Georg Kell is the founder and former Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact. the world’s largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative with over 9,000 corporate signatories in more than 160 countries. As its founding Executive Director, Georg helped to establish the United Nations Global Compact as the foremost platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible and sustainable corporate policies and practices. In a career of more than 25 years at the United Nations, he also oversaw the conception and launch of the Global Compact’s sister initiatives on investment, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and on education, the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), together with the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative. Georg is currently Vice Chairman of Arabesque Partners, an Anglo-German asset management firm that integrates environmental, social, and governance data with quantitative investment strategies. The firm was named as SRI Manager of the Year at the Investment Excellence Awards 2015, organised by Global Investor.

In this revealing interview, Georg Kell reflects on three decades of sustainability, and highlights some of the most important changes he has seen over this time. He shares his views on the key role of corporates in dealing with the global environmental challenges we are now facing—while recognizing their role in creating these problems. In this interview, Georg focusses on three key forces reshaping markets: technology and automation, the issue of natural boundaries and, finally, changes in governance–and he explores the implications for markets, corporations and sustainability. Georg also discusses the role of finance– which he believes is now overtaking and giving direction to the corporate sustainability agenda. This is an essential interview—a fascinating perspective from a key figure at the heart of the development of today’s sustainability agenda.

The post Episode 51: Interview with Georg Kell, the founder and former Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact, currently Chairman of Anglo-German asset manager, Arabesque Partners. appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.