0.2 Urban areas with their living and working conditions and environment will be key factors for social, cultural, economic, and environmental sustainability of our societies in the future. As we approach the 21st century, more than 70% of the population in industrialised countries - and 50% on a world-wide basis - live in urban settings. Cities are at the hub of wealth creation, generating 90% of national production.
03. In this process partnerships between all sectors of society are essential. This declaration focuses on the partnership between business and municipality. Because these two actors complement each other in terms of competencies and resources, there is a great potential for partnership and their different interests and perspectives can lead to fruitful and creative tensions in stakeholders' discussions.
0.4 The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro generated a world-wide movement towards sustainable development, reaching out to all sectors of society. This movement was reinforced by Habitat II, the Cities Summit. Shared responsibility, participation, and dialogue were key concerns laid down in the final documents, the Agenda 21 and the Habitat Agenda.
0.5 Reaching agreement on the aim of sustainability is a great opportunity for business and municipality to work together, as well as a chance and challenge to identify common interests and come to terms on a common vision for the development of local communities. Beyond this, the business community and local authorities should encourage legal frameworks which are conducive to equal opportunities, social justice throughout the world, and decentralised action.
0.6 The Bremen Conference explored the potential of business-municipality cooperation on sustainable development and drew conclusions on the following issues:
1.2 Global sustainability cannot be achieved without sustainable local communities. Developing both a vision of a sustainable community and a strategy for its future development is the aim of the Local Agenda 21 process. The key question is: How can we develop our city, town, or county so that we can provide our citizens with a stable, sustainable community under the unpredictable conditions in the decades to come? Only a consensus among all sectors of the community on a vision, a concept, and a way forward can give the long-term action plan the robustness required for it to have a chance of being implemented.
1.3 The economy depends upon natural capital. Just like labour and capital, natural resources such as water, soil, air, and biodiversity are essential for any economic activity. Exploiting, spoiling, and exhausting these resources endangers the economy and the environment.
1.4 Taking the path towards sustainability requires changes in thinking, behaving, producing, and consuming. Business and municipality are two key actors in this process of change. Changes in the management of both companies and local authorities are just as necessary as a new culture of dialogue, consensus-building, partnership, and cooperation.
1.5 As citizens are at the same time inhabitants of a community, voters of local decision-makers, employees of local businesses or civil services, and consumers, sustainable development requires an integrated approach rather than one that treats issues in isolation. The appropriate framework for business-municipality cooperation on local sustainable development in the spirit of shared responsibility is the Local Agenda 21 process. By joining the Local Agenda 21 movement businesses can have their interests taken into account. Enterprises will benefit from becoming a relevant actor and adjusting their needs to the concept of a local sustainable future.
2.2 At present, business-municipality cooperation serves a variety of purposes.
Businesses seek from municipalities
Municipalities seek from businesses
2.3 Yet, in spite of the potential for cooperation, the notion of shared responsibility has seldom led to real cooperation between business and municipality on long-term concepts for the future development of their communities. New approaches to mutual understanding and cooperation between business and municipality are essential to define "good citizenship" in relation to the demands of the 21st century.
2.4 Enterprises depend upon an efficient public sector that provides adequate education systems, a well-functioning infrastructure, and which provides a reliable and predictable spatial planning and legal framework.
2.5 Yet, the public sector is usually divided into different levels of legislation and administrative authority with diverse and often competing views on issues. On the other hand, corporate managers often find it difficult to identify clear responsibilities with their counterparts in public authorities. This is an obstacle to efficient planning and holistic solutions.
2.6 Local enterprises play a fundamental role for a local community by providing goods, services, tax revenues, and jobs. The economic well-being of a community is highly dependent on the health of its key local companies.
2.7 Managers of local companies live in the region, and as citizens appreciate the quality of life in the region in terms of neighbourhoods, infrastructure, and natural environment. Their performance can be subjected to public discussion and they may be involved in local politics.
2.8 The business sector is diverse and takes different forms ranging from global capital investment and holding companies to small and medium-sized enterprises (MSE). As local authorities' access to corporate decision-makers and managers varies extremely, differentiated strategies for dialogue, partnership, and cooperation need to be defined.
