Recap: Opening Plenary Session CGI 2009

Our own Erin Green was able to get her lucky tail into the opening plenary of this year's Clinton Global Initiative – where, of course, Tonic was live-blogging (we'll be at it all week long). Between President Clinton's introduction and President Obama's closing was over 90 minutes of discussion, debate and thought-provocation surrounding the key themes of this year's event.

The Clinton Global Initiative isn't just talk. As Clinton indicated, this week's meetings will "match people with ideas, time, money and skills." And, participants aren't just expected to be bodies in the room – they are asked to make solid commitments and produce tangible results toward advancing their particular platforms.

Case in point: Before introducing the session's panel, Matt Damon and his Water.org co-founder Gary White, took the stage to announce their new commitment to provide clean water sources to 50,000 people in Haiti. Read the full story (complete with cute Damon quotations) here.

Next, we met the lineup of global power-players who set the tone for the week. Panelists in this introductory session were Chilean President Michelle Bachalet, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Wal-Mart President and CEO Mike Duke and Coca-Cola President and CEO Muhtar Kent.

(In case you're wondering, A-list audience members included Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Christy Turlington, Ben Stiller, Jessica Alba, Cash Warren, Fran Drescher, Goldie Hawn ... )

This year's key Action Areas (with special emphases on climate change and investing in women and girls):

• Harnessing Innovation for Development
• Strengthening Infrastructure
• Developing Human Caiptal
• Financing a Sustainable Future

At the end of the day, the bottom line seems to be that these issues are not mutually exclusive, that they all interconnect and depend on each other if we're to see results. One example, given by panelist Muhtar Kent, goes like this: The way major companies do business affects our environment and our water. Water shortages affect the way that women live their lives in developing countries if their daily work involves securing and sanitizing water. This, in turn, affects her ability to work and pursue entrepreneurial goals. See? It's all connected.

Further along that point, Chilean President Bachelet noted that the private sector and public sector need to work together more in order to provide incentive and support. She cited Chile's financial collapse in the 80s and credited their recovery to "good partnerships with its people, workers and private sector." (Not to mention successful health care reform, but that's another story ... ) Furthermore, the decisions that major corporations are making are revolutionizing the way we do business and the way we treat our planet and each other.

Could we possibly see, as Mike Duke suggested,  a "sustainability index" on the products we buy, similar to a nutrition label but for environmental and social responsibility? "What if we could operate at zero waste?" he asked. "What if we could deliver great value, sustainable products?"

It's not a pipe dream, since both Duke and Kent indicated a greater demand for such products – and such processes. Muhtar Kent said that the Coca-Cola Co. plans to be water-neutral by 2020 and to switch their bottle production to plant-based materials next year. That's right: he said Coke plans to give back all 300 billion liters of water it uses every year, in the form of recycling and replenishment programs.

Obama stayed the thematic course, too, citing examples of a web of global ills that can't stand or be cured alone. Rallying the CGI troops, Obama said that real change comes from the bottom up and from those who work together in service for the greater good.

"The spirit I see here tonight is the spirit that says we can rise above the barriers that too often divide us," he said. "We can come together. We can leave this world even better, even more hopeful than we found it."

(Photo by JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)