SUPPLY CHAIN -
It was something of a ‘two steps forward, one step back’ kind of week in the ongoing quest for sustainable sourcing of palm oil — potentially the most prolific and embattled ingredient in the consumer goods industry.
First, five multinationals active in Singapore — Unilever, Danone, Ayam Brand, IKEA and Wildlife Reserves Singapore — came together this week to drive an increase in the amount of sustainable palm oil sourced in the country, with the goal of delivering products that have not contributed to haze pollution or deforestation to consumers.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Supply Chain Transparency: The Challenge
Enough has been said about the importance of transparent supply chains. Today, it is unacceptable for a global brand to ignore fair labor practices. Yet, labor violations continue to occur around the world daily. For example, most Bangladeshi apparel employees work 14-16 hours a day, seven days a week for extremely low wages. In Cambodia, the ILO reports that one in five women say sexual harassment led to a threatening work environment.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Today, HP Inc. announced several new commitments with the release of its latest Sustainability Report. The company met the 20 percent emissions reduction targets it set for its operations and supply chain five years early, and set three new goals for 2020.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Today, Fairphone announced it is adding conflict-free tungsten from Rwanda into its supply chain. With this achievement, Fairphone has successfully managed to transparently source all four of the conflict minerals (tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold).
Fairphone began in 2010 as a campaign to increase awareness for the use of conflict minerals in consumer electronics. Six years later, the social enterprise has released two smartphones and more than 100,000 Fairphone owners have joined the movement, but this cause is more relevant than ever.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
More sustainable cotton has become more widely available thanks to collaborations such as the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) and other programs focused on minimizing the use of highly hazardous pesticides, improving working conditions, addressing biodiversity issues, and reducing water consumption in cotton agriculture.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
Picture a big bowl of sustainable mac and cheese. Cheesy and delicious, made with non-GMO, organic ingredients – 100 percent real cheese and no artificial flavors, synthetic colors or preservatives - this is a satisfying dinner you can feel good about eating. Hopefully you’re thinking of Annie’s iconic orange box. For more than 25 years, Annie’s Homegrown has married business and social responsibility to produce high-quality products that consumers love.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
In this Tuesday afternoon panel, representatives from Ford, MillerCoors and Hershey described how their companies are leveraging a variety of partnerships to innovate for sustainability across their global supply chains.
In 2014, Ford launched its innovative Partnership for a Cleaner Environment (PACE) program, which focuses on collaborating with suppliers to reach the company’s aggressive environmental targets.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
This dynamic Tuesday afternoon panel dissected Global Supply Chains, taking forward by The Sustainability Consortium's (TSC) newly released impact report, Greening Global Supply Chains: From Blind Spots To Hot Spots To Action. Robin Raj, founder and Executive Creative Director of Citizen Group, moderated the panel and framed the session with the question: "Why does greening global supply chains represent one of the most potent models for change for sustainability?”
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
From the mudlets of the Mekong delta to the Fjords of Norway, the past five years have seen sustainable seafood flourish. This is partly due to certified fisheries, which have delivered measureable, positive impacts in the oceans. While uncertified stocks have struggled with greater variability in terms of biomass and fishing pressure, stocks certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) have increased in abundance even as demand for sustainable seafood increased.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
From investors to growers, producers, blenders and consumers, the below50 initiative, launched today, expects to attract every industry sector involved in the pipeline of sustainable fuels. Any company who produces, uses and/or invests in fuels that are at least 50 percent less carbon intensive than conventional fossil fuels can join below50.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
NIKE, Inc. has unveiled the latest expansion of its European Logistics Campus in Belgium, to accelerate its drive toward “the supply chain of the future.”
The expansion will make Nike’s European operations more efficient, more responsive and more sustainable, enabling growth by serving consumers across Nike.com, Nike retail and wholesale partners in 38 countries, all from a single inventory location.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
BSCI (Business Social Compliance Initiative) and Sedex have been competitors in the past, but this week, the business-driven initiative and non-profit organization signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to reduce duplication of effort while building capacity and bolstering global collaboration to fight human trafficking. The announcement comes as both organizations release new online tools for their memberships.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Leading seafood brands, major UK retail chains and some of the world’s largest fishing companies have struck a groundbreaking deal to protect a key Arctic region from industrial fishing for cod.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The debates around extended producer responsibility for packaging — an approach whereby consumer goods companies pay some or all of the costs for managing packaging materials — have been raging in the U.S. for more than six years.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
Since the introduction of the first ecolabels and standards for organic products in the late 1980s and '90s, sustainability standards and certifications have proliferated across myriad industries. From food to manufactured goods, standards and certifications are helping consumers and businesses alike make better purchasing decisions to ensure they respect the triple bottom line.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
Two of America’s most well-known yogurt brands are taking unconventional approaches create stronger ties with some of their stakeholders. Dannon is implementing a new supply system that allows the company to engage directly with its milk suppliers as part of an ambitious plan to influence farm practices, and Chobani will be giving its 2,000 full-time employees an ownership stake worth up to 10 percent of the company when it goes public or is sold.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
Global outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland prides itself on its commitment to innovate and operate in an accountable and responsible manner — in terms of its products, the communities in which it operates, and the outdoors. As part of this commitment, the company today announced the implementation of its rigorous environmental standard — the Timberland Environmental Product Standard (TEPS) — across all of its product categories, beginning with its Spring 2016 collection.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
Late last year, devastating fires engulfed 2 million hectares of land in Indonesia, impacting the health of 43 million people around Southeast Asia, and emitting as much greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as Brazil does in a year. They were driven by years of rampant, unregulated deforestation, chiefly for the expansion of paper pulp and oil palm plantations.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
One of the world’s largest palm oil companies, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), has published a 4-year plan to trace its entire supply to the growers’ plantations. Earlier this year, GAR mapped its entire supply chain to 489 individual mills, and plans to build on that progress by achieving 100 percent traceability to plantation for all of the palm oil purchased and processed by the company by 2020.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
As with any multinational retailer, a high proportion of the environmental impacts resulting from Woolworths operations worldwide are linked to the farming and/or processing of products that we sell. As a result, we make it our business to work together with our suppliers to minimise these impacts, and to positively influence the environmental and social outcomes of doing business. Challenges we face in our global supply chain include impacts of extreme weather events, soil degradation, declining water quality and increasing input costs; below are a few of the initiatives and partnerships aimed at addressing them.