CEO Eivind Reiten at UN Global Compact meeting in New York
(June 24, 2004) Today, 24 June, Hydro's President and CEO Eivind Reiten will be one of 400 leaders attending the first Global Compact Leaders' Summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
 Eivind Reiten |
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The Global Compact Summit, chaired by United Nation Secretary General Kofi Annan, will assemble the leaders of participating companies, international labour and civil society, in addition to selected government officials. The aim of the Summit is to take stock of the Global Compact and chart its future course in a worldwide effort to create a better world for everyone.
The Global Compact is working to harness the potential of markets and business leadership through shared values – the Global Compact's principles – and collective action, so that global markets can be made to work for all. The Global Compact is unique in making the involvement of business an indispensable part of a major UN effort.
Through plenary sessions and roundtable discussions, the Summit will seek to bring maximum intellectual leverage and issue leadership to key topics, while placing a premium on the development of outcomes, including new initiatives and measures to ensure the continued relevancy and evolution of the Global Compact.
Hydro has been involved in the Global Compact initiative from the very beginning.
The Global Compact was initiated when Kofi Annan, in an address to The World Economic Forum on 31 January 1999, challenged business leaders to join an international initiative – the Global Compact – that would bring companies together with UN agencies, labour and civil society to support nine principles in the areas of human rights, labour and the environment. The Global Compact's operational phase was launched at UN Headquarters in New York on 26 July 2000.
Through the power of collective action, the Global Compact seeks to advance responsible corporate citizenship so that business can be part of the solution to the challenges of globalization. In this way, the private sector – in partnership with other social actors – can help realize the Secretary General's vision: a more sustainable and inclusive global economy.
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