SUPPLY CHAIN -
The VOICE Network’s Cocoa Barometer links the range of challenges facing
cocoa-farming communities to pervasive poverty. The IDH’s new, free Living Wage Action Guide helps companies find the path to the best interventions for their situation.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
As always, the goal of our gift guide is to encourage a more conscious approach to gift-giving by highlighting products, services and experiences that create value and benefits beyond short-term gratification for the recipient. Here’s this year’s list of some of the many companies, platforms and products that we’d be happy to support anytime.
WALKING THE TALK -
In 2021, WSL launched WAOO to protect and conserve surf ecosystems around the world. Over the 2022 tour season, it collaborated with community organizations, indigenous groups, surfers and others on activations including replanting native coastal vegetation in Hawaii, removing plastic pollution from Indonesian waterways, and restoring coral reefs in Tahiti.
CLEANTECH -
The second cohort of the IBM Sustainability Accelerator comprises five organizations helping marginalized communities get just and equitable access to sustainable energy resources around the world.
WALKING THE TALK -
Naumi Hotels is raising the bar for eco-tourism with its holistic, conscious model — which includes repurposing existing buildings, incorporating living elements and providing employment for low-income women in India.
FROM PURPOSE TO ACTION: BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE TOGETHER -
In Latin America, where recycling rates remain below 10%, grassroots circular solutions are slowly beginning to scale — thanks to growing legitimacy, education, organization and protections for informal waste workers, who remain the backbone of the region’s collection and recycling infrastructure.
COLLABORATION -
No matter where your company is in its sustainability journey, the sooner it joins or initiates a collaboration with industry peers, the better. This guide should be in every sustainability professional’s back pocket when defining an ESG strategy.
FROM PURPOSE TO ACTION: BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE TOGETHER -
Dow is leading the charge in materials science, but we can’t do that science in a box without thinking about communities and the people within them. Nonprofit partnerships help us dig to the root of the most pressing problems in sustainability, find the best solutions and gain public buy-in to create real impact.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
A gambling corporation may seem like the antithesis of ‘social good;’ but for BCLC, this is exactly why a gambling company should pivot to a social-purpose model: “People can look and say, ‘Hey, if a gambling company can bring in a social purpose; then, surely my company can do this as well.’”
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The dire social and environmental consequences of opaque fashion supply chains have been laid bare; and consumers now demand that brands have clear, verifiable visibility throughout their supply chains. FTC shows that it can be done — but it requires a vastly different way of thinking.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Diageo has committed to cultivating solutions to enable the farmers in its African supply chain — who are particularly vulnerable to the effects of increasing droughts and floods — to maintain steady farming cycles and income in a climate-changing world.
FROM PURPOSE TO ACTION: BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE TOGETHER -
Enabling a circular economy is a complicated challenge that governments, communities and businesses globally are struggling to solve. But as Dow’s work in Africa proves, solutions exist — and success comes when organizations and communities collaborate to create change rooted in local context.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The tea brand’s ‘Regenerative Roadmap’ aims to completely reimagine the way Tazo creates its teas, and plays a key role in industry giant ekaterra’s overarching sustainability strategy.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The two companies known for their passion for social justice and ethical chocolate have joined forces to end modern slavery and child labor in the cocoa industry.
WALKING THE TALK -
Recent findings and the popularity of wildlife tourism show that tour operators should have an animal welfare policy in place alongside other social responsibility protocols that should evolve as new information becomes available. Travel companies needing to develop or update such a policy can begin with the tips below.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Housed in cargo containers, Atarraya’s ‘plug-and-play,’ AI-powered Shrimpbox delivers up to 10x the ROI of traditional poultry or swine
farming, creating new opportunities for farmers — even in landlocked, highly populated areas.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
As she works to transform the company's 130-year-old corporate culture and the implementation of Purpose, we talked with Group Chief Sustainability Officer Ryoko Shimokawa about her vision for sustainable growth for the company and society.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
By investing in SMEs in developing countries, we aim to help them enhance their businesses for the benefit of smallholders — proving they are credible to the local banking sector along the way. Ultimately, our core purpose is to tilt the economic balance back toward smallholders; so they can make a decent living in normal times and survive inevitable price shocks.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
B Lab has updated its B Impact Assessment guidance and standards to align with the IDH Living Wage Roadmap — highlighting more companies’ work on this front will illustrate the feasibility of providing living wages globally.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The three-year-old maker of snacks, coffee and other ethically sourced foods is aiming to show that brands can source from regenerative ag systems; but it will require a real commitment to
working with rural communities who, for too long, have been left behind by the modern food system.