BCSD Argentina (CEADS)

Chair
Horacio Cristiani

Managing Director
Sebastian Bigorito

Background information
Two prominent Argentine businessmen, together with Stephan Schmidheiny were part of the 50 distinguished business leaders who, in 1991, formed the original Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) and contributed to Changing Course, the report of the BCSD to the Rio Conference in 1992. That same year, CEADS was founded and was the first national BCSD to be created. It brought together the chairmen of 16 Argentine companies, representing the most significant industrial sectors of the country.

Today, CEADS has 63 member companies drawn from an even wider range of economic sectors and activities.

Activities
CEADS currently has six focus areas: Environmental Management; Legal & Compliance; Energy & Climate, Communication; Corporate Social Responsibility and Inclusive Business. Through these areas our team:

• Has produced eleven books with more than 400 case studies on sustainable development, including best practices subjects such as: eco-efficiency, reporting, integrated management systems, recycling, by-product synergy, corporate social responsibility, suppliers, communication with stakeholders, base of pyramid, sustainable livelihoods and a wide range of other sustainable development issues;
• Provides local authorities advice on the development of public policies and regulatory framework on issues related to sustainable development;
• Supports ISO local and global agenda as a permanent advisor, in standarization process on Social Responsability, Environmental and Energy issues among others;
• Is working on ISO 14005 – Environment/ By Steps Implementation (specially for SMEs);
• Participates at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) expert groups on New Scenarios and on Human Settlements and Infraestructure, through the Energy & Climate Area;
• Participation, as private sector representative, at the multi stakeholder process lead by the Argentinean Governmental Committee on Climate Change, to the formulation of the National Strategy on Climate Change. BCSD Argentina has a seat at the Governmental Committee meetings, at the stage of public consultation through all the strategy process;
• Contributes with PwC Argentina in surveying the Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility local landscape. Encuesta sobre Desarrollo Sostenible y Responsabilidad Social en el sector privado en Argentina. Spanish Version 2010 and 2011;
• Designs and deliver a wide variety of learning programs: Global Reporting, GHG Protocol, Carbon Footprint, Human Rights, ISO 26000, Inclusive Business, and Environmental Law for non-specialists. These are exclusive for its member companies.

Publications:

• The CSR task force has published “Sustainability Reporting" – Recommendations for their elaboration, which has been launched on December 2005 at CEADS’Annual Seminar;
• GRI “Making the Connection” – published in Spanish – BCSD Argentina, coordinator of the Spanish version (2007);
• “Sustainable Development: The Argentine Case” – Academic analysis – Ten years of business good practices. Launched on May 2008 at CEADS’Annual Seminar. It is important to mention that Mr. Björn Stigson has honouredour Publication writing the Prologue. The aim of this publication is to understand the trends marked by the argentine business organizations during the last decade, and their drivers, regarding sustainable development. Besides the intention of this publication is to encourage its usage as a tool for the academic sector;
• Also CEADS has contributed with the following WBCSD’s publications: “The Role of the Automotive Sector in Expanding Economic Opportunity” and “Facts and Trends on Sustainable Consumption;”
• Enterprise and Sustainability: Directory and Analyses of Awards. This publication is a collection of local and international sustainable development awards that private companies can participate. It includes a guideline for daily use. Published in spanish (2011);
• Guidance of Energy Efficiency for Commercial Buildings and Office. From 9 to 18. Published in spanish (2011).

BCSD Argentina activities with WBCSD participation:

• Latin American Eco-efficiency Seminar (1998);
• Stakeholder Dialogues on CSR and STM (1999);
• Water Pricing, Policy and Investment Seminar (1999);
• Trade, Investment and Sustainable Development Seminar (2000);
• Attended LDM (1996, 2003, 2004);
• Chronos e-learning program Workshop (2003);
• Sustainable Livelihoods Workshop (2004);
• COP X Climate Change Convention (2004);
• Latin American Summit in Buenos Aires (August 2005);
• Stephan Schmidheiny and CEADS (2005);
• The Role of Business in tomorrow’s society – Buenos Aires DIALOGUE (December 2006):
• Annual Seminar: Business and Sustainable Development (May 2008);
• Vision 2050 – Buenos Aires Dialogue (2009);
• Measuring Impact – Guideline Implementation (2009-2010);
• Inclusive Business Latin American Network (2010).