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World Bank Focus on Sustainability 2004
“Corporate sustainability today includes recognition of the leadership role that the private sector must take in ensuring social progress, improved equity, higher living standards, and stewardship for the environment. Corporate responsibility is not philanthropy—it is good business."
- James D. Wolfensohn, President, The World Bank Group
This first World Bank sustainability review, referencing Global Reporting Initiative indicators, underlines our commitment to sustainable development. We are beginners at this type of report, but we are not new to the core components of this kind of economic, environmental, and social reporting. This review simply contains highlights of other, far more in-depth reports available publicly on the web and through the WB public information centers.
Focus on Sustainability 2004 resembles sustainability reports issued by the private sector in that it describes the relevant activities of our core business lines and our physical footprint. The World Bank is not a private sector corporation, however; it is an international organization whose members and owners are sovereign countries. Our central goal is poverty reduction, and success in achieving this goal depends more on what countries do than on what we do. Our role is to help our borrowing member countries achieve the development objectives that they set for themselves.
At the core of the review is a description of our activities in support of the environment, social development, and good governance. Part I provides an overview of the World Bank’s organization and operations to explain how we are governed and to show how our environmental and social commitments fit into the broader context of our work. The review can give only a sample, however, of the vast range of the Bank’s economic, environmental, and social activities. Part II describes the World Bank’s environmental and social performance related to corporate management. Chapter 5 focuses primarily on the facilities and staff at our Washington, D.C., headquarters, where most of our staff are based, and Chapter 6 looks forward to our continuing efforts toward sustainability and our near-term goals for reporting on corporate responsibility.
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