How leading companies, NGOs and solution providers are working to address the myriad issues that can arise in any supply chain.
Earlier this month, H&M was accused of being “dramatically behind schedule” in meeting the requirements of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh in a joint report from the Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labor Rights Forum, Maquila Solidarity Network, and Worker Rights Consortium.
Coca-Cola, Dow and Nestlé are among the 10 companies testing the new draft of the Natural Capital Protocol against specific business applications.The Protocol will provide decision-making support to businesses in their risk-management processes, exploration of new revenue streams, and in product and value chain innovation. It is a product of the Natural Capital Coalition, a global platform that brings together the different initiatives and organizations working in natural capital under a common vision of a world where business conserves and enhances natural capital.
The world’s largest canned tuna company, Thai Union Group (TU), has been connected to forced labor, human rights abuses, and environmental devastation. Yesterday, Greenpeace launched a global campaign demanding that TU take urgent and far-reaching steps to clean up its act.
The sustainability challenges facing the clothing industry today are immense. In 2013 the Danish fashion institute estimated it to be the second-most damaging industry in the world, with 25 percent of the world’s pesticides used to grow cotton alone, and one-fifth of industrial water pollution stemming from the dyeing and treatment of fabric. The U.S.
For the first time ever, family forest owners and well-known marketplace brands will connect and discuss their respective needs and challenges related to sustainable forest management. Mars Inc., McDonald’s, Avery Dennison, and Evergreen Packaging are among the participants.
WWF-UK and the Food Ethics Council recently interviewed senior food business executives to investigate their understanding of sustainable food security and barriers to achieving it. They said the government needs to take bold action to create a food system that serves citizens, the economy and the planet.
Climate change is only one of the issues to which corporate leaders must be attentive. We live in a world that increasingly sees acute water problems — in some areas too little (drought), in others too much (flooding), and elsewhere poor quality (pollution, algal blooms, or saltwater intrusion, among other issues). New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has pointedly stated that governments that are inattentive to water issues “are playing with fire.”Companies must become increasingly adept at not only running their core business well, but also demonstrating judicious water management and stewardship.
Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestlé and 70 other major food brands already are engaging suppliers on managing climate change, but much work remains to uncover this specific but significant area of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new CDP report.The biggest source of food-related greenhouse gas emissions occur in the agricultural production portion of producer's supply chains, but less than a quarter of the major brands that disclosed to CDP this year reported their indirect emissions from agricultural production.
Over 35,600 people have signed a Courage Campaign pledge to boycott several popular California produce companies after news that they may be using contaminated oil industry wastewater to grow their crops.
Coca-Cola announced today it is on track to meet its 2020 water replenishment goal five years ahead of schedule. The company expects it will safely replenish 100 percent of the water it uses in beverages and production through community water projects by the end of 2015, fulfilling its aspirational commitment set in 2007. If it succeeds, it will be the first food and beverage company to replenish all the water it uses.
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is soliciting feedback on a new traceability tool that verifies seafood supply chain transactions on a global scale. A public consultation period is taking place from August 16th to September 18th, during which industry members are encouraged to offer their expertise and comments to shape the tool.
The Modern Slavery Act, passed into UK law in March, is the first of its kind in Europe, and one of the first in the world, to address slavery and human trafficking in the 21st century. It includes a Transparency in Supply Chains Clause, which as of October will require companies with a turnover of more than £36 million to publish an annual slavery and human trafficking statement. This turnover threshold will affect over 12,000 companies and their UK and international supply chains.
A new WWF cost-benefit analysis released today of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification on a cross-section of forest operators finds that tropical and small or medium producers, regardless of geography, can benefit significantly from attaining FSC certification.
A new report released today from Rainforest Action Network (RAN) documents decades of human rights abuses suffered by communities at the frontlines of plantation expansion for tree-based fabric production. Lessons from the Incense Forest implicates popular American brands, which RAN has dubbed the ‘Fashion Fifteen’, as being at risk for deforestation and human rights violations in their supply chains. Prominent brands include fashion giant Ralph Lauren, whose Annual General Meeting (AGM) is to take place in New York City this Thursday, August 6th.
This week, a comprehensive special report in The New York Times detailed the very bottom of a systemic epidemic of human rights violations in global supply chains.There are 35.8 million people enslaved worldwide in 2015. One in five is a child. Half are women and girls, according to WalkFree.org.
Today, the US Department of State released its 2015 Global Trafficking in Persons Report, which places countries onto one of three tiers based on the extent of their efforts to comply with “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.” This year’s report maintained Thailand’s Tier 3 designation, its lowest ranking.Greenpeace, which earlier this month released the ninth edition of its Carting Away the Oceans (CATO) report ranking 25 leading supermarkets on the sustainability of their seafood procurement, had this to say:
If you’re a small-scale designer or apparel brand, managing your supply chain efficiently and sustainably can be a challenge. MadeRight, a startup that recently launched out of Y Combinator, wants to change that.MadeRight is helping designers simplify the textile manufacturing process through its consortium of ethical, global factories and its procedures to streamline product movement.
Farmers have tilled the soil - turning it as preparation for planting - for millennia. But that legacy is under scrutiny today as “soil health” has entered the vernacular – at least amongst people aware of prevailing agri-trends such as those recently discussed in the New York Times.
Tradeshift, the fastest-growing supplier collaboration platform, today announced its partnership with EcoVadis, creators of the first collaborative platform providing Supplier Sustainability Ratings for global supply chains. The partnership will give Tradeshift customers access to EcoVadis’ trusted supplier sustainability ratings to solve their supply chain CSR performance monitoring challenges and advance their Sustainable Procurement programs.
General Mills announced a major move toward cage-free eggs this week as part of an updated animal welfare policy that now extends throughout its global supply chain.The Minnesota-based food giant committed itself to 100 percent cage-free eggs for its U.S. operations, a move several other large companies also have taken recently. The company did not set a deadline but said it will work with its suppliers to determine a "reasonable timeline," given the disruption that bird flu has caused to the U.S. egg supply.