25 March 2020
Recap of the Value Balancing Alliance’s Welcome Event which, in retrospect, turned out to be a temporarily last get-together before an unprecedented disruption
Members of the Value Balancing Alliance
On the evening of February 28 in Frankfurt, Germany, Christian Heller, Chief Executive Officer of the Value Balancing Alliance, along with BASF Executive Board Member Saori Dubourg, Hessian Minister of Finance Dr. Thomas Schäfer, and General Director of the Frankfurt Senckenberg Museum Professor Volker Mosbrugger, addressed a group of alliance members and supporters including Hessian Minister of State Axel Wintermeyer, Chairman of the City Council of Frankfurt Stephan Siegler, Dr. Lutz Raettig in his capacity as President Frankfurt Main Finance, President of the Chamber of Commerce Ulrich Caspar, and the long-time President of the Chamber of Crafts Rhein-Main Bernd Ehinger. Heller had a special announcement to make: the Value Balancing Alliance was awarded a contract by the EU Commission to develop a Green Accounting Standard for the EU. Upholding this contract is an honour and a privilege, and the alliance does not take that responsibility lightly.
From left to right: Prof. Volker Mosbrugger (General Director of the Frankfurt Senckenberg Museum), Saori Dubourg (BASF Executive Board Member), Dr. Thomas Schäfer (Hessian Minister of Finance), Christian Heller (Chief Executive Officer of the Value Balancing Alliance)
Heller gathered these thought leaders together under serious circumstances: corporate tendencies to prioritize financial gains above our collective social and environmental wellbeing have led us down a dangerous path. Even prior to the global health crisis we currently face, social inequality, climate change, species extinction, and trade wars have been threatening the world’s population for some time. Alongside positive initiatives like Fridays for Future, the Green New Deal, and electromobility, the Value Balancing Alliance is protecting long-term value by creating a global impact measurement and valuation standard for monetizing and disclosing corporate impact. No longer will we balance our books via company profits alone: the health of people and our planet must factor into our bottom line.
From left to right: Christian Heller, Dr. Lutz Raettig, Rudolf Scharping
“With the Value Balancing Alliance,” Heller said, “we have brought together those willing to actively drive and manage necessary changes. We want to protect our environment with the principles of the market economy, inspire social cohesion, and qualitative economic growth.” Founded 8 months ago, today the following international companies are among the members of the alliance: BASF, Bosch, Deutsche Bank, LafargeHolcim, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Novartis, Porsche-Volkswagen, SAP, and SK; and four supporting accounting firms: Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC. The alliance works to integrate business into society and nature for a better future.
“Transparency,” Heller added, “is of utmost importance.” In partnership with the OECD, the EU, the World Bank, the G7, the G20, universities such as Oxford, Harvard, Hamburg, and many other institutions, the Value Balancing Alliance will make the results of their standard business model available to the public.
From left to right: Dr. Christof Schenck (Zoologische Gesellschaft Frankfurt), Saori Dubourg, Alexander Wartini, Walter Kohl
So what is the way forward? To complete the EU’s Green Accounting Standard for disclosing positive and negative impacts of corporate activity, the Value Balancing Alliance is building a corporate model for measuring environmental and social impact, guiding corporations through integrating their findings into business steering, and remaining steadfastly transparent in their processes. It’s clear that we need to change the way we do business, and the alliance is prepared to lead us to a more equitable, more conscious future.