Prof. Munasinghe briefs Amba team on how firms can make development more sustainable

Professor Mohan Munasinghe, former Vice Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-AR4), addressed employees at Amba Research on how corporates can make development more sustainable.

In his presentation, Professor Munasinghe stated that the world currently faces multiple economic, social, and environmental threats, with current trends threatening to destabilise global society.

According to Professor Munasinghe, the way forward requires a longer-term vision that goes beyond our current focus on surface-level problems. The most effective approach, says Munasinghe, is to address multiple problems together by applying an integrated sustainable development strategy that is based on the ‘sustainomics’ framework.

Where corporates are concerned, Professor Munasinghe stressed that the business community has a key role to play in developing new sustainable business models of the 21st century.

He stated that new approaches involving CSR, sustainability accounting and reporting, triple-bottom-line assessment, shared value, and life cycle and value chain analysis are important, and that companies must work together with government and civil society to create sustainable societies based on sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Professor Munasinghe shared the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace, as Vice Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Currently, he is Chairman of the Munasinghe Institute of Development (MIND), Colombo; Professor of Sustainable Development at SCI, University of Manchester, UK; Institute Professor at the Vale Sustainable Development Institute, Federal University of Para, Brazil; and Distinguished Guest Professor at Peking University, China.

Highlights from 40 years of distinguished public service include roles such as Senior Energy Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka, Advisor to the United States President’s Council on Environmental Quality, and Senior Advisor/Manager at the World Bank.

Dr. Kemal de Soysa, Sri Lanka Country Head at Amba Research, said: “We are honoured to host Professor Munasinghe at our Colombo office.

Professor Munasinghe’s academic and professional background together with his globally recognised achievements and expertise in sustainability are truly inspiring to our young professionals at Amba. The business community has a significant role to play in the future of sustainable development. At Amba, we are working towards creating awareness of global sustainability amongst our people and encourage initiatives that support this cause.”