GBA4E High-Level Dinner: Innovative & Sustainable Business Solutions

March 19, 2019
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Alexandra Baldwin

On March 12, 2019, at the Fourth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA4), The Global Business Alliance for the Environment held its first High Level Dinner, welcoming more than 80 guests.

The theme of the dinner was “Innovative Business Solutions for Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Consumption and Production,” with remarks delivered by Norine Kennedy, Vice President of the United States Council of International Business; Mr. Sim Kiisler, Minister of Environment of Estonia and President of UNEA; Martin Kayser, Vice President of Chemical Safety at BASF; and Mr. Jorge Laguna-Celis, Director of Governance Affairs at the United Nations Environmental Programme. The dinner concluded with a speech by Mr. Tip O’Neill, CEO of International Raw Materials, who emphasized that the evening should serve as a driver for future joint action by all present.

We were honoured by the presence of many Ambassadors, Ministers of the Environment, Country Representatives, NGO representatives, UN & UN Environment agency employees, and private sector delegation members. We were pleased to watch our guests collaboratively identify concrete ways to incorporate and leverage the expertise and resources of business, such as knowledge sharing, innovation, long-term investments, data usage, and more. These areas of expertise have great potential to be mobilised to develop policy frameworks and partnerships that effectively create positive impact towards the SDGs.