Sustainable economy, best path to earn profits

Sustainable and secure economy is the best path to drive economies to earn profits said Global Head of Citizenship and Diversity of KPMG International Lord Michael Hastings addressing a breakfast meeting themed `Corporate Citizenship and Diversity in the Modern Enterprise', he said that we have witnessed how business have become when they are careless.

Lord Hastings said that if we are careless about the small aspects then our long-term business prospects are in danger as small aspects make the big picture.

15-40 percent of species face the threat of extinction due to a 2 percent increase in temperature. It is estimated that one trillion US$ is needed by 2050 to deal with the issue of climate change and we have reached a critical stage.

For all the critical issues we have to seek global solutions and learn to share common resources which will help all of us to survive and be happy, said Lord Hastings.

It was organised by the ACCA together with KPMG. With ACCA being the acknowledged global pioneer in sustainability reporting initiatives and KPMG, whose commitment to corporate citizenship globally in environment, healthcare, education and community development initiatives is renowned. Lord Hastings draws from the organisations' expertise and his own experiences added much value to the topic. In addition to his role at KPMG International which also includes representation at the World Economic Forum's Global Corporate Citizenship International Committee and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, Lord Hastings is also a Non-Executive Director on British Telecom's Board for Responsible and Sustainable Business, a Trustee for Vodafone Group Foundation and was previously the Head of CSR at the BBC.

Lord Hastings, who was conferred a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2003 in recognition of his services towards crime reduction has initiated and mentored numerous corporate citizenship efforts around the globe in areas including climate change, disaster relief, community development, equality, children's welfare and diversity. A multiple honourer from various organisations, he was awarded the honour of an independent peerage to the House of Lords in 2005, and also received the UNICEF Award for his `Outstanding Contribution to understanding and effecting solutions for Africa's Children' in the same year. In an evaluation process sponsored by JP Morgan last year, Lord Hastings was also listed among the 100 Most Influential Black People in the UK.

ACCA and KPMG have also nurtured long years in collaborative partnership globally with KPMG sponsoring the UK Sustainability Reporting Awards for several years and more recently, jointly publishing a series of member briefs on `Sustainability and the Accountant', providing a high level overview on core accounting disciplines and its convergence with sustainability.