participants learned about the Enterprise 2020 Collaborative Venture (CV) on Valuing Non-financial Performance (VNFP) and CSR Europe’s Stakeholder Dialogue offering. The participants also discussed the current state of non-financial reporting in the European Union while advocating for a more standardised reporting approach at EU level.

Presentations at the session were given by Hitachi Europe, Telecom Italia, State Street and CSR Europe.

CSR Europe members are asked to provide their comments, feedback, and questions concerning the European Commission’s mandatory CSR reporting Directive on June 27th (10h – 12h CET) as part of CSR Europe’s EU Update call. To participate, please contact Christine Neumann at cn@csreurope.org.

Interested participants for participation in the CV on VNFP should contact Colleen M. Fletcher at cf@csreurope.org. 

Active ageing and demographic change

The interactive session on Demographic Change/Active Ageing gathered 11 business and NGO representatives. Co-leaders of the two collaborative ventures on “Using Potential - Jointly Tackling Demographic Change” and “The Business Contribution to the European Year of Active Ageing” gave insights to the participants on the objectives and outputs of their respective collaborative ventures and encouraged the participants and CSR Europe members to contribute best practice case studies on the solutions companies are implementing to address active ageing/demographic change across Europe.

The participating companies and organizations presented some of the key initiatives they have in place such as intergenerational knowledge and skills transfer; gender friendly recruitment; women development programs; mentoring and coaching programs; vitality and health programs, among others. Key insights into the demographic change issues of different EU countries were also highlighted.

For more information, please contact Sarah Dekkiche at sd@csreurope.org.

View the Demographic Risk Atlas to view your region’s individual demographic portrait, change indexes and risk profiles: www.demographicchange.info

Health and Well-being in the workplace

This lively and interactive session gave participants an opportunity to find out more about the business case of promoting health and wellbeing in the workplace and to identify some current trends and challenges in this field.

Elena Bonfiglioli, Managing Director Health EMEA at Microsoft, presented the status and next steps of the Enterprise 2020 'Collaborative Venture on Employees’ Health Literacy'. Participants were particularly interested in the development of this collaborative venture and the corporate initiatives of the leading companies. The scope study and survey on health literacy in Europe, conducted by the University of Maastricht as well as the outcomes of the Laboratory of Wellbeing in the Workplace (CSR Europe, June 2008) will be used as an initial basis to further develop the health literacy dimension.

The discussion of this interactive session was centred around the critical importance of mental health and stress management at workplaces, but also about the role of the employee and the employer in the area of health.

For more information or to find out how to get involved in this collaborative venture, please contact Christine Neumann at cn@csreurope.org

Download this informative presentation.

Minutes of the interactive sessions can be found here.

To find out more about the event highlights, read the official CSR Europe press release.

To view more pictures of CSR Europe's General Assembly event click here.