Global commitments

As with any emerging movement, corporate responsibility has its leaders, followers and laggards. Given PwC's role in serving the public interest, we feel we have a particular responsibility to take a leadership role on CR issues. Consequently, PwC was one of the first signatories to the United Nations Global Compact, an initiative to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies. And PwC's Global CEO, Sam DiPiazza, has accepted the chairmanship of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a CEO-led association of 200 global companies that promotes business policies that contribute to social and economic progress.

United Nations Global Compact


The PwC network of firms is proud to be a global signatory to the UN Global Compact. The UN Global Compact provides a framework for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption . By doing so, business—as a primary agent driving globalisation—can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere.

The UN Global Compact is the world's largest corporate citizenship and sustainability initiative, bringing together more than 5,100 corporate participants and stakeholders from over 130 countries. By participating in the Compact as a global network, PwC member firms have committed to engaging with and taking forward the 10 principles of the Compact.

Human rights
  • Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and
  • Principle 2: Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
Labour standards
  • Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
  • Principle 4: The elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;
  • Principle 5: The effective abolition of child labour; and
  • Principle 6: The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
Environment
  • Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;
  • Principle 8: Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and
  • Principle 9: Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.
Anti-Corruption
  • Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.
Our signing of the Compact is important because it shows not only our commitment to the 10 principles, but also our willingness to commit our entire global network of member firms to those principles. As a signatory to the UN Global Compact, PwC participates diligently in the mandatory Communication on Progress (COP) process which is the Compact's most important means for balancing growth with quality engagement and underlines their goal of accountability and action by all Global Compact participants.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is also a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development(2001), of which PwC Global CEO, Sam DiPiazza, is an Executive Council member, and the Global Reporting Initiative (1998). PwC is also a board member of the Institute for Social and Ethical Accountability, and operates in local partnerships with national NGOs and national bodies representing some of the organisations mentioned above. In addition, our partners and directors occupy positions on institutional bodies in their own countries.