"We need to discuss how we can best project those examples and the lessons learned from them, and what will be the best representation of business at Johannesburg," Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Chairman of Business Action for Sustainable Development and former Chairman of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, said at the opening of the two-day Business Strategy Meeting.The meeting was the first organized by BASD.

Unlike the first Summit, business is expected to have a voice in Johannesburg, and business leaders are meeting in Paris to assure that that voice will be coordinated and coherent. The message of the meeting was that a global and integrated approach will be needed, and that all stakeholders must be included to make the idea of sustainable development a reality.

UN Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai said that the 2002 Summit will involve not only governments, but all stake holders."It's not just prime ministers and presidents, but chief executive officers, trade union leaders, cooperative and local authorities. They can make just as big a difference," Desai said.

Desai said that the UN wanted to "ratchet up" the process started at the Rio Earth Summit, where business was only present as a small minority, and secure major business participation.

Sir Mark stressed that the goal of business at the Summit will not be to become directly involved with intergovernmental negotiations. "The Summit is an intergovernmental meeting and any declaration coming from it will be negotiated between governments," he said. "I doubt whether there is anyone in business who has much enthusiasm for involvement in such a negotiation." Business will instead contribute to the document that the governments will negotiate at the Summit.

The role that the BASD will play is to help business make their concerns and examples understandable to those outside the industry. Sir Mark said that it was his experience that business tended to look at specifics, while governments look at the overarching themes. It is in this manner that BASD will function as a focal point for business in developing a framework from which th e business contribution to sustainable development can be discussed. "So it will be up to us to be ready to relate our specific examples effectively to general themes and still get our message across," Sir Mark said.

An appeal to governments was made for clarity in what is expected of business and for the acknowledgment that consumers have a key role to play. "We need to reemphasize the point that in general consumers will be happy to support a more sustainable product, but only if it competes effectively in terms of performance, cost and ease of use," aid Sir Mark, who also warned that "governments who try to tax or legislate against this trend will find themselves rejected." Part of the role of business in Johannesburg will be to make this point understood by governments.

Apart from the input that business will make to the agenda for the Summit, Sir Mark announced that BASD has been working to influence the set-up logistics in Johannesburg. He said that arangments had been made to house business leaders within the Summit perimeter, an important factor in informal access to government delegates. "I am reasonably confident that during the second week of the Summit business leaders who are present will have an opportunity to interact constructively with government leaders and others, without becoming directly involved in the intergovernmental negotiations," he said.

In the afternoon sessions of the Business Strategy Meeting, participants broke up into seven sector workshops, where they were encouraged to brainstorm ideas and to agree on examples of initiatives that could be used to demonstrate business achievements and progress in addressing challenges. Initiatives that were encouraged exhibited partnerships with other stake holders, including governments, research institutions and environmental NGOs. To facilitate open communication the afternoon sessions remained closed to the press. At the close of the meeting on October 10, the results of the closed sessions will be presented to the media by Sir Mark.