The School of System Change: Because incremental change is no longer adequate
By Mandy McNeill
In this energetic, engaging workshop, the Forum for the Future team sought to
create a ‘brave space’ where we would be free to find bold solutions in the
several exercises performed.
CEO Sally Uren began by presenting Forum for the Future as an opportunistic
global nonprofit that believes systems change is the key to solving many global
challenges — while incremental changes are a step in the right direction, they
are inadequate. System change is self-sustaining, usually global, and a catalyst
for more change. Designing for this type of change is one of the most important
things we can do.
To back up a bit, a system is a configuration of parts connected by a web of
relationships with the following attributes:
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Dynamic, with porous boundaries
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Individual actions may have unintended consequences
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May be nested and are far more connected than anyone imagines
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There are typically rules (think regulations, social norms, etc), and
therefore disruptors or entities that defy those rules
Because systems are so embedded in the workings of our world, they cannot be
considered broken — but just not working optimally. It’s much more helpful to
think of how we can change these systems, rather than attempting to tear them
down and build anew. We need to ask the question, how can we create the system
we desire?
System change is both a process and an outcome. The process involves
understanding the problem that needs solving, or getting to the diagnosis. This
is presented as a question that we are trying to answer — something everyone in
the system can understand and test their assumptions. This whole process is
taught by the Forum for the Future in its School of System Change.
When a diagnosis is reached, the resolution should be well understood, as well,
or it may fall flat. The environment in which a resolution is put forward may
well affect its chances of changing the system. Uren presented a multilevel
perspective of systems for consideration and posed the question: How can we
foster innovation in the niche and bring it into the larger regime using even
larger landscape pressures? A key example of an opportunity in the landscape
today is the pressure of plastic elimination in the environment, where
innovations have a real chance of taking hold.
Lastly, there is never a perfect answer — just answers that challenge
assumptions and keep systems progressing. Uren closed by saying:
“No brand or business is an island; we are all interconnected in building the
systems we want to change.”
The state of supplier diversity: Myths, challenges and opportunities
by Mia Overall
Ron Busby | Image credit: SB
Diversity is not usually talked about in the context of procurement. Ron Busby,
President and CEO of US Black Chambers, Inc.,
is determined to change that. He worked at Xerox, IBM and Coca-Cola
before joining the family janitorial services business, so he knows a thing or
two about entrepreneurship, as well as about life’s hard knocks — he got cancer,
lost his wife and became a single parent to two sons before founding the U.S.
Black Chamber. Now, his mission is to support black-owned businesses, helping
them grow and making them easy to find.
The real issue at stake is black wealth — there simply isn’t enough of it.
According to Busby, the average white family wealth is $174,000, while the
average black family wealth is $17,000. As he notes, that’s not even enough for
a good car.
Yet, black-owned businesses are an engine of growth for individuals and
communities. The US Black Chamber promotes them by working across five pillars:
advocacy, access to capital, contracting, efforts to keep money in
the black community by increasing annual revenues, and by developing other
Chambers to do the same.
The US Black Chamber has teamed up with a number of other nonprofits; and
together, they have launched Black Wealth
2020 — a collective focused on increasing
home ownership, black-owned business and access to credit.
All of these things can be achieved more readily when companies conscientiously
source their goods and services from black-owned businesses.
Busby left the audience with an invitation to be more thoughtful about sourcing:
“In order for there to be a great America, there must be a great black America;
and in order for there to be a great black America, there must be great black
businesses.”
Multi-stakeholder alliances chipping away at complex, opaque supply chains
By Mandy McNeill
Image credit: Jez Timms/Unsplash
This passionate panel shared a wealth of experience gained in some of today’s
most impactful multi-stakeholder alliances working to optimize global supply
chains.
The panelists discussed dealing with imperfection as they work with various
stakeholders. Dan Strechay, Interim Director of Outreach & Engagement and US
Representative at Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), shared that
this can have a “chilling effect on transparency; medium and small growers can
feel like they are putting a target on their back.” For this reason, many
initiatives — such as IRMA (Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance)
— do not push for a pass/fail certification, but rather a rating on a scale.
There is encouraging evidence, however, that consumers are rewarding brands for
being transparent about sustainability goals and their progress towards them.
A question from the audience prompted a discussion around a unified label
representing the various sustainable certifications for consumer brands. While
the lower tiers of the supply chain are pushing for some unification of
auditing, there are challenges. For some that have invested heavily in consumer
recognition of their certification, this would represent an investment loss. As
IRMA’s Senior Policy Advisor, Lara Koritzke, stated: “The power [of the
label] is about the definition of good and the credible assurance of it.” In
order to come to a unified label, it will need to be from a credible source.
