Supply Chain Risk & Innovation - Sustainability analysis by Innovation Forum

CONTENTS
WHAT'S NEW
01 What you need to know –
all the news and analysis
06 Data digest – all the
best research sifted and
analysed
CORPORATE INSIGHT
09 Innovation of the month –
Toyota’s hydrogen supply
chain
10 Corporate comment –
Carlsberg
11 Corporate targets versus
achievements – Mars
13 Corporate case study –
AkzoNobel’s search for
sustainable suppliers
NGOS AND CAMPAIGNS
15 NGO campaigns – who’s
targeting whom and why
18 Activist Q+A – Greenpeace
SUPPLY CHAINS IN FOCUS
19 Sector snapshot – palm oil
22 Supply chain collaboration
– can it really work?
WHAT'S NEXT
26 Preview of what to look out
for in the coming weeks
Anew online information-
sharing platform set up
by the global chemicals giant
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is
expected to result in emissions
reductions within the supply
chain of 25%.
So far, 500
suppliers have
been invited to join
the GSK Supplier
Exchange which they
will be able to use to
share best practice
on energy efficiency
and reducing
environmental
impacts.
The British
business, which sells
healthcare products
like Nicorette,
Sensodyne and
Panadol, spends
more than £2bn a year buying
materials. And more than 40% of
the company’s carbon footprint
comes from the procurement of
those materials.
The company’s head of global
NOVEMBER 2015 // ISSUE 01
risk innovation
risk innovation
Essential insight
• GSK’snewsupplierinformation
exchangeisexpectedtocut
valuechainemissionsby25%.
• Working conditions remain
the top supply chain priority
for business.
• While human rights is a key
concern for companies, less
than half have measures
in place to deal with it
internally.
• More food and drink
companies are aware of their
climate-related exposure in
the supply chain – but less
than a quarter are disclosing
supply chain emissions.
• Nespressoisgamblingon
newproductioninwar-torn
SouthSudan–whichcouldbe
a$10mcoffeeexportmarket
withintenyears.
• Coca-Cola “on target” to
replenish 100% of the water
it uses in its production and
products by 2020 through
water stewardship projects.
THIS MONTH
What youneedtoknow
environmental sustainability, Matt
Wilson, says that the business
established that 65% of suppliers
did not have an active programme
in place to reduce energy costs
– and no one single supplier
has more than a 1%
impact on GSK’s carbon
footprint, making the
task seem huge.
So, it sees the
Supplier Exchange as
the most efficient way
of helping multiple
suppliers – getting them
to talk to each other via
a Facebook-like online
network and share
information, case studies
and documents that will
enable them to make
investment and business
decisions.
In the past 12 months,
GSK has been running energy
reduction workshops at a
number of its supplier sites and
has identified opportunities to
save 5,000 tonnes of CO2
and
reduce energy costs by 20-30%.
500GSK
suppliers
sharebest
practice
onenergy
efﬁciency
andreducing
impacts
GSK expects supplier information exchange to cut value
chain emissions by 25%

SUPPLY CHAIN RISK & INNOVATION
Business and Human Rights.
When it comes to the key issues for
the supply chain of each business, working
conditions (including health and safety),
supplier ethics and transparency, and
wages, benefits and working hours were
named as the top three priority areas.
And the main measures companies are
using right now to create a more
sustainable supply chain are
supplier codes of conduct (with
83% of respondents mentioning
it), considering sustainability in
sourcing strategies*** (68%), and
regular monitoring and auditing of
suppliers (67%).****
While external pressures
– such as NGO activism and
price concerns – continue to be
key drivers for sustainability, a
number of internal changes, such
as a stronger buy-in from senior
management, are starting to have an
impact. Almost 70% of the business
leaders said that sustainability is at least ‘fairly
well integrated’ into the core business. And
this integration is being enabled through a
range of mechanisms, including in products
and services, via strategic planning, new KPIs
and more oversight from the board.
More than 20% of respondents say their
business now links sustainability performance
into compensation for executives or all staff.
In previous years, the same survey found that
internal integration was a persistent challenge,
so the shift is significant, says BSR.
Working conditions remain top
business supply chain issue
The 17 newly-launched UN Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) are starting to be
digested within businesses and are likely to
cascade down into more company policies,
strategies and goals. The 2015 BSR/GlobeScan
State of Sustainable Business Survey reveals
that of the 400 sustainable business
professionals interviewed, a third
said they plan to use the SDGs as
a basis for corporate performance
targets* – with 62% saying they
place a strong priority on “inclusive
growth”.
While 83% of companies say
they are currently prioritising
energy management** and their
greenhouse gas emissions in their
own operations, half report that
they are also managing energy and
GHGs in their supply chains. More
than 50% also say that the COP21
agreement in Paris is “important” to
their business, with most wanting a
“global commitment to decarbonisation” and
“regulatory incentives” to help them get there.
For the seventh consecutive year,
respondents identify human rights, workers’
rights, and climate change as the top three
sustainability priorities for their companies
for the next 12 months. Most companies
have a human rights policy in place (70%),
but less than half focus on implementation
efforts like training or impact assessments.
And less than half have made a public
commitment to the UN Guiding Principles on
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Halfof
companies
surveyedare
managing
energyand
GHGsintheir
supplychains
regularly
monitor/audit
suppliers
67%
****
have focus on
sustainable
sourcing
68%
***
prioritising
energy
management
83%
**
surveyed to use
SDGs for corporate
targets
1/3
*
The majority of companies
in BSR/Globescan survey want
regulatory incentives to achieve
decarbonisation
WHAT'S NEW

