On October 17 - 19, 2023, Building Responsibly (BR), a business-led initiative supported by BSR™, held its Bi-Annual Members meeting and Associated Stakeholder forum in Singapore, reaching out to Asian countries for the first time in its ambition to expand the impact of its activities worldwide.
During the first two days of meetings BR members gathered to exchange best practices and challenges on worker welfare. Members got to know each other better and met in-person for the first time since the meeting in London in late 2022. The two-day closed session for members only, enabled the group to share examples and case studies illustrating their worker welfare journey, thus enabling their peers to learn from and get inspired by these activities, approaches, and initiatives (e.g., tools, partnerships, specific projects). Each internal BR working group, set up to drive the group’s strategy, also reported on its achievements in the year. The in-person meeting facilitated informal discussions among members and paved the way to foster collaboration and identify new topics to address collectively going into 2024.
Held for the first time in Asia, the BR Bi-Annual Members meeting was generously hosted by JGC, one of the BR Board Members, in one of their facilities in Singapore. Toru Sugimoto, JGC Corporate HSE Manager stated:
“It is a great honor for JGC to welcome BR members and host this meeting. Although this meeting happens every year, this is the first time it has been held in Asia. JGC is very proud to support this initiative, to enhance the implementation of worker welfare principles in the engineering and constructor sector, and its whole value chain”.
The Bi-Annual Members meeting was then followed by a Stakeholder Forum, where approximately 70 attendees from various stakeholder groups joined BR members at the American Club of Singapore, to discuss regional initiatives and trends, and deep dive on specific workers’ welfare issues.
Following the successful event in Singapore, BR Members elected a new chair, co-chair and steering committee member to continue progress in 2024/25. Read more here on BR’s new leadership or visit our website for more information.