Supply Chain
How leading companies, NGOs and solution providers are working to address the myriad issues that can arise in any supply chain.
New Tech Platform Makes Sustainability ‘Common Objective’ for Fashion Companies
A new digital platform aims to make sustainable business decisions easier for the fashion industry. By matching actors along the supply chain and providing data-driven, solutions-focused information, Common Objective (CO) hopes to improve the day-to-day practices of textiles and clothing companies around the world.
eKutir: The Human-Digital Platform Curating the Future of Food
As we get ready to select our semi-finalists for the 2018 Sustainable Brands Innovation Open, we wanted to check in with last year’s semi-finalists to learn about the impacts they continue to have on the business world. Here, we catch up with eKutir Global.
The Hundred People Behind Your Favorite Pair of Jeans
Have you ever stopped to think about how many people were involved in making the clothes you buy? Chances are you have heard about or read The Travels of a T-shirt in a Global Economy or listened to Planet Money’s piece on making a t-shirt. Both are incredibly interesting examinations of the effects of global trade on the fashion industry, developing countries and garment workers.
3 Key Things to Understand About Soil Health
Half of the soil on our U.S. farmland is gone. Conventional agricultural practices and conversion of land to cropland caused this devastating loss. The good news is that the rate of soil erosion has declined, with an even brighter path ahead.
IBM TrustChain Tracks Diamonds from Mine to Finger
Though diamonds in today’s jewelry market are much more likely to be conflict free thanks to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, it can still be difficult to trace individual components back to their exact origins. IBM and a newly-formed consortium of gold and diamond businesses aim to make the jewelry supply chain more transparent through the use of
2018 Promises to Further Raise the Sustainability Bar
As we approach the 2020 deadline for many corporate sustainability pledges, plus the commitments made in the New York Declaration on Forests, sustainable business practices are front and center in the minds of decision-makers. The next twelve months will be pivotal in achieving these goals.
CGF Announces New Sustainability Benchmarking, Recognition Initiative
Choosing from the many existing compliance schemes can be challenging for organisations who strive to work with suppliers that provide decent working conditions, respect the environment and align with industry-approved resolutions.
Creating a #FashionRevolution: How to Campaign for Change
Cross-Posted from Marketing and Comms. Proposing a new idea and convincing others of its validity is no easy task. Even more so when you’re dealing with complex issues such as supply chain transparency, or trying to shift the ‘take, make and waste’ model of the fashion industry to one of circularity.
Report: Pollinator Decline Threatening Supply Chains, Especially Cocoa
Shortages of raw materials, lower crop quality, and less secure supply are just some of the challenges companies may face due to an emerging pollination deficit – and businesses are largely unaware of the risks, according to a new report by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. Around three quarters of food crops depend on pollination, making pollinators worth up to $577 billion annually, of which half comes from wild pollinators. However, pollinator populations are declining rapidly, with more than a third of wild bee and butterfly species facing local extinction.
Counter Culture Coffee, Twin Release Climate Adaptation Toolkit for Coffee Farmers
Climate change is predicted to reduce the amount of arable land suitable for growing coffee by 50% by 2050. Climatic changes are already impacting coffee production around the world, threatening the global supply, and the endangering the livelihoods of the 25 million families who depend on its production.
Greater Linkages Needed to Secure Global Food Supply Chain
Imagine that your local market stall or supermarket aisle is devoid of staple foodstuffs such as maize, apples and bananas, let alone more ‘exotic’ and luxury products such as chili peppers or hazelnuts (the key ingredient of Nutella, which recently caused havoc in Intermarché supermarkets in France when consumers clambered to buy jars of the cocoa hazelnut spread, which were being offered at a 70 percent discount).
GRI, RMI Partner to Simplify, Enhance Reporting on Responsible Minerals Sourcing
Despite stakeholders’ increasing recognition to prevent human rights abuses in the extraction and trade of minerals, public reporting on conflict minerals by companies remains limited, and the quality and comparability of existing reports presents opportunities for improvement.
Hershey Using ‘Cocoa for Good,’ Investing $500M to Support Farming Communities
Cross-Posted from Walking the Talk. The Hershey Company has announced a new comprehensive strategy for cocoa sustainability with an emphasis on addressing pressing issues facing cocoa-growing communities such as poverty, poor nutrition, at-risk youth, and vulnerable ecosystems. Cocoa For Good will involve collaborative programs, partnerships, and a half-a-billion dollars in investments by 2030.
Trending: Sustainable Cocoa for an Ethical Easter?
The week surrounding Easter has the highest consumption of chocolate in the year. For environmentalists, it can be a bitter reminder that many of the world’s primary regions for growing cocoa are experiencing dramatic decline in forest cover as land is cleared for agriculture. Cocoa is the top driver of deforestation in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire; countries that also rank 1st and 3rd for the highest rates of deforestation in all of Africa.
Garment Factories, Palm Oil Suppliers Mapped for End-to-End Traceability
The team behind digital supply chain mapping platform Sourcemap has been busy. Their latest projects aim to bring a new level of transparency to two of the most notoriously difficult to track industries in the world: clothing and palm oil.
A Win for Cocoa Farmers and Forests: Ghana Grants First-Time Ownership of Timber Trees
For the first time ever in Ghana, cocoa farmers have obtained official ownership of non-cocoa trees on their farms. Some 150 farmers in the country’s western region will now be able to include shade trees as part of their business plans, providing additional sources of income in the form of timber while reducing deforestation and the effects of climate change.
How and When ‘Sustainable Paper’ Is Not an Oxymoron
To raise awareness of the importance of forests and sustainable forestry, the United Nations has designated today, March 21, as the International Day of Forests. Paper is still a part of our everyday lives, but one thing people often don’t think about is how their paper choices can still support sustainability. To be more sustainable, it’s not about using less paper, it’s about using the right paper. A key part of the International Day of Forests is education.
Sourcing Soy: The Role of the Private Sector in the Fate of the Brazilian Cerrado
The Brazilian Cerrado — the world’s most biodiverse savannah — is being deforested at an alarming rate. Over 40 percent of the original landscape has already been cleared, largely for the cultivation of soy for animal feed. As major agribusiness companies continue to convert land into soy pastures, what role do these companies — and the businesses around the world who buy from them — play in avoiding further damage to this important ecosystem?
Study Reveals Glass Half-Empty Scenario for Sustainable Supply Chain Practices
New research from Stanford University reveals that the truth behind ethical and sustainable sourcing claims are far more complicated than previously imagined.
Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains: What and How to Measure
Despite decades of intense media and business attention, poor working conditions persist in global supply chains. Even Apple, recently announced yet again as the world’s most admired company by Fortune magazine, has struggled to address this issue.