Sustainability, engaging stakeholders & global reporting

In the early years of the sustainability movement Tell started to work for SustainAbility, the leading international think tank & strategy consultancy for corporate sustainability and responsibility. There, from 1998 to 2007, he experienced and contributed to the global shift in awareness in the business community from environmental compliance to corporate sustainability and sustainable investment.

He initially focused on accountability, stakeholder engagement and transparency, and had responsibility for the international Engaging Stakeholders flagship programme on corporate sustainability reporting in Partnership with UNEP which has evolved into the Global Reporters benchmark programme. It was then that he could join the Steering Committee of the Global Reporting Initiative and help SAM in the gestation of the first Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Later on he led the sector-work in the automotive and pharmaceutical/healthcare areas, and had a broad advisory portfolio and region-specific responsibilities for German-speaking countries and Japan.

Sustainable Investment

In the investment area Tell has worked with the first wave of sustainable investing, SRI and investor activism through his engagement of key players such as Credit Suisse, Henderson Global Investors, HSBC, ICCR, Insight Investment, FTSE4Good, Oekom, SAM and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Sarasin, Standard & Poors, UBS and UKSIF. While in touch with the second wave of sustainable investment through organisations such as Generation Investment Management, Tell focuses now on transformation processes that increase the intrinsic value per share for investors and are seeds for sustainable systems solutions.

Tell has personally advised multinational companies and organisations such as: Allianz, AstraZeneca, Aventis, BASF, Bayer, BMW, Canon, Deutsche Post, Deutsche Telekom, European Patent Office, IKEA, Intel, Microsoft, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Schering, Shell, Sony, Toyota and Volkswagen.

Transformation for sustainable development

The route to sustainable development cannot be chartered solely through external pressures and interventions but fundamentally emanates from those corporate people and cultures that are pro-actively seeking higher levels of awareness, change and responsibility. Ultimately, they do not simply reduce sustainability to a risk or business opportunity but live it as a personal way of being and pole that sets the direction of development and engagement with the world. Whether on the board, in the file and ranks of a company, or as social entrepreneurs, these people break corporate and organisational conventions and are the creative cause of new structures and stories that guide their own development and that of their organisation, networks, sector, and communities. They create and maintain value for their company and society by virtue of their experience and courage, their rational faith in possibilities, and their own values. The key to transformation for sustainable development is then to work with and develop the inside and the outside.