The CEOs of Ireland's top companies, including Musgrave, M&S, Dawn Meats, Boots, Bank of Ireland and Vodafone, have launched The Leaders' Group on Sustainability, a business coalition dedicated to addressing the most pressing sustainability priorities in Ireland, as well as future opportunities. One of the first actions announced by the Group is the Low Carbon Pledge.
Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI), the national network for sustainability, has convened 26 leading companies, representing a workforce of over 90,000 people in Ireland, to work collaboratively to address social, environmental and economic priorities.
Low Carbon Pledge
The Low Carbon Pledge is the first dedicated public commitment generated by Irish business to lead on the transition to a low carbon economy and reduce scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions intensity (emissions directly from sources that are controlled by companies) by 50% by 2030.
CEOs of companies such as Bank of Ireland, Musgrave, Boots, M&S, Dawn Meats and Vodafone are calling on business leaders to make sustainability a central priority of their leadership and to promote a low carbon vision across their operations, products and services to help Ireland achieve its international commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement.
The companies involved with the Leaders' Group on Sustainability have all achieved BITCI's Business Working Responsibly Mark, the NSAI audited standard for CSR and sustainability.
Emerging Work Practices
In addition to addressing the transformation to a low carbon economy, The Leaders' Group on Sustainability is also working together to remove barriers to social inclusion in Ireland by examining how Irish businesses can improve their processes and cultures to train, attract and retain marginalised and vulnerable people.
The group has also identified the need for businesses to adapt to emerging work practices that will transform Irish industry, like the gig economy, contract work and automation, to ensure that those changes benefit employee, employer and society as a whole
The companies signed up to the Pledge so far are: A&L Goodbody, Arup, Bank of Ireland, Dawn Meats, Deloitte, EirGrid, ESB, Fujitsu, Gas Networks Ireland, Janssen, KBC Bank, M&S, Musgrave Group, PM Group, PwC, Ricoh, Sodexo, SSE Ireland, Ulster Bank, Veolia and Vodafone.
Full details of the pledge can be downloaded from www.bitc.ie
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Maev Martin. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