Food and drink companies failing to
tackle supply chain emissions
The latest analysis by CDP, which works
with business to help them to disclose their
greenhouse gas emissions for the benefit of
investors, says that most big food, beverage
and tobacco brands are not reporting
agricultural emissions in their supply chain.
In fact, fewer than a quarter are.
According to the UN Food and Agricultural
Organization (FAO), agriculture GHGs have
almost doubled in the last 50 years, and could
jump another 30% by 2050. And that comes
with a price. KPMG warns that inaction
on climate change could seriously disrupt
the financial viability of the food and drink
sector. The most recent drought conditions in
California are said to have cost the agricultural
industry more than US$2 billion so far.
The CDP survey shows that more and
more food and drink companies are aware
of their exposure to climate-related impacts
– and the impact their agricultural suppliers
are having on the planet. 92% of brands have
noted a risk related to the physical impacts of
climate change – up from 84% in 2012.
However, companies are still not
investigating where their biggest impacts lie.
Just 22 of the 97 major brands that disclosed
to CDP this time around actually reported
their indirect GHG emissions from upstream
agricultural production.
According to the data, evidence is
mounting that those food companies that
are taking steps to help suppliers improve
agricultural management, are reaping the
benefit of lower costs. Molson Coors Brewing
Company is mentioned in the analysis. It
shares best practice with the MillerCoors’
wider grower base, and has managed to
create a "showcase" farm that is saving 270m
gallons of water thanks to improved irrigation
techniques, cutting its energy use in half by
reducing the need to pump water. Energy
costs fell from an average of $50 per acre to
$20-$22 per acre.
New tool to help better understand soy
usage – and link to deforestation
The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Soy
Ladder is a new tool designed to help
companies understand where and how soy is
used in their supply chains.
Soy can be found in many food supply
chains and is often used as feed for animals,
as well as many other products such as
margarine, chocolate and cosmetics.
Developed by KPMG, the “soy ladder”
offers a way for CGF’s 400 members to
deal with the commodity as part of their
commitment to achieve zero-net deforestation
by 2020. By downloading and filling in the
document, CGF says companies have a way
of clarifying their soy footprint, showing the
relative impact of different parts of the supply
chain and identifying where their actions
could be causing deforestation.
The group is also working on a supporting
document that provides calculation guidelines
for the measurement of embedded soy usage
in consumer goods businesses.
Nespresso ‘gambles’ on new coffee
production in South Sudan
The premium-coffee capsule business
Nespresso has launched a new coffee
produced in war-torn South Sudan. It’s the
first non-oil export out of the country in more
than a generation and, having revived coffee
production pretty much from scratch, the
company admits that it is a gamble.
Right now, only a small batch of Suluja
has been produced, serving just one market,
MORE AND MORE FOOD AND
DRINKS COMPANIES ARE
AWARE OF THEIR EXPOSURE
TO CLIMATE-RELATED
IMPACTS
Brands note risks
from impacts of
climate change
92%
270m
MillerCoors
"showcase" farm
saves
and cuts energy
costs from $50 an
acre to $20
GALLONS
OFWATER
WHAT'S NEW

France. But the ambition is to scale up
production in South Sudan to create a
permanent range of coffees that sits alongside
its other popular products. But it knows that,
given the challenging social and economic
situations in the country, it might not succeed.
CEO Jean-Marc Duvoisin says it’s a gamble
that the business can afford because of its
strong financial footing – and believes that its
investment of $700,000 (set to be 1.5m by the
end of 2016) is worth it to give its customers
a “new coffee experience”. The venture –
described by Duvoisin as a “giant R&D after
project – won’t pay for itself until it ramps up
production.
Nespresso puts the current successful
progress down to its on-the-ground partner,
the non-profit TechnoServe, which has
spent the last four years establishing where
coffee farms exist, who is running them and
whether there is the potential for the farmers
to become a supplier to Nespresso. Currently,
300 farmers in and around Yei are on board,
following Nespresso’s AAA Sustainable
Quality supplier programme to ensure they
are producing consistently high quality coffee.
The ambition is to grow this to 2,000.
According to TechnoServe, Thailand
currently exports more crops than all of
Africa put together – and it is possible that,
in ten years, South Sudan could have a $10m
coffee-export industry.
Coca-Cola ‘on track’ to be water
neutral by 2015
Drinks giant Coca-Cola has announced
that it remains on target to meet its 2020
water replenishment goal five years ahead of
schedule. That means it will safely replenish
100% of the water it uses in its products
and during production through community
water projects by the end of 2015. It made
the original promise back in 2007 and, if
it succeeds, it becomes the first food and
beverage company to replenish all the water
it uses.
Currently the company’s range of water
projects around the world return 94% of
the water used in finished products, based
on 2014 sales volumes. Since 2005, it has
replenished around 153bn litres of water back
to communities and the environment via
500 projects in 100 countries. Source water
vulnerability assessments are conducted for
each Coca-Cola bottling plant – and then
it is decided what projects will return the
appropriate volume of water. Funded projects
range from providing or improving access
to safe water and sanitation, to protecting
TOYOTA
Water neutrality targets to be achieved this year
Nespresso aiming for
2,000 supplier farmers
FACTS:
2,000
South Sudan looking at
a $10m coffee export
industry
$10m

watersheds and conserving water.
Coca-Cola works with the Nature
Conservancy, LimnoTech and the Global
Environment & Technology Foundation,
to help calculate the volume of water it has
replenished.
However, despite water being a part of its
Sustainable Agriculture Guiding Principles
which is required of suppliers, the water
footprint of growing the agricultural ingredients
sourced by the business is not included as part
of the water replenishment goal.
In the meantime, the UN-backed CEO
Water Mandate has published a new guide
designed to help business better integrate
ethics into their water-related projects. While
there is a growing interest for companies
to collaborate, the body says that early
collective-action projects point to potential
risks for all involved if they are not inclusive,
do not address the issues of most importance
for local stakeholders, and are not carried
out in a way that actually contributes to
sustainable water management. The “Guide
for Managing Integrity in Water Stewardship
Initiatives” claims to help companies ask the
right questions and offer tools to improve
transparency and accountability.
C&A crowd-sources ideas to improve
working conditions in apparel
There is €100,000 on the table for
entrepreneurs and individuals that have ideas
to transform the way the fashion industry
works. The C&A Foundation has launched
Fabric of Change: Innovating for a Sustainable
Apparel Industry – an online competition
inviting ideas and innovations that will “build
a fair and sustainable apparel industry”.
The company says it is a response to
the slow changes being made to working
conditions in factories around the world,
despite the added attention the sector has
received in the wake of the Rana Plaza factory
disaster in Bangladesh, more than two years
ago. Unsafe working conditions, gender
discrimination, and exploitation of garment
workers are among the many challenges facing
the industry, says C&A and it hopes that the
crowd-sourcing of ideas will spark a “change
in mindset” that will help to transform fashion
into a thriving sector.
The so-called Changemakers Challenge
follows in the footsteps of other similar ideas-
sourcing projects, such as the Sustainable
Clothing Action Plan’s Extending the Life of
Clothes Design Awards and H&M’s annual €1
million competition to find new techniques to
recycle clothing. ★
In 2014 Coca-Cola returned
94% water used.
Since 2005, 153bn litres of
water replenished via 500
projects in 100 countries.
€100,000 incentive
for fashion industry
sustainability
entrepreneurs
H&M has an annual
€1m prize for new
recycling techniques
TOYOTA
C&A backs competition to improve supplier conditions
94% €1m
FACT:
WHAT'S NEW

