Director of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Center for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg State University (GSOM SPbU) Yury Blagov took part in the conference Social Responsibility of Business: Practices of Russian Regions, organized by the Vedomosti business newspaper in an online format.

  

The participants of the event discussed topical problems of interaction between business, NGOs and the authorities, exchanged experiences in the implementation of social programs and talked about CSR trends in the context of the pandemic.

  

“The transition to a new model of corporate sustainability in the face of aggravated global problems objectively requires a change in the role of the Government. The Government should more actively act as a partner of responsible companies that are ready to dive deeper into solving social and environmental problems, while maintaining their competitiveness. It is important to emphasize that it is partnerships at the regional level that allow the most effective and timely response to specific manifestations of global problems related to the agenda of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs),” said Yury Blagov during his speech on the topic Responsible business and government: transformation relations.

  

According to the Report on  Social Investments in Russia 2019: Towards Business Transformation for Sustainable Development, 67% of companies surveyed report real integration of the UN SDGs into their activities. Nevertheless, the regional authorities believe that there should be more responsible companies, and that responsibility itself should adapt the Sustainable Development Goals to the level of local communities.

  

“Determining the priorities of its socially and environmentally oriented policy, business should bring its positions closer to local authorities, government bodies on the territory of a subject of the Russian Federation,” said Irina Bakhtina, Deputy Chairperson of the Government of the Republic of Komi.

   

The conference was also attended by:

• Vadim Kovalev, First Deputy Executive Director at Russian Managers Association;
• Irina Romanova, Deputy Director at Economic Development Agency of Leningrad Region;
• Donata Koroletskaya, Sustainability manager at JTI Russia;
• Olga Mironova, CSR Head of OMK;
• Alla Mishina, Senior Corporate Affairs and Sustainable Development Adviser, Salym Petroleum;
• Elena Konnova, Corporate Communications Director, X5 Retail Group;
• Tatiana Bachinskaya, Chief Editor, Business & Society magazine;
• Marina Vashukova, Executive Director of the Association National Network of the Global Compact.

  

In 2021, the Vedomosti held the conference Social Responsibility of Business: Practices of Russian Regions for the fifth time. The event is traditionally attended by representatives of business, NGOs, authorities and educational institutions. Watch the broadcast >> (available in Russian only)