Ahead of Rio+20, a twitter chat gave audiences the opportunity to
question leading CSR figures from Unilever and UNICEF, and learn more about
children's rights, business and sustainability
Businesses small and large inevitably interact with and have an effect
on the lives of children both directly and indirectly. With 2.2 billion
children under 18 years old – almost one third of the world's population –
businesses should consider children as they develop their sustainability
strategies.
As part of the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum,
UNICEF, the UN Global Compact and Save the Children will bring together
business leaders at a panel event to discuss why business should consider
children as they develop their sustainability strategies. The event, taking
place on 17 June, is set to engage business leaders and other stakeholders to
explore how their decisions can maximise the positive impacts and minimise the
negative impacts on children. In the lead up to the Rio event, UNICEF hosted a
Twitter chat which aimed to open up the conversation and encourage questions on
children's rights, business and sustainability, to the groups most affected –
children and young people.
Suba Jayasekaran, CSR specialist from UNICEF and Keith Weed, chief
marketing and communications officer from Unilever, explained how businesses
can step up their efforts to respect and support children's rights in the
workplace, marketplace and community. For UNICEF, the framework for business to
respect and support children's rights is the Children's Rights and Business Principles,
which outlines specific business actions that can be taken. Recognising
children as key stakeholders is essential around issues such as youth, child
labour, child protection, health and nutrition.
The role of small business
Asked how the millions of small businesses can get more involved, UNICEF
responded that it provides tools and guides for small business to begin
learning more. Participants responded that a problem for small business is that
many are unaware of the issues and thus will never seek tools. In order to
promote the involvement of businesses effectively to achieve more impact,
Unilever indicated that businesses need to engage on the whole value chain,
citing an example of working with more than one million smallholder farmers.
For UNICEF, work at country level through different platforms and associations
provide other opportunities to engage small business and national companies.
To encourage traditional profit-driven businesses to engage more deeply
in children rights, Unilever replied that for businesses to be sustainable the
issues involve not just today's customers, but also tomorrow's customers and
workers. This is especially relevant given the transparency and memory of the
Internet age because businesses will be held to account.
Marketing to children
Another challenging question concerned Unilever's position regarding the
marketing of food to children. Weed pointed out Unilever's global marketing
code which guides marketing – for example, this guide ensures no marketing to
children under the age of six and strict standards exist for marketing to
children between six and 12. A subsequent question on heavily branded corporate
social responsibility (CSR) activities aimed at the youth by the tobacco and
alcohol industry elicited a response from UNICEF pointing to principle six of
the Children's Rights & Business Principles on marketing and advertising that respects children's rights and
promotes positive living.
How sustainable should a business be?
The question of how a business gauges how sustainable, ethical or
responsible is 'enough' garnered a response from Unilever that in a
resource-constrained world, decoupling growth from environmental impact is
essential. Sustaining growth without having a negative impact on the
environment while delivering increased social value is the approach Unilever is
taking. In November 2010, Unilever launched its Sustainable Living Plan which
is its business model that commits the company to a ten-year journey towards
sustainable growth.
In support of such efforts, UNICEF has just released Children are
Everyone's Business, a practical handbook to help companies understand and
address their impact on children's rights.
With participants from 59 countries joining in to learn and challenge
business, the twitter chat generated interest from around the globe in advance
of Rio+20 conference.
Businesses represented at the Rio+20 panel event - Children and Business: Making the Connection to Sustainability - will consider these and other issues with speakers from corporations
including Grupo Arcor, Ikea and Novo Nordisk.