PAGE 6
Essential insight
• Companies are now measuring scope
3 emissions – from suppliers, and the
suppliers of those suppliers. BT is a stand-
out performer.
• Reporting on local procurement spend is a
good way of measuring economic and social
impacts along supply chains.
• European consumers want tight
regulation for sustainable wood sourcing.
78% demand EUTR be applied more
consistently.
• 77% of Coca-Cola Enterprises’ suppliers say
that sustainable sourcing is the issue to
have the most impact on their business.
• UK Modern Slavery Act: 12,000 big
companies will now publish an annual
slavery and human trafficking statement
– and ask suppliers about staff working
permits.
• Prioritising engagement among key
suppliers, by spend or otherwise, is an
effective way of reducing biggest impacts.
• Codes of conduct are effective at
embedding sustainability in supply chains,
say big businesses.
DATA DIGEST
Reportsandresearchsummarised,
analysedanddistilled
Scope 3: measuring upstream
emissions
The growing awareness of how industrial
activity contributes to anthropogenic climate
change is putting companies under increasing
pressure to measure and report their so-called
“carbon footprint”. Businesses’ initial efforts
have concentrated around mitigating and
measuring the greenhouse gas emissions
caused by their direct operations.
Now the agenda is shifting. Given the
influence of large corporations on supplier
businesses, environmentalists see major
business-to-business buyers as a vital lever
for persuading smaller firms to become more
energy efficient. As a result, global companies
are under growing pressure to report on
greenhouse gas emissions in their supply
chain, part of what the technical jargon calls
“scope 3” emissions.
A new survey by consultancy firm
Carbon Clear finds that two-fifths of the
UK’s largest 100 listed companies now report
on non-business travel scope 3 emissions.
The standout company is telecoms firm
BT Group, which is credited with “game
changing leadership”. Using its own science-
based methodology (known as the climate
stabilisation intensity targets), BT has
calculated that it must reduce its emissions
by 80% of its 1996/97 levels. As part of that
goal, the company says it will seek to manage
“all of the carbon emissions from [its] supply
chain – [its] suppliers, their suppliers, their
suppliers’ suppliers”.
According to the World Resources
Institute and the World Business Council for
Sustainable Development (which co-designed
the benchmark Greenhouse Gas Protocol
for reporting scope 3 emissions), the carbon
footprint of a company’s supply chain typically
far outstrips its direct emissions. They cite
US food manufacturer Kraft, which found
that 90% of its emissions relate either to its
suppliers or to the use of its products.
The food sector is a pertinent example.
According to the Environment Protection
Agency, the cultivation of crops and livestock
for food accounts for nearly one-tenth (9%)
of all US greenhouse gas emissions. Within
the food sector itself, 86% of overall emissions
relate to agricultural production, research
by the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research finds.
In light of the above, large food businesses
are increasingly looking to promote
low-carbon agricultural practices among
their suppliers. Of the 97 large food, beverage
and tobacco brands that report their carbon
footprint to investor-focused non-profit group
CDP in 2015, only 22 report on their supplier-
related emissions.
In total, less than one-fifth (18%) of
all the sector’s carbon reduction activities
focus on the supply chain (with the majority
concentrating on their own operations). One
of the few exceptions is SABMiller, the world’s
second largest brewer, which is working on
efficiency measures with its barley suppliers.
The initiative has seen the greenhouse gas
emissions of its barley supply drop by 16%
over four years.
As in many other industries, more than
75% of the food, beverage and tobacco
companies reporting to CDP say that they
engage with their suppliers on a range of
issues. In theory, putting carbon management
and emissions measurement on this list
should not be overly problematic.
WHAT'S NEW

To prove their status as corporate citizens,
companies have traditionally published their
annual charitable contributions. Yet compared
to wages, taxes and procurement spend,
philanthropy represents only a fraction of
their economic impact.
Mining companies are among the first
to make this point clear in their corporate
communications. The new sustainability
report of Australian mining company BHP
Billiton, for example, notes that 42% of the
firm’s procurement budget is directed to local
suppliers. The company reports spending
Sustainable timber campaigners are hoping
that consumer opinion can help sway current
negotiations on illegally-sourced wood from
entering the European Union. The EU Timber
Regulation (EUTR) was introduced in March
2013 to limit imports of products made with
wood from tropical forests or other environ-
mentally sensitive areas.
Nearly four out of five (78%) of European
consumers believe the EUTR should be
applied more consistently across all 28
EU member states, according to a survey
commissioned by the environment group
WWF. A similar proportion (74%) believes
the EUTR should be applied to all wood
products without exemption.
Suppliers providing goods and services to
UK-based companies with a turnover of over
£36m a year can anticipate questions about
the working permits of their employees.
Under the new UK Modern Slavery Act,
which came into force in October 2015,
around 12,000 large UK companies will
now have to publish an annual slavery and
human trafficking statement. Anti-slavery
campaigners hope the requirement will push
them to scrutinise their supply chains more
intensively for forced or trafficked labour,
which affects an estimated 36m people
worldwide. According to a briefing paper by
the supply chain experts Sedex, modern day
slavery generates profits of around $150bn
every year. Migrant groups and indigenous
people are judged to be particularly vulnerable
to forced labour.
an additional 54% within the regions
that it operates, the bulk (75%) of which
concentrates on Australia-based suppliers.
Unlike BHP Billiton, UK-listed mining
giant AngloAmerican uses its latest annual
report to publish its overall local procurement
spend ($1.71bn, equivalent to 14% of available
expenditure). AngloAmerican, which has
large operations in South Africa, also spends
ZAR $39.2bn ($2.89bn) with black-owned
suppliers as part of the country’s racially
selective Black Economic Empowerment
programme.
Procurement spend: emerging measure of economic impact
Consumer power: illegal timber Sustainable sourcing set
to impact suppliers
Audits: modern day slavery
Ahead of its recent annual supply sustainabil-
ity webinar, Coca-Cola Enterprises released a
survey highlighting those sustainability issues
that its suppliers thought would impact their
business most over the next two years.
Sustainable sourcing was cited by more
than three-quarters (77%) of the 150 or so
suppliers surveyed by Coca-Cola’s UK-based
bottler and distributor. The firm’s suppliers
also identified community issues (54%) and
resource scarcity (46%) as areas of emerging
importance.
The webinar included a case study from
Brammer, the Manchester-based mechanical
spare parts manufacturer, which decreased
its carbon dioxide emissions in 2014 by over
a third (35%). Brammer’s carbon reduction
programme included the introduction of
energy efficient lighting across its 17 plants
and upgrades to its vehicle fleet.
S U R V E Y
150SUPPLIERS
SURVEYEDBY
COCA-COLA
PAGE 7
WHAT'S NEW

