How leading companies, NGOs and solution providers are working to address the myriad issues that can arise in any supply chain.
I travel a lot for my job and after long days on the road the one thing that gets me through is constancy. I pack basically the same clothes for every trip and try to keep up the same workout routine, but the one place it’s hard to keep things constant is in what I eat. While trying new foods is part of the adventure of travel, sometimes when I’m hot and tired from a few days or weeks in a country thousands of miles from home, all I want is something familiar. At times like that, I turn to American fast food and take comfort in McDonald’s golden arches, the cooling taste of a Coke ICEE from Burger King, or the morning rush of a frosted doughnut and sugar-spiked iced coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts.
Last week, PepsiCo became the latest in a recent string of consumer packaged goods (CPG) giants — including Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills, Kellogg and Procter & Gamble — to announce a new “zero deforestation” palm oil sourcing commitment.
According to a new report by PwC US and the APICS Foundation, new sources of value can emerge when companies broaden their perspectives on sustainability and adopt clear strategies to tap ethical, economic, social — and environmental — levers across their extended supply chains.
Cross-Posted from Behavior Change. When over 1,100 garment workers died in the Rana Plaza factory collapse in April 2013, it shined an unflinching light on the untenable conditions that many in the industry have long been forced to endure. Since then, consumers, activists and other stakeholders around the world have demanded that brands take immediate action to ensure that workers are not only safe, but paid fairly while they’re constructing the clothing we wear every day.
The Avery Dennison Foundation announced today it has awarded a $200,000 grant to the Rainforest Alliance to foster best practices in forestry management, create jobs and increase access to sustainably managed forest products.“As a leader in labeling and packaging, we’re in a unique position to move our industry toward sustainably sourced materials, and that includes investing in the communities that manage natural resources,” said Dean Scarborough, chairman, president and CEO of Avery Dennison. “By working with the Rainforest Alliance, we can improve the livelihoods of farmers and their families while creating economic dividends for the entire value chain.”
Fair Trade USA recently announced that it has certified one billion pounds of Fair Trade coffee since its founding in 1998.The organization says this milestone was made possible by the sustainable sourcing practices of nearly 500 coffee companies, which helped Fair Trade coffee farmers and farm workers earn almost $124 million in Community Development Premiums to date, with $30.8 million in 2013 alone.
In 2013, adidas issued 66 warning letters to suppliers across 14 countries, and terminated nine manufacturing agreements for social and environmental non-compliance, according to the footwear company’s 2013 Sustainability Progress Report, Fair Play, an annual overview of achievements and challenges as well as a progress update on its 2015 sustainability targets.
H&M has formed a strategic alliance with Solidaridad, an international organization dedicated to creating responsible agricultural supply chains, to achieve more sustainable textile production. According to a post on Solidaridad’s blog, the parties have previously collaborated in sustainability projects and are now expanding their collaboration into a multiannual partnership.
At a corporate responsibility summit for global automakers and suppliers near Detroit last week, the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) announced an initiative to accelerate action on conflict minerals, which was identified in a new survey as the most significant issue facing the industry this year.
Mars Incorporated has announced a new sustainable palm oil policy, which commits Mars to both industry-leading standards and to developing a fully traceable pipeline back to known palm oil processing mills by the end of the year. The initiative is supported by the company's new zero-deforestation policy, which focuses on its sources of palm oil, beef, soy, pulp and paper.
The Rainforest Alliance (RA) announced this week it has lifted the suspension of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certificate of Swedwood Karelia LLC, a subsidiary of IKEA, following an independent appeals committee evaluation of the company’s 2013 annual audit.
Global bath and body brand LUSH Cosmetics has committed to removing all traces of mica from its products over concerns that it is unable to guarantee that the mines that extract the product are free from child labor, the Guardian reports.
H&M has announced its commitment to the Business Call to Action (BCtA), a global initiative that aims to accelerate progress towards the UN's Millennium Development Goals. The global clothing company will invest in skills training for an estimated 5,000 people in Bangladesh’s garment industry by 2016.
This post first appeared on CSRwire's Talkback blog on January 21, 2014.
While Ikea has been leading the charge in its use of sustainably sourced cotton and promotion of LED lighting, it apparently should pay closer attention to its wood sourcing — the company recently got a slap on the wrist from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which suspended IKEA’s certification after discovering that the Swedish furniture giant’s subsidiary, Swedwood, has been cutting 600-year-old trees in Karelia, Russia, near the border of Finland.
This post first appeared on CSRwire's Talkback blog on January 14, 2014.Part III in the Creating Sustainable Apparel Value Chains series; see parts one and two.
One fish, two fishRed fish, green fishSick fish, well fishFrankenfish, farm-raised fishSome fish you should not eatOthers that are a treatFrom fish caught with a dolphinTo fish caught far too oftenA glut of boats in the seaSome fish caught responsiblyKnowing which are idealHelps you enjoy your meal
The Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN), a nonprofit dedicated to ending human rights abuses associated with the raw materials found in everyday products, today released a new report, Cotton Sourcing Snapshot: A Survey of Corporate Practices to End Forced Labor. The report includes survey results and ratings of 49 companies in the apparel and home goods industries reflecting steps companies are taking to identify risks and establish procedures to prevent cotton from Uzbekistan picked with forced labor from entering their supply chains.
Social responsibility is an integral element of sustainable development. Since the endorsement of the Protect, Respect and Remedy framework by the UN in 2011, an increasing number of initiatives is starting to require organizations to consider their supply chain impacts when completing Sustainability Rating questionnaires (e.g., the Dow Jones Sustainability Index) or reporting to their stakeholders. The Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) fourth-generation guidelines (G4) added reporting on supply chain-significant and potential negative Labour Rights and Human rights Impacts into GRI's scope.
Today, Apple released its latest Supplier Responsibility report, covering a range of social and environmental issues, according to Apple Insider. Of note, the company says it will reveal the names and certification status of all minerals suppliers in an effort to eliminate the use of "conflict minerals."