World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Leaders of top global companies head the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The organization provides trendsetting impulses and effective advocacy to allow for constructive solutions for a sustainable future to be implemented. Today, the WBCSD is a forum for some 200 member companies from all industries and continents who exchange best practices in sustainable development.
The origins of the WBCSD lie in the Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD), a body founded by Stephan Schmidheiny in 1991 in preparation for the U.N.'s 1992 Earth Summit.
Following the Earth Summit, Stephan Schmidheiny and the members of the BCSD decided to continue and to intensify their cooperation. In 1995, the BCSD merged with the World Industry Council on the Environment to become the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and opened its secretariat in Geneva. In the year 2000, Stephan Schmidheiny was named honorary president of the WBCSD.
At the U.N.'s "World Summit on Sustainable Development", held in Johannesburg in 2002, the WBCSD played again a prominent role. Among other things, with "Walking the Talk: The Business Case for Sustainable Development", another groundbreaking book, co-authored by Stephan Schmidheiny, was published.