Business Council For Sustainable Development (BCSD)

The BCSD represents big business at UNCED. Headquarters in Geneva. It openly views UNCED as a means to opening up new markets in developing countries, while promoting self-regulation and free trade as the keys to "sustainable development." The BCSD is made up of 48 chief executives and chairmen of transnational corporations including: Du Pont, Dow Chemicals, Mitsubishi, Aracruz, Browning Ferris Industries, and Royal Dutch Shell. Representing chemical, energy, forest and pesticide conglomerates, many of these companies have been responsible for major environmental destruction. Since its first meeting in November 1990, the BCSD has been spending millions of dollars on developing a "forward looking" image for big business and the environment. Public relations giants Burson-Marstellar have been contracted to sell the BCSD message.

Stephan T. Schmidheiny

A billionaire and heir to Switzerland's first family of commerce. He is Principal Adviser for Business and Industry to Maurice Strong at the Earth Summit and chairman of the Business Council for Sustainable Development. He privately supports the BCSD by at least $5 million. Schmidheiny is on the boards of ABB Asea Brown Boveri; Landis and Gyr; Leica; Nestle and SMH (makers of Swatch). His image makers heavily promote Schmidheiny's small crafts foundation in Latin America, but this venture is tiny, compared to his 30 per cent interest in Chile's largest steelmaking concern (CAP)--a polluter whose dust emissions have created local human health risks and widespread environmental damage.

Schmidheiny and Strong (shown to the left) are both members of the World Economic Forum -- a high level, Geneva-based think tank where leading industrialists meet informally with world leaders. Despite the BCSD's claims of a "UN Mandate", Schmidheiny is a personal appointee of Maurice Strong. He and the sophisticated BCSD secretariat are accountable to no-one at UNCED.

Back...