Cleveland expects to benefit from its affiliation with an international effort to promote sustainability when it became only the second city in the nation (after San Francisco) to sign the UN Global Compact. The Compact commits the city to a set of principles that balances social and environmental equity with economic development. Cleveland joins hundreds of businesses and institutions, including Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic, which also signed the Compact this past Earth Day.

Case’s Business as an Agent of World Benefit (BAWB) gathered Northeast Ohio’s sustainability leaders last October to discuss the Compact as an avenue to focus the region on clear action plans.

“We’d like a network of companies to join the compact, and to be the first region to participate and connect with its global standards,” Cuyahoga County Planning Commission director Paul Alsenas said at the event.

Following on the heels of Cleveland signing, Cuyahoga County is expected to become a member in the near future.

BAWB’s connection to the UNGC staff in the U.S.—particularly Professor David Cooperrider, who helped to facilitate previous UN conferences on sustainability —has helped Case become one of the centers for spreading the compact in North America. BAWB/Case was officially named as the Secretariat for the UNGC for the US.

Ante Glavas, director of BAWB, is hoping to springboard off the recent announcements to convince more companies from our region to sign on to the Compact. Local companies that have already signed the compact include Fairmount Minerals and Brown Flynn.

BAWB is planning a meeting of the UNGC in Cleveland, Glavas writes in an email. The group is organizing at least two action areas for the UNGC to support in Northeast Ohio. The two proposals that are emerging are (1) creating a city-wide summit (using Appreciative Inquiry) to develop the strategy of the region in which sustainability will be a key driver for growth and (2) support the formation of a global water institute.

They also hope to organize a planning meeting of those organizations that have joined the UNGC to see how we can leverage our position in the UNGC to help our region.