Global companies often have hundreds if not
thousands of suppliers, leaving them with a
huge conundrum on where to start in terms
of pushing sustainability through their supply
chains. Typically, global corporations will
focus on either their largest suppliers (tier 1
suppliers) or specific procurement categories.
An example of the first is provided
by financial services firm PwC, which
has committed to embed sustainability
requirements into the contracts it has with
its largest 100 suppliers (by procurement
spend) by 2017. Among these “key suppliers”,
nearly three in four (74%) currently provide
PwC with extensive information about their
sustainability performance. PwC’s target is to
increase this proportion to 80% within two
years.
Mars presents an example of a category
approach. The US confectionery and pet food
giant recently updated its sustainable sourcing
strategy to priority on 23 raw materials (up
Sustainability incorporates a range of issues
that companies have not traditionally had
to concern themselves with, from water
availability to human rights.
Heath and safety is a long-term stalwart
of industrial responsibilities, and it remains
on top of the supply chain agenda for
sustainability professionals. Over half (54%)
of the members of the US company-led group
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) who
responded to a recent survey by GlobeScan
cited health and safety as among their top
three supplier-related priorities. Other top
priority areas included supplier ethics and
transparency (50%) and wages and working
conditions (40%).
According to the same survey, codes
of conduct are the most effective measure
to embed sustainability in the supply chain
(mentioned by 83%) of the practitioners
surveyed. Considering suppliers in
sustainability strategies and regular auditing
were also identified as priorities (with
68% and 67% of respondents citing these,
respectively).
On a less positive note, BSR’s members
ranked suppliers eighth in a list of nine
different stakeholders in order of importance.
Only the media ranked lower. Nearly one-
third (32%) cited consumers as the most
influential actor, followed by regulators (12%).
Employees, investors and NGOs occupied
joint third place (11%). ★
Prioritising supplier interventions Health and safety: most
important supply chain issue
from 15 previously). The new entrants include
beef, paper and pulp, and soya, adding to a list
that already included staples such as black tea,
cocoa, coffee, fish and peanuts.
At present, the company sources
100% of its palm oil from the Roundtable
on Sustainable Palm Oil’s mass-balanced
certification programme, of which 84% is
traceable back to its original processing mill.
All of the coffee it buys is also sustainable
certified. The company has further to go to
meet a similar 100% sustainability target for
commodities such as cocoa (currently 36%
of its supply comes from certified suppliers),
black tea (30%) and fish (30%).
Mars recently launched a Fairtrade-
certified version of its popular Mars Bar brand
in the UK and Ireland. The move follows a
similar step in Germany with its Twix brand.
By next year, the company is expected to be
paying $2m per year in Fairtrade premiums to
cocoa cooperatives in West Africa.
30%
BLACK TEA
30%
FISH
36%
COCOA
For more on Mars's targets see p11.
CURRENTLY:
MARS' TARGET:
100% sustainability target for commodities
such as cocoa, black tea and fish
PAGE 8
WHAT'S NEW

INNOVATION OF THE MONTH
Toyota'scarbon-neutralhydrogensupply
Cooperation with suppliers and government are key for Toyota’s clean fuel cell development plans
Essential insight
• Toyota backs hydrogen fuel cell cars – a key part
of their future economic success.
• The company limits the impact of producing
hydrogen to create a carbon-neutral supply chain.
• This helps refine the debate around how/when
hydrogen fuel cells will replace fossil fuels in cars.
The global car manufacturer Toyota is working with
other businesses and the public sector in Japan to create
a supply chain for hydrogen that is carbon neutral. It is
trialling a system which combines the use of renewable
energy and hydrogen fuel cell technology to remove the
carbon impact along the chain.
Hydrogen is usually created through a reaction
between methane and steam. But it can also be
created from water through electrolysis. And it is this
that Toyota has been keen to explore – rather than
creating the required electricity in the usual way, with
fossil fuel-based power, it wants to use clean energy
to remove the emissions along the supply chain. After
all, the overall environmental benefit of hydrogen
is only as strong as the method used to produce it,
Toyota says – one of the key arguments against the
development and use of hydrogen-powered cars.
Smarter production
A recent study by the Swiss Federal Laboratories
for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)
used lifecycle assessment to understand the true
environmental benefits of hydrogen fuel cell cars. It
looked at fuel cells for cars and home heating units,
beginning with the hydrogen’s production, through
the life of the fuel cell and its eventual disposal. The
report concludes that “fuel cells for cars are only
ecologically sound if they are able to run on hydrogen
from renewable energy sources”.
"Today, a small fuel-cell car that uses [traditional]
electricity to generate hydrogen would easily be the
worst option," it adds. "The car would have the same
environmental impact as a luxury sports car.”
So, in a four-year project, a group of companies
– including the Toyota Motor Corporation, Iwatani
Corporation, Toshiba Corporation and Toyota
Turbine and Systems Inc – and government bodies
in and around the cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki
have agreed to collaborate and experiment.
Renewable power
They will develop a system whereby wind power
turns water into oxygen and hydrogen. They will
then create a system that will optimally store and
transport the hydrogen so that it can be used within
the business operations. For example, it will have
hydrogen-powered fork lift trucks within its huge
manufacturing plants and use hydrogen to power
many of its operations, including warehouses and
logistics centres. Power from the grid will only be
used for backup when absolutely necessary and any
excess clean energy produced could be sold to local
utility companies.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, almost half of carbon emissions
(25 gigatons of CO2
) is produced as a result of the
burning of fossil fuels to create electricity and heat for
industry and transport systems.
According to Toyota, the various project partners
involved are still discussing the specifics of the
project and which companies and organisations will
take on which roles. Implementation of new systems
and process is likely to begin in April 2016.
It is not yet clear how much Toyota will save as a
result of this project, but clearly the company is keen
to build a stronger case for the use of hydrogen fuel
cell cars – and sees the creation of a carbon-neutral
supply of hydrogen as part of the answer. ★
gigatons of CO2
is
produced
as a result of
the burning
of fossil fuels
A small fuel
cell car using
'TRADITIONAL'
HYDROGEN
ISTHEWORST
OPTION
TOYOTA WILL USE WIND POWER
TO GENERATE HYDROGEN FROM
WATER
25
CORPORATE INSIGHT

Essential insight
• Engage suppliers on areas of strategic
importance or that have the potential to
deliver most impact.
• Create a common purpose. Collaborate and
share the lessons learned so all benefit.
• Build-in trust mechanisms and maximise
pre-competitive dialogue. A neutral
facilitator can help accelerate this.
CORPORATE COMMENT
Carlsbergcreatescircularapproachtopackaging
To close the loop on its drinks packaging, Carlsberg has had to get a lot closer to its suppliers – a complex and
time-consuming task that has had a “positive spiral”, says Simon Hoffmeyer Boas, director for group sustainability.
Under the Carlsberg Circular Community
initiative, you are working with select
suppliers to close the loop on drinks
packaging. What benefits will this
integrated approach bring to your
business?
Nobody knows the products we purchase better
than the suppliers themselves so cooperating
with them to improve the sustainability
credentials of our major types of packaging
makes a lot of sense. By cooperating instead of
just having a purely commercial relationship,
we can create more trust and a common
purpose for delivering more circular solutions.
How did you decide which suppliers to
reach out to?
We went with suppliers that had a strategic
purpose for the Carlsberg Group or those that
had a product that was interesting from a
circularity or sustainability perspective. We
decided to focus on the main types of primary
packaging to begin with, given the fact that
45% of the total CO2
footprint of our end-to-end
value chain comes from packaging, and 40% of
that from primary packaging.
What have you learned so far?
It’s a huge task to involve all of the different
links in the supply chain. It is not only direct
partners we have to work with, but our partners’
partners and their partners, and so on. The
amount of time that we needed to spend on
analysing our products from a cradle-to-cradle
perspective was a bit of a surprise, it took
30-40% more time than we expected.
But it also showed us that it’s necessary to
do this in order to optimise the sustainability
credentials of our products.
Where might this process deliver supply
chain value first?
To begin with, I think the relationship with our
suppliers and the understanding that if the two
of us can create a more sustainable product, we
will all be better off in the future. Also, gaining
new partners; we get a lot of contact from
people with ideas or products that can help
us make our supply chain more circular. It’s a
positive spiral.
This type of collective collaboration is
not without its challenges. How have you
handled concerns around information
sharing?
We have used the neutrality of the EPEA
(Environmental Protection Encouragement
Agency) to ensure that sub-suppliers feel
confident about giving the very detailed data
we need for the cradle-to-cradle analysis. We
couldn’t do it without this knowledge trust
function because there will always be concerns
around commercial interest.
What level of cost savings do you hope the
Circular Community work will deliver?
It’s clear that our refillable glass bottle when
returned at a lower price than the cost of a new
bottle presents a strong business case for the
circular economy. By developing an innovation
that can attract a new consumer group, such
as our Green Fiber bottle, we have the potential
to make a real difference in terms of top and
bottom line growth.
And what is the risk to Carlsberg of not
taking this approach?
We will face a future of more volatile raw
material prices, increasing costs and consumer
rejection. We believe that, in the future,
unsustainable products will be more expensive
than sustainable ones.
Did you have to set any ground rules
regarding dialogue?
The ground rule was, "listen guys – we’re all
interested in optimising packaging from a
sustainability perspective, let’s try to do this
together". We’ve actually seen cooperation rise
between partners; new types of linkages have
been created that don’t necessarily involve us,
and that’s exactly what we were hoping for.
Once we have optimised one packaging type,
our suppliers will be able to commercialise
these achievements by selling the products
to other customers as well. We want to have
the benefit of being the first, but the work
shouldn’t be held exclusive to us – it needs to
be disseminated to other players as well to
achieve true scope and scale.
Looking ahead, how might this work at
scale?
We have a target of involving 17 partners in
the Carlsberg Circular Community by 2017.
This is only the tip of the iceberg, the work
going on will affect many more partners and
sub-suppliers than the primary ones we are
working with. We believe it’s better to select a
few strategic suppliers and optimise products
with them than having a lot of partners where
we might not make as big an impact. ★
total CO2
footprint
from packaging45%
SUPPLY CHAIN RISK & INNOVATION CORPORATE INSIGHT
PAGE 10

