As you might know the United Nations Global Compact is built on ten principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. It encourages corporations to adopt sustainable and socially responsible business practices.

The Global Compact is sometimes criticized as simply being a window dressing tool: Critics claim that corporations sign the compact without really following the principles. This is of course not acceptable.

We signed the Global Compact in 2002 as the first Information Technology corporation and we consider its fundamental principles in our daily business operations. I was glad to read that Global Compact has taken action and actually delisted over 600 companies from the Global Compact. Those companies have not provided the needed feedback or indicated any progress since they signed up.

I think this is an important action by the Global Compact to signal that it is actually not a window-dressing tool and that those corporations who sign the compact actually need to engage with its processes and act upon the principles.

Jeannette Weisschuh, Head of Corporate Affairs EMEA, HP