Companies must step up support for sustainability.

Georg Kell, Executive Director of the United Nation's Global Compact, an initiative designed to foster socially responsible corporate practices, called for more companies to join the Compact ahead of the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum. The forum is part of the broader Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development that will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012.

More than 10,000 organizations have signed up to the Global Compact, including 7,000 businesses in 140 countries, and are working to advance environmental and social sustainability based on the initiative's 10 principles covering human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Speaking in New York in February 2012, Kell noted that 3,000 companies have been delisted for noncompliance with the programme. He said, 'We are disappointed that the movement isn't growing faster. Of course, it's a big movement, but not yet transformative. Our hope is that Rio+20 will deliver strong encouragement for corporate sustainability.'