Cities Programme representative presents at UN Global Compact Business Symposium in Chicago
28 May 2010
On 10th of May in Chicago, the Global Compact along with Price Waterhouse Coopers hosted its first working symposium of 2010, ‘Business and Sustainable Cities.’ Mr Dean Amhaus, Executive Director of the Milwaukee 7 Water Council kindly presented on behalf of the International Secretariat and informed participants of the Cities Programme and the benefits that it provides city leaders. Mr Amhaus, in his role as In Country Convenor, provided a first hand account of his experience with the Cities Programme and demonstrated how it has helped foster political, private and community support on the issue of water management in the Milwaukee and wider region.
The event drew more than 75 senior representatives from the public sector, private sector, civil society, and academia. U.S. cities represented at the symposium included Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, New Orleans and San Francisco.
“This conference provided an opportunity for companies, public authorities, and other interests to discuss collaboration with respect to making cities and towns more sustainable in economic, environmental, and social terms”, said Gavin Power, Deputy Director of the UN Global Compact. “With more than half of humanity living in urban centres, and this trend expected to grow, the ways in which cities – in partnership with others – manage urban planning will be critically important in the coming years and decades”.
Key observations and perspectives offered at the conference included:
- Urban sustainability should include a number of elements touching on economic, environmental, social, and cultural issues and priorities;
- Leading cities are moving from a narrow compliance orientation with respect to the business community and towards engaging with private enterprise via partnerships and other forms of collaboration;
- The involvement of civil society organizations is important vis-a-vis public-private initiatives;
- Both local government and companies should build greater internal capacities in order to effectively work with one another.
