Sustainable development and innovation are two interrelated buzzwords often thrown around by companies operating in China, but talking the talk is not nearly as easy as walking the walk.

More than 40 CEOs and senior executives gathered yesterday at the 28th China Daily CEO Roundtable under the theme “China's Sustainable Growth Through Innovation: Vision, Challenges and Capacity Building” to discuss their companies' specific plans and experiences in implementing these concepts at the global, national, governmental and corporate levels.

The roundtable was part of US magazine BusinessWeek's 10th Annual CEO Forum held at Beijing's China World Hotel.

“There cannot be sustainable development without innovation,” said Peter Bowie, China CEO of Deloitte and honorary chairman of the roundtable.

Bowie shared with the participants a report by the British Economics Service about sustainable development published in Tuesday's edition of the Financial Times.

The report predicted that the economic cost of climate change over the next 40 to 50 years would drain 20 per cent of global GDP. “We have to help people understand the sense of urgency and get their commitment to sustainable development,” Bowie said. “This is especially important for China, which makes a significant impact on the world's economy.”

Learning from multinationals

“We are all interconnected,” said Charles Wu, vice-president of IBM Greater China Group and second honorary chairman of the roundtable. “The 20th century concept of multinational companies should head towards a ‘globally integrated' model to reduce redundancy and facilitate the freer flow of labour, ideas and technology. That is how we become truly global companies.”

Firm sets sights on sustainable development

Since first developing its China strategy in 2003, professional services firm Deloitte has re-evaluated its game plan to focus on investing in the firm's sustainability and human resources, said Peter Bowie, the company's China CEO.

“There needs to be an absolute sense of urgency about adopting policies and practices that have a benign impact on our environment. I think that the companies that don't do that will be in difficult competitive positions within five years, because there will be innovations and other companies will come along that will deliver those products and services in this fashion,” Bowie said.

“I think consumers, governments and not-for-profit organizations will just demand it,” he said.

As a global firm, Deloitte is an active player in many global initiatives aimed at boosting sustainability, including the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the World Economic Forum for Sustainable Development, the Global Reporting Initiative and the United Nations Global Compact.

In addition, the firm is taking steps to encourage its offices to use energy more responsibly and adopt recycling.

Bowie believes that the concept of sustainability takes on a different meaning in China than it does in much of the rest of the world.

“You're taking people out of poverty, allowing them a reasonable standard of living. At the same time, you're impacting the environment whereas in other parts of the world, generally speaking, there's a much higher standard of living, especially in Europe and North America, and there's a disproportionately greater negative impact on the environment. So, how do you balance it?” he said.

“I think China has a really unique opportunity to really focus on a growth that reflects a very serious concern about impact on people and impact on environment,” he added.