Business Value from Sustainable Development at shell

5 BUSINESS VALUE FROM SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AT SHELL 

It will take a considerable effort to recover. But that recovery is in the sights of many employees, and central to that is a firmly held commitment to sustainable development. Only by continuing to focus on achieving a strong economic, environmental, and social performance can the expectations of shareholders, customers, and society at large be met, licences to operate retained, and the damage to the Group s reputation repaired. 

The journey, which has delivered a deep-rooted commitment to sustainable development, has been long and challenging. It has reached to the core of Shell s values and drawn widely on society s expectations. It has engaged the time and emotions of senior leaders, and impacted the people, business models, governance, 

23The expressions Shell and Group refers to the companies of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of companies. Each of the companies that make up the Royal Dutch / Shell Group of companies is an independent entity and has its own identity. 

The roundtables were followed by a quantitative survey of 7500 members of the public in 10 countries, 1300 opinion formers in 25 countries, and 600 Shell employees. The results made salutary reading. They showed that a significant minority had serious concerns over what they perceived as Shell s lack of regard for the environment and human rights. As Managing Director Mark Moody-Stuart said at the time we looked in the mirror and neither liked nor recognised what we saw.  

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