The United Nations Global Compact and the Encyclical Laudato Si

The United Nations Global Compact and the Encyclical Laudato Si Synopsis

In April 2016, the Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame with the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Office convened a group of scholars and business leaders to discuss the Encyclical Laudato Si (LS) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The articles in this special issue are from that conference; the hope is that they will provoke your thinking and lead to new action to make the world a better place.How is it that the secular United Nations and the religious Vatican have a common vision for business? At root, this common vision for business flows from a common vision for society as a whole.For business, flowing from this common vision is a common understanding of the purpose of business. Catholic social thought has always taught that the single-minded focus on making money in business can never be acceptable. The purpose of business is to create sustainable value for stakeholders and that value is not exclusively monetary value.