Further discussion around policy and consensus-building revealed that the work
of these alliances is not only benefiting those in supply chains, but
governments looking to set up their own regulations. While sometimes slow due to
the consensus-building that these alliances demand, they are most effective when
all voices are heard and different points of view considered. Koritzke gave the
example of the 10 years spent building trust in IRMA in order to produce their
26 chapters of standards for the mining industry. Maya Spaull — VP of
Apparel and Home Goods Manufacturing at Fair Trade USA — emphasized that
while there are many voices, some voices need to be prioritized to ensure that
alliances are making an impact.
The main takeaways of this workshop were:
- We must bring together innovators to find step function changes to
sustainability issues
- We cannot allow the supply chains to remain invisible
- Celebrate progress towards sustainability goals
LUSH, Method talk supply chain transparency and its challenges
By Mike Hower
The theme of supply chain transparency continued with this afternoon panel.
While supply chain is not a new topic in corporate sustainability, it’s more
relevant than ever in an era of increased stakeholder scrutiny. Consumers are
beginning to question what their products are made of, where they come from and
who is making them.
In the session, Pure Strategies Managing Director Tim Greiner led a
dialogue with Heather Deeth — North America Buying Manager at LUSH — and
Saskia van
Gendt,
Senior Director of Sustainability at Method, on the challenges and travails
of building and maintaining a transparent supply chain.
Deeth said LUSH relentlessly pushes for transparency in its supply chain,
relying heavily on partnerships. Its ethical buying team works with suppliers to
develop a currency of trust, which can be used to ensure they are meeting
standards.
“One thing we are sure of is, you don’t get best answers on transparency
through an audit,” Deeth said. “You do it through partnership.”
Audits continue to be a popular method of measuring and reporting on supply
chain transparency — yet they are inherently flawed, since there’s little
telling what suppliers are doing once the auditors leave. Partnerships give
suppliers a sense of license to be good actors as they work to maintain and
improve performance.
Gendt explained that many companies fear proactive communication on transparency
because it might expose them to criticism.
“We want to create a model for how the world should be… but the flip side is
the vulnerability this introduces,” Gendt said.
One of the ways Method has demonstrated leadership on transparency is through
the construction of its LEED Platinum-certified soap manufacturing
facility
in the Pullman District of Chicago, whose location was selected to make a
statement around urban revival. Method clearly communicated around every aspect
of the facility’s construction, so that consumers understand what goes into the
process of making the product.
The key takeaway was that collaborative transparency is key to building brand
authenticity, and this must be delivered through strong storytelling around
sustainability and social impact initiatives.
Bleeding-edge technologies shaping supply chain transparency, traceability
By Mia Overall
Image credit: Sourcemap
"Gone are the days when brands were exposed to risks from deep in their supply
chains. Today, it's possible to trace every product to the source and make
sustainability claims you can believe in." — Leo Bonanni, CEO of Sourcemap
We live in a world of completely globalized supply chains where one product can
have inputs from hundreds of places, or be made by hundreds of suppliers. This
is amazing, yet complex and risky. Technology, however, is rapidly increasing
our ability to track inputs, suppliers and their geographies.
This panel focused on some of the latest emerging technologies making this
possible. It was joined by Leo Bonanni, CEO of Sourcemap; Peter
Girard, CEO of Toxnot; Tara O’Shea, Director of Forests at Planet;
David Potere, Head of GeoInnovation at Indigo; and Jamie Tomkins,
Marketing Director at Oritain — seriously smart technology innovators
focused mainly on product chemistry, food, agriculture, forests and fashion.
Here are a few examples of how they’re changing the game:
Sourcemap is a technology platform that enables brands like Vans and Reeses
to map out their entire supply chain, identify suppliers they didn’t know they
had, measure risk, measure improvements made by direct and indirect suppliers,
and trace products all the way to raw materials. When brands make commitments –
such as to eliminate deforestation in their supply chain – Sourcemap helps
capture the data to bring these commitments to life.
The Toxnot platform helps brands and product manufacturers, and their
suppliers, to easily collect chemical data and identify the presence of
hazardous chemicals. This week, Toxnot announced a
partnership
with Cradle to Cradle assessor MBDC to create an end-to-end traceability
solution from supplier to certification. Companies as well as certification
agencies use it to identify product materials and create customer facing
reports like “declare labels.
Planet acquired Google’s satellites and is using them to monitor
forests and land use around the
world.