PAGE 11
TARGETS VERSUS ACHIEVEMENTS
Marstoreview‘modest’sourcingtargets
In this section we compare what a company said it would do with what it has actually achieved. This time, the
focus is on Mars – meeting current certification targets is not evidence of building a truly sustainable supply chain,
the business admits. So, where does it go from here?
Essential insight
• Mars is on track to meet
the targets it set to source
five key raw materials from
certified sources.
• It met its palm oil and coffee
goals early and is set to easily
meet 2020 goals for fish, tea
and cocoa.
• Mars' CSO Barry Parkin says
that the goals to buy certified
raw materials is modest
and is not evidence of true
sustainability.
• Now, it will set new, beyond
certification goals against
23 raw materials – with a big
focus on tackling greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions, water
use, land use, farmer income
and human rights.
• 93% of Mars’ GHG emissions
are created within its
extended supply chain.
TARGET PROGRESSRAW MATERIAL
ACHIEVED
Done. As of 2014, Mars
purchased 100% of its coffee
beans from certified sources
100% CERTIFIED
Purchase 100% of coffee beans
from certified sources by the
end of 2013
FISH
NOT THERE YET
As of 2014, Mars purchased
26% of its fish and seafood
products from sustainable
sources
100%SUSTAINABLE
Purchase 100% of fish and
seafood products from
sustainable sources by
the end of 2020
NEARLY THERE
As of 2014, 84% of the palm
oil Mars sources can be
traced back to a known mill
FULLY-TRACEABLE
To develop a “fully-traceable
pipeline back to known palm oil
mills” by the end of 2014 PALM OIL
NOT THERE YET
36% of its cocoa from
certified sources
100% CERTIFIED
Purchase 100% of
cocoa from certified
sources by 2020
COCOA
NOT THERE YET
32% of its black tea from
certified sources
100% CERTIFIED
Purchase 100% of
black tea from certified
sources by 2020 TEA
COFFEE
CORPORATE INSIGHT

INNOVATION FORUM COMMENTARY
ENGAGING BIG AND SMALL SUPPLIERS ALIKE
As a global confectionery and petfood business, Mars has a big and
complex supply chain with numerous challenges in attempting to source
sustainably-produced commodities. Its latest Principles in Action report
highlights the progress it is making in sourcing more responsibly, with a
focus on the five key commodities of palm oil, cocoa, tea, coffee and fish
which make up the majority of its products – from Mars chocolate bars
and Dolmio pasta sauce, to Whiskas cat food.
Certification focus
Acknowledging the uphill struggle it faces in helping to shift large-scale
agricultural markets to produce more with less, the family-owned
business has focused its efforts on purchasing raw materials from
sources that adhere to the standards set by the big certification bodies,
such as Rainforest Alliance, UTZ Certified, Fairtrade International and the
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
With commodities most widely served by certification – palm oil and
coffee – it has unsurprisingly made strong progress. And with targets to
purchase 100% certified tea, cocoa and fish by 2020, the company is on
track to meet those targets fairly easily.
Supporting smallholders
Its biggest challenge – like many big corporates – is in supporting the
more than one million smallholder farmers that supply the business,
many of which are the some of the poorest people in the world. Its
scientific research programmes, like the Cocoa Genome Project which it
launched with IBM and the US Department of Agriculture to sequence,
assemble and annotate the cocoa genome – will be crucial in helping
these farmers to identify traits of disease resistance, boost their yields
and incomes, and improve water and nutrient efficiency.
As Mars’ global sustainability director, Barry Parkin says, in terms of
tackling its big supply chain impacts and risks, the business has barely
scratched the surface. And it is not alone.
MARS COMMENTARY
TARGETS NOT THE END POINT
BARRY PARKIN, GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY DIRECTOR, MARS
We’re bang on track towards meeting all of these targets. With something
like palm oil, the RSPO certification system means that we achieved this
early. But certification doesn’t necessarily mean sustainability. We set
these initial targets based on existing certification systems, knowing that
it was a step in the right direction, but that it wasn’t the end point. Yes,
we feel good that we’ve made these certification targets, but we know we
have a lot more work to do.
Beyond certification
All of the responsible companies operating in palm oil have pretty
much achieved RSPO certification – but they have also set themselves a
standard that is higher than that. The same is true with cocoa, with the
industry working together to set out what truly sustainable cocoa looks
like, with a focus on farmer productivity and community development
work. Certification is helpful, but not sufficient. We know that achieving
our certification goals is not an issue, and we want to challenge ourselves
by looking at some new long-term goals.
Critical impact areas
So, we are looking at our critical supply chain impact areas and are going
to set three environmental goals – for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,
water usage and land usage – and two socio-economic goals – for basic
human rights, and income levels. These are five impact areas we should
be taking responsibility for in our extended supply chain.
Wehavemappedourentirerawmaterialsupplychainforthe50different
rawmaterialsthatwebuy–whichhasledustotheconclusionthatthere
are23criticalrawmaterialsthathavematerialimpactinoneormoreof
thosefiveareas.Wewillbedevelopingnewtargetsandstrategiesforall23.
Certificationwillbeusedsomeofthetimeasausefultool.Butweneedmany
otherstrategiestooifwewanttoboostthesocio-economicsituation.
Modest commitments
What we have committed to so far is modest. We are going to be looking
at fives times as many materials, with much more challenging targets
and goals. And next year you will see that emerge.
We have been through this process to tackle our own operational impacts.
For instance, we have a target to reduce our GHG impacts to zero by
using more clean energy and improving efficiencies within our factories
and offices. And now, we will be applying a similar process across our
extended supply chain, which accounts for 93% of our overall GHGs. It’s a
monumental challenge. But you won’t find any corporates that have set
truly sustainable targets for dealing with their supply chain impacts. ★
BIGGEST CHALLENGE:
supporting one
million smallholder
farmers.
CORPORATE INSIGHT

