Joshua Wickerham

On November 30, I joined colleagues at the EU China Business Summit in Nanjing, Jiangsu, which dovetailed with the EU-China political meeting.

That day in Nanjing, under support from the Sino-Swedish Corporate Social Responsibility cooperation, AccountAbility launched the report Responsible Competitiveness in China 2009: Seizing the low carbon opportunity for green development.

This from AccountAbility:

Businesses in China are increasingly working with government and civil society to shift markets to reward sustainable development. These responsible business practices are becoming more and more embedded in the country’s emerging green industrial policy and low carbon development pathways. In some areas, China is set to leapfrog into the elite group of global green innovators.

These are some of the highlights from the report ‘Responsible Competitiveness in China 2009: Seizing the low carbon opportunity for green development’, launched at the 5th annual EU-China Business Summit as part of the Swedish EU presidency on 30 November in Nanjing, China.

• Download English report
• Download the Chinese version

The analysis presented in this report shows that China is developing a distinctive low carbon, responsible pathway, namely that:

• Low carbon industrial policies offer Chinese businesses and consumers huge opportunities
• Responsible business ventures in China are now impacting global markets relaunching China’s brand
• Strong government leadership, incentives and supportive policies are playing key roles

The report was independently researched and written in a unique collaboration between AccountAbility and the China WTO Tribune, with support from the Sino-Swedish CSR Cooperation Project. Learn more about the report’s key findings.

The Joint Statement of the 12th EU-China Summit specifically “decided to strengthen high-level dialogue and exchanges between think-tanks from both sides, and to promote and support regular exchanges.” Read the Joint Statement in full. AccountAbility’s partnership with the China WTO Tribune is an example of this kind of knowledge and collaboration exchange.

I took Obama’s visit as a chance to write about how company action should play a more prominent role in the trust building and competitiveness equation of the Sino-US relationship. My Guardian article, A green call to arms, (link to Chinese version here) centers on climate change. Meanwhile, my ChinaDialogue piece, Obama’s China moment (and the Chinese version) addresses wider issues of corporate social responsibility. I focus especially on sustainability standards and other global “rules of the game” that the US and Chinese governments should encourage companies to improve jointly.

Guardian: A green call to arms (Chinese)

ChinaDialogue: Obama’s China moment (Chinese)

I first learned of Jill Buck through her website and the Go Green initiative. Later, I shared a panel with her at the China Entrepreneur’s Club “Green Companies Conference” in Beijing on Earth Day 2008.

Today, I appeared (a-heared?) on her radio show Go Green Radio on Voice America. We talked about Roots & Shoots, Jane Goodall, water, local music, getting involved and making difference. I think it went pretty well.

Here’s the podcast:

Go Green Radio stream: Roots & Shoots

Go Green Radio podcast mp3: Roots & Shoots

Here’s how Jill Buck describes the show:

Go Green Radio: Roots & Shoots Roots and Shoots…Dr. Jane Goodall’s Green Legacy to Youth Around the World

President of Roots and Shoots at UCSD. The Roots & Shoots program is about making positive change happen—for our communities, for animals and for the environment. With tens of thousands of young people in almost 100 countries, the Roots & Shoots network branches out across the globe, connecting youth of all ages who share a common desire to help make our world a better place. Roots & Shoots is guided by the founding principles and extraordinary vision of Dr. Jane Goodall, renowned primatologist, environmentalist and humanitarian. Her firm belief that young people, when informed and empowered, can indeed change the world, is at the very heart of our program. This powerful message of hope inspires us all. Our program—dedicated to inspiring tomorrow’s leaders today—not only motivates young people to learn about pertinent issues facing our local and global communities, but helps them actually design, lead and implement their own projects.

I only wrote parts of this, but, along with the Ministry of Commerce’s WTO Tribune, I edited it. I was responsible for overseeing the translation and editing new content.

The original report contains essays from Al Gore, Sir Nicholas Stern, Laura Tyson, and numerous others.

From AccountAbility’s website:

AccountAbility and Chinese partners WTO Tribune launched the Chinese version of The State of Responsible Competitiveness 2007 at the third Golden Bee International CSR Forum.

The forum saw domestic and international CSR experts - including AccountAbility Chief Executive Simon Zadek - come together to discuss new CSR development trends in China and abroad. The focus of the forum, in addition to the launch of the Chinese State of Responsible Competitiveness 2007 was the dissemination of the Benchmark Report of CSR practice in China, the award for ‘Golden Bee’ enterprises and the announcement of the ‘Golden Bee CSR China Roll.’

The Chinese version of the new report includes exclusive essays from Alex MacGillivray, Simon Zadek, your narrator, the Shanghai Pudong New District Government economic committee, and Cheng Siwei, Vice Chairperson of the 17th Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

I can’t say writing one of these things if fun, but it’s rewarding–and useful in improving my Chinese.

Download the Chinese version.

Download the English translation of the report.

Here’s the Chinese version of this month’s Fortune China cover story on Chinese attitudes toward responsible business practices, which I co-authored.

I took the photos of the article in the back of the cab in Beijing after a lunch meeting with the editors and uploaded them to my flickr account, so I’m sorry if any pages are hard to read.

Here’s a link to the Fortune China site and article.