Its satellite imagery is being used by agriculture companies to monitor fields,
and verify zero deforestation commitments. Governments and agribusiness — and
increasingly, banks — are using it to monitor land use changes; doing so enables
them to make more money.
“In a climate-constrained world, agribusinesses and investors alike
increasingly recognize the financial materiality of managing land use in global
commodities production and supply. Finally, their ambitions can now be met by
practical and cost-effective management tools.” — Tara O’Shea, Planet
Indigo also uses satellite imaging, as well as AI, to develop a living map
of agricultural supply chains. It provides insights into crop conditions across
the Americas, accurate down to the plot of lettuce that lasts two weeks longer
than the lettuce grown on the plot next door. Its ability to forecast yields is
better than that of the USDA, and brands and farmers both stand to gain.
Oritain use world-leading forensic science to verify the origin of products
and raw materials. Traditionally, these claims would be supported by packaging,
certification, data-trails — all of which are, themselves, susceptible to fraud.
“When it comes to verifying where in the world something comes from, testing the
‘thing’ itself is paramount, and the only way to be 100 percent sure if where it
claims to be from is true,” Tomkins said.
The outcome of technology solutions such as these is that transparency and
traceability solutions are increasingly within reach of brands and consumers.
Product and traceability data is quickly becoming an integral part of how
products are designed, made and marketed, and consumers should continue to
demand more.
Innovators disrupting the food supply chain
by Mia Overall
Image credit: Thrive Algae Oil
There is so much room for improvement within our food system! Our global
population is growing, getting richer and eating more (meat), which is
unsustainable from the perspective of land use, water use and emissions.
Meanwhile, as much as 40 percent of food is wasted. This panel was moderated by
Annabelle Stamm, Senior Sustainability Consultant at Quantis, and
featured three disruptive companies at the cutting-edge of food.
Impossible Foods needs no introduction — the startup is quickly disrupting
the hamburger market with a delicious, plant-based burger, now sold in Burger
King, White Castle and other restaurants across the US.
Rebekah Moses, Senior Manager for Impact Strategy, shared Impossible’s
vision for transforming the global food
system.
Full Harvest — an online marketplace for surplus and imperfect produce — is
on a mission to find a buyer for every edible part of the plant. CEO and founder
Christine Moseley shared her journey into the agtech space — coming from no
background in agriculture but a relentless focus on the right business
incentives.
Thrive Culinary Algae Oil, headed by CEO Pareen Shah, is a cooking oil
made from algae that grows in the sap of a German chestnut tree. It has less
fat, tastes great and takes half as much land as olive oil to produce.
Audience questions addressed some of the big challenges involved in transforming
the food sector — including certification, farmer education, and how to make
harvesting incremental portions of a plant profitable.
Full Harvest’s Moseley discussed the issue of food waste and how we might make
full use of agricultural yields. “There are not enough channels for this waste,”
she said. While much excess food products go to charities, they are not able to
accept the vast majority of what is available.
Part of the solution is doing a better job of finding useful channels for food
surpluses without causing prices to go up.
The discussion also covered how companies can help shape food supply chains to
be better for people and the planet.
“The biggest way to drive effective change on supply chain is to engage all
actors involved in it,” Moses said. “You can do good things with one or two
products; but to make the changes we need at scale, you need to address all the
drivers. If you don’t have a holistic approach to this, the impact is not going
to be optimized.”
The conversation closed on the topic of talking about sustainability in food. In
terms of the hierarchy of messaging, none of the brands leads with
sustainability — they lead with flavor, quality and/or cost savings.
Meanwhile, Full Harvest leads with cost: “I believe anything is possible if you
have the right incentives,” Moseley said, “so I lined up demand and structured
it in such as way there was no risk.”
Shah said Thrive leads squarely on quality. “We’ve had positive reception from
retailers like Walmart, and chefs are excited; but we are still trying to figure
out how to crack the food service market while not being the cheapest.”
“We don’t lead with sustainability,” Moses said. “It’s dangerous as a startup to
be perceived as crunchy granola. We lead with delicious.”
It’s not easy to be a disruptor, but with the help of celebrity chefs, ever-more
discerning consumers and good business models, these brands give us hope for the
future of our food system.
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Founder & Principal Consultant, Hower Impact
Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering best-in-class strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.
Mia Overall is a sustainable business consultant and founder of Overall Strategies, based in New York City.
Mandy McNeil is an entrepreneurial project manager looking to build a better world through teams.
Published Jun 6, 2019 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST