How leading companies, NGOs and solution providers are working to address the myriad issues that can arise in any supply chain.
Big news from Mexico – a groundbreaking regenerative economy project has just become official. The Patamban indigenous community, part of the Purepecha nation in the state of Michoacán, will be the chief beneficiaries of what will be a 12,000-hectare plantation producing a valuable commodity: pine resin.
The palm oil industry is undergoing a major transformation with public and private stakeholders ramping up efforts to make sustainability an industry mainstay. Last month Greenpeace suspended its active campaign against IOI Group after the palm oil producer announced plans to eliminate deforestation and exploitation from its supply chain. And earlier this week, BNP Paribas rolled out a new palm oil policy that sets responsible palm oil production as a pre-condition for financing.
Supplier collaboration and sustainability can drive innovation and growth in top supply chains, but only 43 percent of suppliers feel fully empowered to collaborate with their partners, says new research from 3M. Surveying 237 suppliers across the U.S., the report uncovers insight on the most urgent trends, opportunities and challenges facing suppliers today.
Fifty of the world’s largest businesses, retailers and fishing companies from across the tuna supply chain have banded together to stamp out illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in their industry, protect the health of oceans and eliminate forced labor from fishing vessels.
Recently, Walmart announced a bold initiative to cut a gigaton (aka 1 billion tons) of emissions from its supply chain. Achieving this moonshot will require many companies to act — and given the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, the timing couldn’t be better. I’m often asked, “Why did Walmart do this?” My 25 years of working with companies tells me the answer is obvious: Because it’s good for business!
Back in January, CDP released its annual Global Supply Chain Report 2017, highlighting the work of businesses around the world in helping reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2016 alone, the world’s largest purchasing organizations used their buying clout to drive down emissions by 434 million tons of CO2 — more than France’s total GHG emissions in 2014.
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has released a new report highlighting the positive impact certification can have in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The MSC Global Impacts Report 2017 details more than a thousand examples of positive change being made by certified fisheries to safeguard fish stocks and marine habitats.
British supermarket group Sainsbury’s has launched its own in-house sustainability standard, provoking backlash from The Fairtrade Foundation and Fairtrade producers alike.
Forests play a critical role in mitigating global climate change and deforestation is responsible for 10-15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, as well as habitat loss and social conflict. With the development of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the protection of forests has become a top priority for policymakers, investors and consumers.
When it comes down to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, more and more investors are looking at how companies perform on human rights. Guarding long-term investments against a potential fallout from social grievances has become part of their fiduciary duty.
Cotton is often king in discussions surrounding the creation of a more sustainable apparel industry, yet over 120 million trees are felled every year — 30 percent of which originate from ancient and endangered forests — to produce textiles such as viscose and rayon.
By 2050, our global population will grow by more than 2 billion, which will require 70 percent more food. In addition to rising demand, companies are facing increasing scrutiny on the environmental impacts across their value chains. While improvements in processing and packaging are helping brands progress on sustainability, interventions at farm level are essential for driving real change. We recently spoke with Pure Strategies’ Co-Founder and Managing Director, Tim Greiner, to learn more about how brands and farmers both are working together to usher the industry towards a more sustainable future.
The fashion and textile industry is in the midst of a paradigm shift with key industry stakeholders working to drive sustainable cotton towards the mainstream.
A new digital transparency tool is making it easier than ever for businesses to pinpoint climate change risks along their supply chains. Launched by data specialists Everycs, the open-source data platform Makersite is the first of its kind and allows users to map carbon footprints and assess environmental impacts at different stages of the value chain.
Human Rights Watch is calling on the fashion industry to adopt and carry out the Apparel and Footwear Supply Chain Transparency Pledge. The organization contacted 72 apparel companies, asking them to publish information identifying the factories that produce their goods, addressing a key obstacle to rooting out abusive labor practices across the industry and helping to prevent disasters such as the Rana Plaza collapse.
Four years after the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in which 1,134 people were killed, Fashion Revolution has released its 2017 Fashion Transparency Index, which ranks 100 of the biggest fashion companies on their social and environmental policies, practices and impacts.
Building on its commitment to provide support to coffee growers around the world, Starbucks Coffee Company has announced that it will deliver 100 million healthy coffee trees to farmers who need them by 2025.
Walmart is the first retailer to adopt a science-based target emissions-reduction plan, in which it aims to reduce its absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 18 percent by 2025, as well as reducing CO2e emissions from upstream and downstream Scope 3 sources by one billion tons (a gigton) between 2015 and 2030.
High-profile incidents, such as the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh in 2013 and the exposé of slavery and human trafficking in the Thai seafood and electronics industries in 2014 have rightly drawn the world’s attention to global supply chains. As shameful as these incidents are, they are not anomalies. Many unethical, unsafe and unsustainable practices persist, under the radar, three or four layers down the supply chain.
As consumers increasingly demand to know more about their food, transparency is becoming a top priority for brands. Providing information not only about ingredients, but where and how ingredients are produced is becoming common practice — and those who abstain from such actions are at risk of falling behind.