Accompanying this increasing awareness is a spotlight on solutions. There is a growing acceptance that different interest groups can, and indeed must, come together to find viable resolutions to worldwide problems. Attention is increasingly turning to the questions and solutions proposed by those grappling with new paradigms and shaping new solutions to complex interrelated questions. The event, chaired by Washington Senators Slade Gorton and Patty Murray, brings together representatives from business, the United Nations, human rights, development, labor, and environment. In fact, the questions raised by the event will be easily as important as the answers that may be proffered.
Open debate is the foundation of sustainable change.
Because companies are increasingly expected to introduce CSR policies, communities are expected to support them, national and international bodies to review them, and consumers to vote on them with their purchasing power, mutual understanding is essential. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Global Compact introduced two years ago in Davos, Switzerland, seeks to find a balance between the responsibilities of governments, labor, and business. It attempts to answer many of the questions of global policies and international regulations. While there seems to be general agreement that a globalized world requires global standards at some level, much confusion surrounds the individual areas of responsibility. Because CSR activities and policies must be both locally adaptable and universally acceptable, the issues are complex and involve many stakeholders.