The Leaders’ Group on Sustainability


The Leaders’ Group on Sustainability is a coalition of Ireland’s leading organisations that is striving to improve the sustainability of the Irish business sector through sharing best practice and creating new ways of doing business.

The Leaders’ Group on Sustainability is open to the leading companies who have achieved the Business Working Responsibly mark

leaders' group on sustainability

The Goals of the Leaders’ Group on Sustainability

The goals of the Leaders’ Group on Sustainability are to:

  • Drive the ambitions of best practice companies and guide sustainability standards
  • Identify and scale-up sustainability practices through collective action.

The Group recognises that to maintain and build Ireland’s reputation as a place to do business, attract top talent and inward investment, it must come together to address the most pressing sustainability priorities for the Irish business sector.

Three business sustainability focus areas

Following a process of consultation and data analysis of the Business Working Responsibly Mark, three common areas were selected as the current focus and action by the Leaders’ Group on Sustainability:

Diversity & Inclusion 

The Leaders’ Group on Social Inclusion Sub-Group is chaired by Sinead Patton Veolia Chief Financial and Commercial Officer and Harry Goddard, CEO of Deloitte Ireland. The leader companies engaged are CRH, Dawn Meats, Deloitte, eir, Gas Networks Ireland, Janssen, SSE, Veolia. The focus of the sub-group is to drive the business agenda in building a more inclusive society.

Elevate: the inclusive workplace pledge

A key milestone of the group has been the recent launch of Elevate, the inclusive workplace pledge: Elevate supports businesses to build more inclusive workplaces. The ultimate ambition of this initiative is for a workforce that is representative of all members of Irish society.

Transition to a Low Carbon Economy

This sub-group is chaired by EirGrid and co-chaired by Gas Networks Ireland and the leader companies engaged are: ESB, Dawn Meats, Musgrave, Janssen, Transdev and Veolia. Ensuring businesses take the lead in Ireland’s transition to a low carbon economy is the main aim of the group.

The Low Carbon Pledge

The first action from the Group has been the development of a Low Carbon Pledge aimed at tackling one of the most pressing global issues, climate change. The purpose of this Pledge is to demonstrate Irish business commitment to reducing carbon emissions and to act as a catalyst for wider, complementary initiatives and actions.

The Worker of the Future

Leader companies engaged in this sub-group are: Northern Trust, Accenture, BT, A&L Goodbody, ESB,  Vodafone, PM Group and Deloitte. Phase 2 is currently being scoped and is being guided by the question “How do we put the worker at the heart of transformation as we plan for the future through the lens of responsible business?”

A milestone from Phase 1 has been the development of a paper entitled “Learning & Development and the Adaptive Workforce”, which addresses the need for a collective, holistic approach in developing a sustainable workforce equipped to respond to the challenges associated with technological disruption and the future of work.

For more information on the Leaders’ Group on Sustainability please contact Bernadette Phelan on 01 874 7232 or bphelan@bitc.ie