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Article

1 Oct 2010

Author:
Ross Tieman, Financial Times

Partnerships: NGOs have a crucial role to play

A sustainable business is one that can carry on operating today, next year and a decade hence. To achieve that, it needs partners: to ensure compliance with rules and regulations; to mitigate present risks; and to identify changes in its operating environment for which it needs to start preparing. Viewed through that optic, it becomes easier to sift the multitude of potential partners...[C]ompanies turn to for-profit advisers to achieve compliance or to help them exploit commercial opportunities...[A]t HSBC...Francis Sullivan, deputy head of group corporate sustainability, [says]...“There is a genuine belief in many companies – and HSBC would be one of them – that NGOs have an important role to play...They are closer to an issue, speak more freely, and are not waiting for the next cheque.” HSBC draws on NGO expertise in the formulation of its freshwater infrastructure policy and forest land and forest products sustainability policy. [also refers to Coca-Cola, Tetra Pak (part of Tetra Laval)]