About SD Challenge

SD challenge has been created by the media sub-group of the 2005 Young Managers Team (YMT) of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in collaboration with SimpleThinking

For some people sustainable development remains an obscure subject with confusing language and contradictory opinions. Our aim was to create something that would help others, whatever their background, to understand the concepts behind the theory and to illustrate some of the difficult choices that sustainable development presents for the business community.

If you’ve never come across the term before we also hope that SD challenge will encourage you to learn more about the issues and to get involved in some way to help find the solutions that are so desperately needed.

The Young Managers Team (YMT) is a program designed to provide a great learning experience and networking opportunity for around twenty young, high potential WBCSD member company employees, interested in sustainable development, and drawn from across a range of job functions. The team works together for one year on a specific theme. In 2005 the team looked at how sustainable development could move from the specialist box to the mainstream. As a large group the YMT sub-divided into three separate work stream focusing on education, finance and media as specific audiences and channels that could help to bring sustainability into the mainstream.

• Kimitaka Ando (Taiheiyo Cement)
• Blake Bower (Interface)
• Marion Freixe (Nokia)
• Albrecht Gerland (DuPont)
• Charlotte Harper (Severn Trent)
• Irene Jimenez (ConocoPhillips)
• Muriel Mantileri (Caterpillar)
• Elise van Driel (Rabobank)
• Miguel Naranjo (Cemex)
• Estelle Sauvage (Areva)
• Alvaro Torres (DSM)
• Shintaro Yokokawa (Kansai Electric Power)

Kimi works in the Investor Relation & Corporate Communication Department at Taiheiyo Cement Corporation in Tokyo. He is deeply committed to achieving fair and transparent corporate culture by introducing the concept of sustainable development to Taiheiyo's stakeholders.

Blake is Sustainability Manager at Interface Europe, a division of US based Interface Inc. As such, Blake is deeply immersed in the corporate mission to make Interface a sustainable corporation through worldwide efforts to design sustainable manufacturing and development processes.

Marion is trade marketing and CRM manager for Nokia France, based in Paris.

Albrecht is responsible for Marketing and Sales of DuPont's Kevlar(R) product line in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Located in Geneva , he seeks to accelerate DuPont's speed to move towards a higher integration of sustainability within the individual businesses, especially from a Marketing and Sales perspective.

Charlotte is Corporate Responsibility Manager at Severn Trent, the environmental services group. Charlotte's role involves managing the group's social and environmental impacts and she is therefore involved in the sustainable development agenda on a day to day basis.

Irene is a Health, Safety, and Environmental Specialist for the ConocoPhillips United States Marketing Division and is based out of California. Irene is actively involved with the Sustainable Development program with ConocoPhillips and participates in stakeholder engagement activities.

Muriel is the Environment and Chemical Laboratory Supervisor at Caterpillar France, in Grenoble. She is committed to environment protection in Caterpillar daily activities and in long term projects. Muriel is a part of the Corporate Sustainable Development team, a Strategic Area of Improvement for Caterpillar.

Elise is projectmanager for policy themes within Rabobank Group. As such, Elise is responsible for collecting and ordering the governmental policy themes and the preparation of the decision-making (design decision process). And therefore gaining support by several disciplines within the organisation.

Miguel is Process, Quality and Environment Coordinator at the CEMEX cement producing plant in Costa Rica. As such, he is responsible for environmental/social issues arising from the operation and is very interested in its applications.

Estelle works in the Emergency Reactor Operation of the Safety Department in AREVA-NP in Paris. Besides being personally interested and involved in sustainable development, working in energy production requires consideration of sustainable development concepts and issues.

Alvaro is Purchase Manager at DSM Agro, the fertilizer (and oldest) division of DSM. Since his "immersion" in the world of Sustainable Development, he is perusing suppliers to understand that quality and money is not enough to partner with DSM.

Shintaro works in the global environment group at Kansai Electric Power Company in Japan. In the field of climate change, Shintaro dedicates himself to sustainable challenge of electricity sector through its business case that society needs for enhancing quality of life.

WBCSD

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a coalition of 180 international companies united by a shared commitment to sustainable development via the three pillars of economic growth, ecological balance and social progress.

Its members are drawn from more than 35 countries and 20 major industrial sectors. The organisation also benefits from a global network of 50 national and regional business councils and partner organizations involving some 1,000 business leaders globally.

The WBCSD’s mission is to provide business leadership as a catalyst for change toward sustainable development, and to support the business license to operate, innovate and grow in a world increasingly shaped by sustainable development issues.

...learn more about the WBCSD...

SimpleThinking

Simple Thinking is a small, interactive company specialising in creating innovative, interesting and targeted websites.

...learn more about SimpleThinking...