14/09 Business leaders highlight close links between sustainability and competitiveness

Sustainability and competitiveness are closely linked, business leaders argued in a plenary session on sustainability and corporate competitiveness on the second day of the fourth Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2010. “Sustainability goes beyond greenhouse emission targets,” said Eckhard Cordes, Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer of METRO GROUP, the German retailer. “It must become part of your business and not just an add-on and it must be visibly supported by the CEO.” Sustainability and competitiveness are really the same thing, reckoned Klaus Kleinfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alcoa, the aluminium producer in the United States. “When we do something, we do it in a sustainable way.” If a company does the right thing and has the right values, it attracts customers and people want to work there, Kleinfeld added.