Nigeria’s most innovative telecommunications company, Etisalat, through its CSR Centre in partnership with the Lagos Business School (LBS) of the Pan Atlantic University, has converged stakeholders in the sustainability business to the 2013 edition of the International Sustainability Conference with theme ‘Sustainability Management in Growing Emerging Markets’.

Held Thursday in Lagos, the conference was a gathering of CEOs and top executives of the business community and Non-Governmental Organisations responsible for CSR/Sustainability. It provided an avenue to discuss ways organisations can strengthen their sustainability efforts, ensure that they are cost-effectively mitigating unintended environmental impacts and position their organisations for future sustainability.

Chief Executive Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Steven Evans, said the objective of the conference was to engage, inform and proffer business solutions that are both innovative and sustainable. In addition, he said, the conference would help organisations on how best to structure their business models as well as products, technologies and processes in a way that will lead to long-term profitability and competitive advantage that simultaneously addresses economic, social and environmental objectives.

“Sustainability programs are evolving; corporations and their executives are increasingly recognising the importance of sustainability to the future of their businesses. At Etisalat, we have identified with the growing conversations on sustainable practices and are committed to the development of the overall CSR agenda in the country,” Evans stated.

The conference hosted Prof. Mike Thompson, a professor of management practice, and director of the Euro-China Centre for Leadership and Responsibility (ECCLAR), China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) as keynote speaker. Other notable speakers included Dr. Sam Amadi, Chairman, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC); Mr. Ade Fadeyibi, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Transcorp Ughelli Power Limited; Mrs. Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, Co-Founder/Director of AACE Foods; and Dr. Uwem Ite, Team Lead (Information, Education, Communication and Capacity Building Sustainable Development and Community Relations), The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited.

•Photo: Etisalat Nigeria’s CEO Steven Evans.

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