Essential insight
• AkzoNobel wants to increase bio-based
chemicals in its products, a challenge
in an era of low oil prices.
• Successrequiresengagementnotjust
withdirectsuppliersbutwiththeirsuppliers
aswell.
• Collaborations – even with much smaller
companies – must be true partnerships
to be successful.
• Patience required: change can take time.
CORPORATE CASE STUDY: AKZONOBEL
Innovateanddevelopnewsupplychainpartners
In search of suppliers of bio-based materials, AkzoNobel is finding new partnerships along its value chain
The chemicals industry is like an oil tanker,
says Peter Nieuwenhuizen, research,
development and innovation director
of business area speciality chemicals at
AkzoNobel, the Dutch chemicals and coatings
company.
He is not referring to the extent to which
the sector relies on oil as a feedstock, although
that is relevant to his point. Rather, he says,
of the company’s attempts to replace fossil
fuel-based chemicals with products based
on natural materials: “If you want to change
course, it is a very slow process.”
AkzoNobel started looking at this four
or five years ago, he says, driven by two
big developments. The first was the extent
to which some of its raw materials were
vulnerable to fluctuations in both the supply
and price of oil and gas. The other was a
desire to move to more sustainable ways of
producing.
The change challenge
“In the industry we have around 100 years’
experience of converting oil into materials.
When you have a system that has been
highly-optimised over the last century it is a
challenge to change,” says Nieuwenhuizen.
While there are quite a number of
products that can be made from bio-based
chemicals, it is a challenge to make them cost
effective. “Our customers by and large have
a ‘green’ mind-set. If we offer them products
with sustainability benefits at the same price
as non-sustainable products, they are happy to
buy them. But they are not generally prepared
to pay a premium so we have to find situations
where we can provide more sustainable
chemicals at the same cost as the fossil fuel
incumbent,” he adds.
He highlights three examples of bio-based
chemicals the company is working on. The
first is epichlorohydrin, a compound that is
used to make epoxy resins that are used in
paint. Under the trade name Epicerol, Solvay,
the Belgian chemicals company, makes the
material out of glycerol, a by-product of
vegetable oils.
Solvay is a company that AkzoNobel was
aware of – as a supplier to the company’s
own suppliers. The epichlorohydrin that
Solvay makes is price-competitive with fossil
fuel alternatives so AkzoNobel was keen to
develop its use in the company’s products.
Nieuwenhuizen and his colleagues got in
touch with Solvay to ask how they could
supply more.
Speak to suppliers' suppliers
The initiative has momentum because
both companies are looking to make their
businesses more sustainable; by 2016,
AkzoNobel aims to source 20% of its total
epichlorohydrin demand as bio-based
material.
But one of the challenges was the fact
AkzoNobel is not a direct customer of Solvay’s
as its coatings unit buys epichlorohydrin from
other suppliers.
“It is not enough to tell your suppliers
you want bio-based chemicals. They may say
they don’t know how to do it,” Nieuwenhuizen
points out. “Sometimes you need to go one
or two steps back to try to solve the problem.
So we were talking to our suppliers, who
are Solvay’s customers. How do you do that
without the supplier feeling that they’re being
squeezed?”
The answer is to be transparent in your
dealings with all suppliers – and to ensure
that the benefits from innovation and new
developments are shared among all who have
helped along the way.
The second example is a collaboration with
Solazyme, a US-based company that makes
chemicals out of algae. The company is able
to make different products by modifying the
algae it uses as a feedstock for applications
ranging from food to fuel to beauty products.
“We identified a particular oil that is very
important in our supply chain but where we
Headquartered in Amsterdam,
the Netherlands. More than
47,000employees in 80 countries
worldwide
Big driver for AkzoNobel:
raw materials vulnerable to
ﬂuctuations in oil and gas supply
CORPORATE INSIGHT

Unique partnerships
AkzoNobel’s experience of working with
three different suppliers shows that every case
is different. Solvay was looking for a large
downstream customer to confirm the wisdom
of its own efforts to grow its bio-based
chemicals business, while “start-ups can be
looking for money to continue their research
or validation of their approach with their
own shareholders. It’s important that we can
find situations where we can help each other,”
Nieuwenhuizen says.
He adds that collaborations have to
be true partnerships to be effective. “Big
companies have a tendency to want to lay
down the law. If you approach a start-up like
that you are bound to fail – any partnership
goes through highs and lows. You need some
relationship capital to get through the lows.”
Choosing the right partner is also crucial.
“For every partner that you see, we looked at
probably another nine in varying levels of detail
where we couldn’t make it work. But having
said that, we were surprised by the number of
partners we did find. There is a tremendous
amount of innovation going on.” ★
are seeing supply bottlenecks.” The solution:
“We are helping to fund Solazyme’s R&D into
the product and when it is ready we have
agreed a multi-year supply agreement for
up to 10,000 tonnes of renewable algal oils,”
Nieuwenhuizen says.
The oil under development, which
should be in AkzoNobel products in about
three years’ time, will be able to replace both
petroleum and palm oil-derived chemicals,
not just at a lower overall cost but with
better performance and less impact on the
environment.
Alternative production methods
The third collaboration is with another
US-based start-up, Zeachem, which will
supply AkzoNobel with acetic acid, which is
used to make thickeners for paint. Zeachem
has managed to isolate the micro-organism
that lives in the guts of termites and uses it
to convert wood into acetic acid and a range
of other products. Acetic acid is traditionally
produced from petrochemical feedstock.
“We are currently looking at the viability
of building a manufacturing plant in the
north of the Netherlands to use this process,”
Nieuwenhuizen says. “However, it is not
straightforward because acetic acid is very
cheap. We need to be able to make the
numbers add up.”
Making bio-based materials viable in a
world of low oil and gas prices is a challenge, he
stresses. “It does make it more challenging to
make the numbers work, but it doesn’t weaken
our desire to do this, and it is certainly possible.”
Oils from algae can replace petroleum products
Making bio-based materials
viable in a world of low oil
prices is a challenge for
AkzoNobel.
Be transparent in dealings
with suppliers and share the
beneﬁts of innovation.
World-leading paints and
coatings companies, with
brands including Dulux,
Sikkens and Eka.
2014 revenues of
€14.3bn
AKZONOBEL FACTS:
€360m
Invests more than €360m
annually in research,
development and
innovation.
A major producer of
speciality chemicals, used
in a range of industries
and applications.
CORPORATE INSIGHT

