Supply Chain
How leading companies, NGOs and solution providers are working to address the myriad issues that can arise in any supply chain.
When It Comes to Sustainable Cotton, Transparency Is Material
Raw material sourcing is more important than ever. Evolving attitudes among brands, retailers and consumers are creating demand for greater sustainability and transparency — starting at the seed and throughout the entire supply chain.
Thai Coconut Giant Partners to Root a Rare Type of Labor Abuse Out of Its Supply Chain
It seems human rights abuses aren’t the only labor issues companies need to watch out for in their supply chains. Here, Thailand-based Theppadungporn Coconut Company details how it partnered to create the first audit scheme specifically designed to uncover monkey labor.
Climate Action Plans: How Do We Know If We’re Making Real Progress?
Cross-Posted from Walking the Talk. In our experience, it’s challenging to proceed from knowing your company’s emissions profile to crafting a climate action plan to reduce it. Successful companies will adopt the right mix of strategies for them — which is where the bigger challenge comes in.
Different Paths, Common Goal: How More Companies Are Providing Living Wages
Paying living wages throughout supply chains can mean changing business models, which can seem insurmountable. But a series of case studies from IDH shows how companies and coalitions are making real progress on their commitments.
5 Consumer Trends That Will Shape How Brands Source, Produce Goods in 2022
Cross-Posted from The Next Economy. Consumer insights demonstrate need for brands to make good on their sustainability and human rights claims, and make it even easier for shoppers to shop their values.
Tony’s Chocolonely Aiming to Spark Further ‘Conversation’ with UK Chocolate Lovers
Cross-Posted from Marketing and Comms. The ethical chocolate maker has released three ‘Conversation Bars’ — available exclusively online and at Waitrose through January 25 — designed to provoke discussion around systemic issues in the chocolate supply chain.
European Retail Giants Drop Brazilian Beef Over Deforestation Linked to Meat Giant JBS
The move comes following an investigation by Repórter Brasil and Mighty Earth that tracked deforestation-linked beef to European retail store shelves. JBS, the world’s largest beef producer, has long been on the radar of environmental NGOs and forward-looking investors due to its destructive practices.
Cotton Laundering Shows Risk of Business as Usual with China
China’s importance to global supply chains as a key source of raw materials and labor puts brands at high risk of inadvertently supporting forced labor. Right now, the focus is on the garment industry; but other industries should pay close attention and ensure they are closely monitoring their entire supply chains.
Integration Technology Can Improve Resiliency, Sustainability in Supply Chain Management
The pandemic-induced supply chain hurdles represent a reboot opportunity for companies. Here, we examine how companies can leverage modern integration technology to both improve supply chain performance and address sustainable supply-chain management practices.
Attention, Business Leaders: Environmental Rights, Human Rights Inextricably Linked
Cross-Posted from Walking the Talk. Perhaps the takeaway of the week is that the ‘next 10 years’ of business and human rights coincide with the 2030 deadline for us to halve carbon emissions — and that environmental rights are now very clearly seen as human rights. Companies pursuing a net-zero strategy must make human rights central, too.
2021 a ‘Landmark’ for Corporate Human Rights Litigation
Cross-Posted from Walking the Talk. On day two of the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, delegates discussed how environmental damage is being viewed as a human rights violation in a growing number of court cases around the world — and that the UN Guiding Principles may increasingly be criteria in court judgements.
Where Is the New Roadmap for Business and Human Rights Taking Us?
As delegates from the UN launched the roadmap at day one of this year's Business and Human Rights Forum, full respect for human rights by business was described as a strategic — not just an operational — issue, requiring a change of corporate culture and of business models.
Natural Resources: Brands Partnering with Indigenous Communities on Forest Conservation
Cross-Posted from Collaboration. Consumer goods brands and retailers aiming to diminish their climate impacts or even become forest positive can find cost-effective solutions to protect forests when they partner with indigenous communities on the ground.
Roots of Change: How Fairtrade Is Unlocking Climate Resilience, Fairer Incomes for Cocoa Farmers
In a recent webinar, representatives from throughout the Fairtrade ecosystem, along with partners Lidl and Tony’s Chocolonely, discussed how the NGO and its partner brands are working to finally make cocoa farming sustainable for producers.
VF Corp Shows How Science-Based Targets Can Help Measure True Progress on Sustainability
Cross-Posted from Walking the Talk. Setting climate targets is one thing, but achieving them has often proven a challenge. According to VF Corp’s VP of Global Sustainability, Jeannie Renne-Malone, part of the reason for the company’s success was due to making sustainability a company-wide effort rather than a niche project.
HowGood Augments Ingredient Sustainability Database with OP2B’s Regenerative Ag Metrics
Brands and retailers using HowGood’s Latis platform can now further improve product impacts using uniform metrics and thus contribute to a global agricultural transition.
How Companies Are Joining Forces, Closing Loops, Optimizing Outputs in Complex Supply Chains
At SB’21 San Diego, innovators in the agriculture, electronics, food and plastics industries shared lessons learned from a variety of initiatives aimed at closing loops and optimizing value chains for a circular, regenerative future.
From Silicon Valley to Rural Africa: Boosting Energy Access with the D-REC Initiative
Cross-Posted from Cleantech. The potential for D-RECs as an instrument for transformative change is limited only by the corporate appetite for renewables, which at this point sees no signs of waning. While the infrastructure is currently being built and finalized, the chance to funnel investments is just around the corner.
Trending: Beauty Brands Building Biodiversity, Better Packaging Solutions
Cross-Posted from Chemistry, Materials & Packaging. Aveda and L’Occitane Group continue to raise the bar for beauty industry sustainability ambitions with new packaging innovations and a ‘nature-positive’ biodiversity strategy.
Scope 3: The Holy Grail of Walking Our Climate Talk
Managing these external emissions is hard, as they often lie outside of a company’s direct control. How do you get a supplier to change its practices? How do we capture these emissions data points? How do we assess the data quality?
