How leading companies, NGOs and solution providers are working to address the myriad issues that can arise in any supply chain.
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."
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Tiffany & Co., Target and over 100 of the world’s leading jewelers and retailers have committed to more responsible metals sourcing by agreeing to abide by Earthworks' No Dirty Gold (NDG) campaign’s Golden Rules.As part of the initiative, the companies will study their metals supply chains, revise their supplier sourcing criteria to include the Golden Rules, increase recycled gold content and seek more responsibly produced metals.
Irish retail giant Primark, which operates across the UK and across Western Europe, today joined the growing number of brands committing to eliminate all hazardous chemicals from its supply chain as part of Greenpeace’s global Detox campaign.
High Liner Foods Incorporated (HLF), the leading North American value-added frozen seafood company, has announced that it has achieved 99 percent of its goal to source all its seafood from “certified sustainable or responsible” fisheries and aquaculture. The company made a pledge in November 2010 to reach this goal by the end of 2013.
This post first appeared on CSRwire's TalkBack blog on January 7, 2014.This is part two of the Creating Sustainable Apparel Value Chains series. Read part one: Transforming the Industry.
IKEA has expanded the use of sustainably sourced cotton in its products to 72 percent, up from 34 percent in 2012, according to a recent announcement.The furniture company uses around 0.6 percent of all cotton grown around the world, and in 2013 sourced 79,000 tons of cotton from more sustainable sources; it used a total of 110,000 tons of cotton in 2013.
This week, Canadian forest-conservation NGO Canopy commended the world’s largest tissue manufacturer, Kimberly-Clark Corporation — global producer of Kleenex, Huggies, Kotex and dozens of other paper towel, diaper and family-care brands sold worldwide — on the release of a cutting-edge study of the existing and potential raw materials for its products. The comprehensive lifecycle analysis (LCA) was authored by the Georgia Institute of Technology, with Canopy bringing independent expertise to the advisory board.
Private sector sourcing commitments from companies such as Unilever, Coca Cola, Starbucks and Home Depot are driving major market growth for sustainable commodities, according to the State of Sustainability Initiatives (SSI) Review 2014.Once thought of as instruments primarily tailored for niche markets, voluntary sustainability standards such as Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and Organic are gaining traction in mainstream markets. The trend towards mainstreaming of sustainability standards is strongest among newer sector-specific initiatives that explicitly target mainstream markets.
Bacardi Limited, the world’s largest privately held spirits company, has pledged to obtain 40 percent of the sugarcane-derived products used to make its rums from certified, sustainable sources by 2017 and 100 percent by 2022 — an industry first — as part of a new global sustainability campaign.Marking the 152nd anniversary of the company’s founding, Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future builds on current programs and efficiencies that reduce water and energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and sets new goals in three primary areas: responsible sourcing, global packaging and operational efficiencies.
It has the potential to benefit 173 million workers in global supply chains and provide livelihood benefits or savings of US $30 billion annually, according to Vodafone and Accenture.What is the ‘it’? It’s a series of six disruptive opportunities for mobile to enhance the lives of workers in global supply chains. Details are laid out in their report, Connected Worker: How mobile technology can improve working life in emerging economies, with corresponding reach, benefits and business case for each of the six:
The Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative (CFSI) reports that it has validated conflict-free smelters or refiners of all four conflict minerals for the first time in the initiative’s five-year history, and is calling on more smelters and refiners to join the effort to become conflict-free by undergoing CFSI’s conflict minerals audit.