2.9 Big companies determine many of the local social, economic, and environmental conditions in which citizens live. Their employees have responsibility for the way natural resources are used, for transport demand, or for pollution. In many cases where an industrial plant is owned by a big, often multinational company the managers of the company may not be local or regional residents, and they may lack an understanding of community concerns. Here local plant managers can serve as a link.
2.10 Economic structural change, however, might pose severe threats to the community. The more a community is dependent on one branch of the economy, one industry, or even one company, the greater the threat. Therefore, municipalities often promote local enterprises as pillars of the local economy.
2.11 Local businesses, like local authorities, are affected by decisions and actions taken by internationally operating banks, brokers, capital investment and finance companies, and multinational holding companies. These are the most powerful and have a major influence on national economies, economic and social development opportunities for people, as well as on prosperity and decline. There is no real connection between these companies and municipalities. The location of these companies is irrelevant - their decisions and financial transactions can be made anywhere in the world. Local communities experience no tangible impact on their local environment by such companies seated within the boundaries of their municipality.
3.2 Businesses often have difficulties anchoring their managers' understanding of sustainability in product development, production planning, marketing, and everyday operations. Hence there is a need for introducing sustainability management systems.
3.3 The same applies to local authorities. In spite of explicit environmental policies, environmental issues are often not incorporated into economic, social, and planning policies.
3.4 The management of both companies and local authorities is often too short-sighted:
3.5 Management structures and practices of companies and municipalities often encourage compartmentalised rather than integrated approaches.
3.6 An international legal framework for an increasingly globalised economy, which would make global companies accountable to public bodies, is lacking. Moreover, there are no incentives for those companies to become committed to the environment and social well-being of their community.
3.7 In cities inadequate infrastructure and services, environmental health problems, and poor governance, e.g. a lack of transparency and accountability, act as barriers to new investment, while raising costs and lowering the competitiveness of existing businesses.
3.8 Education and training of staff at all levels usually does not cover issues of sustainability. Short-sighted and one-sided points of view still prevail. Holistic training is valued less than the education of specialists. Life-long learning has not become mandatory, despite all the declarations.
4.2 Partnership and cooperation of business and municipality should heed the following guiding principles:
4.3 Local government and managers of big companies should seek to maintain an ongoing dialogue on issues of common interest, thereby challenging each other to better mutual understanding. Other sectors of the community should be included in this dialogue as appropriate. Municipalities should take advantage of the management expertise available in big companies, and these companies should show greater responsibility for the community.
4.4 Municipalities are in competition with other municipalities - in the same country and in other countries - to attract businesses. This may cause a municipality to lower its environmental standards. Municipalities should adhere to common minimum standards and build their capacities.
4.5 Both local authorities and businesses must abstain from corrupt practices and penalise such practices. Procurement policies and decision-making processes must be open and transparent all over the world.
4.6 Public education and awareness-raising, transparency of decision-making, and access to information are essential for making informed choices.
4.7 Cooperation efforts of multinational companies and municipalities have a tremendous potential for decentralised North-South or East-West cooperation projects. While municipalities can enter into partnerships with counterparts from other parts of the world and identify development needs and suitable approaches, partnering companies can provide management expertise, logistical assistance, and financial resources.
4.8 International agencies and agreements have a crucial role in creating a framework within which businesses and municipalities can collaborate to promote sustainable development. National and supranational legal frameworks must be established which require that companies take into account the external costs of their operations and products. Incentives should be offered for sustainable business policies, actions, and production. Companies themselves should look at their long-term interests and opportunities.
4.9 Decision-making in municipalities and businesses should take account of environmental, social, as well as global impacts. This requires education and awareness-raising in both sectors. Municipalities and businesses should take advantage of the enabling role of NGOs, associations, trade unions, religious communities, educational and research institutes, and others.
4.10 The change of development path required for sustainability can only be legitimated and owned through open "visioning" processes in which all sectors of society collaborate in seeking consensus on their aspirations for the future. Local authorities have a key role as initiators and facilitators of such processes. Bottom-up approaches should be strengthened and coherence of action enhanced through integration of decision-making processes.
4.11 Local authorities also need to develop their roles as regulators, planners, and as large businesses in their own right.
4.12 Examples of good practice should be identified, examined, evaluated, presented, and disseminated. More effort should be devoted to encouraging the pioneer rather than attending to those lagging behind.
4.13 The sense of ownership and identification with processes towards sustainable development at the local level must be regarded as one of the key factors for a successful business and for a viable community.
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