2020 – European SDGs Summit

In 2020, CSR HELLAS participated once again in the European Sustainable Development Goals Summit, organized by CSR Europe in cooperation with its National Partners, in the week 26-30 October 2020. This large conference, that has become a landmark event on a European level, took take place for a third consecutive year under the title “Impactful Partnerships to Build Back Better”.

The Covid-19 crisis, a genuine human tragedy and an extreme stress test for all, has created new and unprecedented conditions on a global scale, from the shutting down of borders and the enhancement of protectionism to the disruption of supply chains. Overnight, the world became a more isolated place.

To tackle the crisis, however, what was needed, and still is, was not isolation, but rather increased cooperation both across sectors and across the continent. With so much on the line, it is everyone’s duty to collaborate towards the adoption of a sustainable and inclusive approach to growth.

The SDG Summit 2020 presented an opportunity for all women and men who were interested in developing a new modus operandi, incorporating environmental and social costs into Europe’s growth model.

Building on 2019’s CEOs Call to Action, in 2020 business leaders, industry federations and policymakers, on both an EU and national level, were invited to join forces for a European Pact for Sustainable Industry capable of bridging EU economic models, across borders and value-chains, in order to foster the transformation required to achieve the goals set forth by the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Summit brought together 5000+ European and global Actors of Change in 40+ virtual sessions, to incubate action-oriented collaborations aimed at:

• Increasing the resilience of enterprises;
• Rebuilding our societies and economies;
• Accelerating the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The event’s highlight was the inauguration of the campaign for the European Pact for Sustainable Industry, which took place at a high-level meeting attended by representatives of the European Commission, CEOs and industry federation leaders.

Implementation Appraoch

This years organization of the SDG Summit, consisting of 55 webinars from October 26 until October 30, was divided into three main categories:

• 5 High-Level Plenaries, one a day @ 12:00-13:30 (Greek time)
• 25 parallel European SDG Roundtables @ 16:30-18:00 (Greek time)
• 25 parallel cross-National SDG Roundtables @ 14:30-15:30 (Greek time)