ACTIVISTS AND CAMPAIGNING
Who’stargetingwhomandwhy?
Fossil fuel suppliers under fire, water use in agriculture, and pressure on Cargill, PepsiCo and Amazon
Essential insight
• First ever human rights complaint issued
against big carbon emitters, calling for
more accountability over impacts of
climate change on Filipinos.
• Quality of irrigation water used for
Californian crops called into question,
with fresh produce firms such as Bee
Sweet Citrus in the spotlight.
• WRI tracking tool claims APP suppliers
are responsible for “majority” of Indonesian
haze. APP denies it.
• Cargill’s latest forest policy is not
good enough, says Greenpeace, which
wants extended soy moratorium, among
other things.
• PepsiCo urged to close the “massive
loophole” in its palm oil sourcing policy
to include Indonesian suppliers.
• Amazon called on to stop selling Monsanto
Roundup, which contains herbicide the
WHO says is dangerous to human health.
First ever human rights complaint
for fossil fuel polluters
In a world-first, typhoon survivors along
with a number of environmental campaign
groups in the Philippines, have filed a national
petition at the country’s Commission on
Human Rights (CHR) because they want
big oil and gas companies to be accountable
for the suffering, and numerous deaths,
of millions of Filipinos affected by climate
change disasters.
The 40-page petition produced by the
group, which is led by Greenpeace Southeast
Asia, is demanding an investigation into
the activities of the 50 largest fossil fuel
and cement companies in the world – the
so-called Carbon Majors. They are calling on
the CHR to look into whether the polluting
companies have breached their responsibilities
to respect the rights of the Filipino people
and to recommend legislation that will
protect human rights through “appropriate
mechanisms and standards for corporate
reporting of human rights issues”, especially
on climate change impacts; and to request the
submission of plans from the Carbon Majors
as to how they will limit or prevent such
violations in the future.
The 50 companies, including ExxonMobil,
Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and
ConocoPhillips, are a subset of the 90 legal
entities that are said to have contributed the
lion’s share of cumulative global CO2
and
methane emissions in the earth’s atmosphere,
as identified by peer-reviewed research.
The groups behind the complaint – which
range from Amnesty International and Avaaz,
to the Center for International Environmental
Law and the International Trade Union
Confederation – want an investigation to be
launched by the end of this year. Regardless
of how successful the campaigners are – and
they do face an uphill battle against some of
the biggest companies in the world – the case
is seen as a significant moment in establishing
the moral and legal precedent that big
polluters are able to be held responsible for
human rights infringements resulting from
fossil fuel activities. The key argument is that
the Carbon Majors have benefited financially
despite having knowledge that there is harm
being done by their products.
None of the 50 companies have yet reacted
to the petition.
Island nations in the Pacific including
Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Fiji and Solomon
Islands have also declared their intent to bring
legal action against big polluters.
Earlier this summer, a court in the
Netherlands ruled that the Dutch government
is putting its citizens in danger by failing to
address greenhouse gas emissions and ordered
it to reduce CO2
emissions by 25% by 2020
compared to 1990 levels. The case – the first
of its kind – was brought by 900 citizens with
the Dutch NGO Urgenda. Now, similar cases
in Belgium and Norway are likely to have a
similar outcome.
Major energy suppliers under new pressure
Can Carbon Majors be held
responsible for human rights
infringements resulting from
fossil fuel activities?
NGOS AND CAMPAIGNS

What sort of water are your suppliers
using to grow crops?
Almost 40,000 people have signed a Courage
Campaign pledge to boycott a number of
fresh produce companies based in California
after it emerged that they might be using
contaminated oil industry wastewater to grow
their crops.
It all started with an article published by
Mother Jones, which claimed that Wonderful
Citrus, Sunview, Trinchero Family Estates and
Bee Sweet Citrus were using water coming
from a wastewater treatment site where oil
companies provided half of the water supply
in 2014. According to the LA Times, Chevron
is one of those companies and it recycles 80m
litres of water every day which is then used on
the local crops.
The Courage Campaign asked people to
question why the corporations in question
think it is okay to irrigate their crops with
oil wastewater which might lace them with
carcinogens.
Essentially, oil companies have been
keen to sell the wastewater generated by oil
extraction because of tightened regulations
about how it can be disposed of, and given
the severe droughts experienced across
California, the campaign suggests companies
have turned a blind eye to what might be in
the water. It points to a test carried out by the
environmental group Water Defense which
found “high levels” of the toxic compounds
acetone and methylene chloride in wastewater
from Chevron used for irrigation purposes.
It also found some oil which was supposed to
be removed during the wastewater recycling
process.
Speaking to Mother Jones, James
Sherwood from Bee Sweet Citrus, says that all
farming operations receive some water from
the water district in question and hoped that
more would be done to raise awareness of the
need for more above-ground water storage
in California. Meanwhile, Edwin Camp from
DM Camp & Sons, which supplies Trinchero
Family Estates, says that the water being used
“has been well-proven for 20 years that it’s
fine”. The other produce companies have yet
to respond.
Indonesian haze blame game
The haze caused by southeast Asian forest-
burning fires sent Singapore’s three-hour
Pollutant Standards Index (a measure of
air quality) into the “very unhealthy” range
on numerous occasions during September.
The air pollution led to school closures and
flight disruptions across Malaysia, and,
in Indonesia, a few children died due to
respiratory failure.
The Singapore newspaper The Straits
Times investigated the story, using data from
the World Resources Institute (WRI)’s Global
Forest Watch (GFW) Fires online platform
– which overlays data from fire hotspots
detected by NASA satellites with information
on agribusiness concessions – it claimed that
more than 400 forest fires had been spotted
on pulpwood concessions in Sumatra during
early September – and that the “majority of
the companies” involved are suppliers to Asia
Pulp & Paper (APP).
APP has been quick to deny the claims,
saying that the reports painted a “misleading
impression of the reality on the ground”.
The company’s head of sustainability Aida
Greenbury argues that just because a fire
was detected on a concession area, it doesn’t
necessarily mean the company had anything
to do with starting it.
The GFW data showed that between
5th and 12th September, 54% of all fires
began outside concessions, while pulpwood
plantations accounted for 41% of the blazes,
with palm-oil and logging concessions making
up the remainder. However, the WRI admits
that the information, gathered from remote
sensing snapshots, was “limited” and can’t
determine exactly who is causing the fires.
Contaminated water in food supply chains?
PULPWOOD PLANTATIONS:
41%ﬁres in
mid-September
NGOS AND CAMPAIGNS

