En Masse is proud to be a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, a strategic policy initiative.
Our vision of corporate social responsibility is one that we share with the Global Compact, its ten principles,* and the values that underlie these principles.
True CSR and sustainability is not just about caring for the environment. It’s about aligning internal and external environments: people values and behaviours with respect to each other, and with respect to the outside world we share with each other, as individuals, communities, companies and nations.
En Masse is deeply committed to a people-based response to sustainability. We make the pledge to commit to tackling the major issues facing our world today outlined by the ten principles for all businesses signed to the Global Compact. The basis of these principles is human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption.
These values we live and breathe in our own organisation. In fact, it’s not only our responsibility, it’s our business to embed and activate these values in other organisations, so that they too live and breathe the principles enshrined in the Global Compact.
What does a Global Compact organisation look like? We see it as a sustainable and positive workplace culture in which people take responsibility to respect and protect the rights and wellbeing of one another. A culture in which mental wellbeing is optimised and in which, as a natural consequence, human rights abuses such as bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination, do not occur.
But human rights also includes the right to live in a quality environment that supports optimum standards of living. Recent events, including the Global Financial Crisis, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the failure of climate negotiations in Copenhagen, have opened our eyes to the fact that a business-as-usual approach to the way we live our lives and the way we do business is completely unsustainable.
Such events challenge us, and our systems, in fundamental ways. Yet they also present us with an opportunity to do things differently. As individuals and as businesses we must re-prioritise and take action. We need to work together to respect and protect the planet and humanity and we must do this by planning deeper into the horizon than financial years and management contracts.
En Masse partners with other organisations on their journeys of sustainable development. Our programs – including Global Compact-specific services, training and reporting – build empathy in stakeholders, promote better use of current knowledge, and measure the total impact of decisions, from employee to senior management, individual to total organisation.
As part of our commitment to the UN Global Compact, En Masse will identify areas of improvement, report on how we have embraced the Global Compact and account for our performance in each area on an annual basis. We will also continue to work with our clients and partners to uphold the principles of the UN Global Compact as we assist them on their sustainability and corporate responsibility journeys.
*About the United Nations Global Compact
Launched in 2000, the UN Global Compact brings business together with UN agencies, labor, civil society and governments to advance ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. Through the power of collective action, the Global Compact seeks to mainstream these ten principles in business activities around the world and to catalyse actions in support of broader UN goals. With over 7700 participating companies and hundreds of other stakeholders from more than 120 countries, it is the world’s largest voluntary corporate citizenship initiative.
Under the 10 principles, businesses signed to the Global Compact should:
- support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights;
- make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses;
- uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
- eliminate all forms of forced and compulsory labour;
- institute the effective abolition of child labour;
- eliminate discrimination in respect of employment and occupation;
- support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;
- undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility;
- encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies;
- work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.
