At the World Economic Forum in 1999, United Nations Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan challenged business leaders to join an international initiative, the Global Compact, which united companies with UN agencies, labor and civil society to support ten principles dealing with human rights, labor and the environment.

The initiative has progressed and today hundreds of companies, including the Perstorp Group since 2004, international labor and civil organizations from all regions of the world have entered in to the Global Compact.

What is the Global Compact?
The Global Compact's operational phase was launched at UN Headquarters in New York on July 26th of 2000. A first Global Compact Leaders Summit was held on June 24th of 2004 at the UN Headquarters in New York where Lennart Holm, CEO of Perstorp, along with hundreds of corporate executives, government officials and civil society leaders took stock of the Global Compact and charted its future course. The meeting was chaired by Secretary-General Kofi Annan himself and President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil delivered the keynote luncheon address. Among the participants were a number of CEOs from some of the worlds most well known corporations such as Bayer, BP, Volkswagen, Statoil, Inditex, Lafarge, Volvo, Novartis, UBS, Rio Tinto, Pfizer and many more.

Through the power of collective action, the Global Compact seeks to advance responsible corporate citizenship so that business can be part of the solution to the challenges of globalization. In this way, the private sector, in partnership with other social actors, can help realize the Secretary-General's vision: a more sustainable and inclusive global economy. The Global Compact is a direct initiative of the Secretary-General; its staff and operations are lean and flexible.

The Global Compact is a voluntary corporate citizenship initiative with two objectives:
- Mainstream the ten principles in business activities around the world
- Catalyze actions in support of UN goals

To achieve these objectives, the Global Compact offers facilitation and engagement through several mechanisms: Policy Dialogues, Learning, Local Structures and Projects.

The Global Compact is not a regulatory instrument - it does not "police", enforce or measure the behavior or actions of companies. Rather, the Global Compact relies on public accountability, transparency and the enlightened self-interest of companies, labor and civil society to initiate and share substantive action in pursuing the principles upon which the Global Compact is based.

The Global Compact is a network. At its core are the Global Compact Office and five UN agencies: the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; the United Nations Environment Program; the International Labor Organization; the United Nations Development Program; and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. The Global Compact involves all the relevant social actors: governments, who defined the principles on which the initiative is based; companies, whose actions it seeks to influence; labor, in whose hands the concrete process of global production takes place; civil organizations, representing the wider community of stakeholders; and The United Nations, the world's only truly global political forum, as an authoritative convener and facilitator.

Why Participate
There are numerous benefits to participating in the Global Compact. These include:
• Producing practical solutions to contemporary problems related to globalization, sustainable development and corporate responsibility in a multi-stakeholder context.
• Rallying around universal principles and responsible corporate citizenship to make the global economy more sustainable and inclusive.
• Leveraging the UN's global reach and convening power with governments, business, civil society and other stakeholders.
• Sharing good practices and learning.
• Accessing the UN's broad knowledge in development issues and its practical reach worldwide.

The Ten Principles
The Global Compact's ten principles in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption enjoy universal consensus and are derived from:

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• The International Labor Organization's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
• The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
• The United Nations Convention Against Corruption

The Global Compact asks companies to embrace, support and enact, within their sphere of influence, a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labor standards, the environment, and anti-corruption:

Human Rights
Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights
Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses

Labour Standards
Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining
Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor
Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labor
Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation 

Environment 
Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges
Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility
Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies

Anti-Corruption
Principle 10: Businesses should work against all forms of corruption, including extortion and bribery

More information concerning the Global Impact can be found on www.unglobalcompact.org