Back from Brazil

Flew in from Sao Paulo this afternoon, via TAM, after a few days at the annual Instituto Ethos conference on corporate social responsibility. I did a panel session yesterday, chaired by Simon Zadek of AccountAbility and also featuring Fernando Martins of Grupo Santander and Ricardo Henriques, advisor to the President of BNDES, the Brazilian Development Bank. Our session was enitled: ‘Global Crisis: Can a new financial system drive the economy towards a sustainable society?’ My central question was whether the government-moderated economic crisis will be enough to spur transformative changes in our basic economic model – too early to say, but sadly maybe not. Then a very interesting meeting with several people from Braskem. The previous evening, took part in a wonderful dinner with the members of the International Board of Ethos.