Greenpeace demands more from
Cargill despite renewed forest policy
Put your head above the parapet and you can
expect an NGO to take a shot. But when a
company appears to move the goalposts on
targets, is it fair game?
Like a number of big businesses, food
giant Cargill used the occasion of the first
anniversary of the New York Declaration on
Forests (NYDF), a multi-sector commitment
to safeguard the world’s forests, to issue a new
policy on forests.
By signing the NYDF agreement, it was
already promising to help halve deforestation
by 2020 and end it completely by 2030. Now,
the new policy and a series of action plans
go – as the company sees it – a step further
by giving the specific measures it will take
to reach the goal, including: staying on track
to meet sustainable palm oil procurement
from Indonesia and Malaysia; supporting an
extension of the Brazilian soy moratorium
indefinitely and helping to implement the
Brazilian Forest Code; and continuing
to grow a sustainable soy programme in
Paraguay, complying fully with the existing
local forest code.
But Greenpeace says the company’s new
policy still falls short in a number of areas.
Matt Daggett, the campaign group’s global
forests campaign leader, says that Cargill was
failing to uphold its original commitment to
eliminate deforestation along its agricultural
commodity supply chain by no later than
2020 with a “weak 2030 deadline” for most
commodities, which gives it “another ten years
to profit from forest destruction”.
Instead, it wants the business to extend
its soy moratorium to cover more South
American rainforests – and then introduce
something similar to protect Indonesia’s
forests from palm oil. “Only then will Cargill
begin to achieve the ambitious goals it has set
for itself,” he says. Cargill has yet to respond to
Greenpeace’s demands.
‘Tell Pepsi to close its palm oil
loophole,’ says ILRF
The International Labour Rights Forum
(ILRF), along with other campaign groups
including SumOfUs and the Rainforest Action
Network (RAN), have been collectively
campaigning against PepsiCo’s commitment
to responsible palm oil sourcing. They say that
while the company’s latest sourcing policy
for palm oil might look good on paper, it
has a “massive loophole” in that one of the
companies that produces the firm’s products
in Indonesia, called Indofood, is exempt from
meeting the standards.
Indofood is the third biggest palm oil
business in Indonesia and, according to ILRF,
it also has a history of treating workers badly
and forcing communities off land.
Gemma Tillack, the RAN’s agribusiness
campaign director, described Pepsi’s
latest palm oil commitment as a “missed
opportunity” adding that any serious
responsible stance has to include Indonesia.
Pepsi has a good opportunity to react
when it publishes – due before end of
2015 – its action plan for implementing the
new guidelines. In the meantime, multiple
campaigns will continue to urge consumers to
voice their opinions.
Amazon under fire for selling
Monsanto Roundup
SumOfUs says it is baffled that Amazon is
still selling Monsanto Roundup weedkiller
even though the World Health Organization
has deemed the product to contain an active
ingredient that is “probably carcinogenic to
humans”.
According to the campaign group, the
scientific evidence against the herbicide
in question, glyphosate, is mounting, with
Monsanto “furiously scrambling” to rubbish
the science. So, it has decided to target up the
supply chain, focusing on the biggest retailers
of Roundup and is calling on its audience to
ask the world’s biggest online retailer Amazon
to stop selling Roundup – a move it says
would have “enormous impact”.
Glyphosate can be found in surface water,
groundwater, soil and even in humans – and is
said to be pushing some crops and species to
the verge of extinction.
SumOfUs has got previous with this
type of campaigning. Around 750,000 of its
members called on a range of retailers in the
US to stop selling pesticides that were known
to kill bees – and Lowe’s and Home Depot
took action, removing products containing
neonicotinoid pesticides from their shelves.
In 2013, Amazon moved to stop selling
foie gras on its UK website after animal
welfare campaigners piled on the pressure.
SumOfUs hopes it will do the same again, to
stop selling a product it says as “no place in
the 21st century”. ★
Roundup: the usual suspects
Cargill commits to more sustainable soy
NGOS AND CAMPAIGNS

It’smuchbettertoswitchtotoxic-freeproduction.
Ultimately, you are calling for outdoor
brands to eliminate the use of PFCs. How
can they work with suppliers to do this?
This is certainly a challenge. One difficulty is
transparency. We are asking brands to work
with their suppliers to publish discharge data
from their factories. This is an important first
step. From the work we’ve done on our Detox
Fashion campaign, we have seen that it’s
possible; we have more than 30 brands who are
implementing a Detox commitment and part of
this is to publish discharge data.
It’s also important to ensure that the
criteria brands are asking of their suppliers
is being implemented. This means not only
testing the discharge water, but also the
formulations of the chemicals being used and
the product itself.
The Detox Fashion campaign has been
running since 2011. Now you are taking it
outdoors, challenging outdoor clothing
brands to eliminate toxic chemicals from
their supply chains. What chemicals are we
talking about, and why the urgency?
Themainchallengefortheoutdoorsectorin
termsoftoxicchemicaluseisagroupcalled
PFCs–per-andpolyfluorinatedchemicals.
Theyareverypersistentchemicals–once
theyarereleasedintotheenvironment,they
takealongtimetodegrade.Someofthemare
bioaccumulative,theyaccumulateinthefood
chaincausingallsortsofadversehealtheffects.
PFC contamination is highest during
the manufacturing process, when
the compounds are released to the
environment. Can factories take any
measures here to contain their release?
The problem is that these PFCs can’t be
completely removed even with the most
modern wastewater treatment plants. You
really have to eliminate them from the
production process. Once they are in the
environment, it’s difficult to deal with them.
Wedon’tthinkit’sagoodideatousehazardous
chemicals,andthentryandmitigatethedamage.
Some brands have set elimination dates for
the use of PFCs in their products by 2020.
This is positive, isn’t it?
It’s a good first step in the right direction. Most
of the major brands are saying they want to
eliminate PFCs at some stage in the future,
but they haven’t set a timeline. However, the
urgency of the situation requires action right
now – we think 2020 is not ambitious enough,
especially considering there are PFC-free
alternatives already on the market.
Others argue that PFC-free alternatives
just aren’t good enough in terms of
performance.
We don’t agree. There are smaller brands out
there using these alternatives and we have
tested them ourselves. Some major brands
claim these alternatives aren’t durable enough,
but none of them have made reference to any
studies showing this. We do agree durability
is an important issue, but there are examples
of smaller brands using PFC-free clothing in a
closed loop recycling process.
How do the cost-benefits of detoxing weigh
against the risks of not doing so?
A brand risks being associated with using
hazardous chemicals for their products. It’s
foreseeable that more PFC substances will
be regulated by governments. If a brand is
switching from long-chain to short-chain
PFCs now, instead of switching to PFC-free
alternatives, they risk having to switch again
in a few years, when short-chain PFCs get
regulated as well. It’s more cost-effective to do
only one switch to PFC-free alternatives. ★
Essential insight
• Accentuate the positive. NGO campaigns
scrutinise, but the revelations help assess
and manage supply chain risk.
• Enforce policy through evidence gathering.
Demand data and spot-check suppliers.
• Be proactive, not reactive. Think first-
mover advantage. It pays to be ahead of
regulation.
CAMPAIGNER Q+A
Brandsurgedtocutouttoxinsfromclothes
Greenpeace wants brands to eliminate the use of PFCs when making clothes – and setting 2020 targets is not
ambitious enough, says Mirjam Kopp, project leader of the Detox Outdoor campaign
Don't risk being associated
with hazardous chemicals
in your products.
now implementing a
Detox commitment
30BRANDS
Greenpeace wants brands
to work with suppliers to
publish discharge data from
their factories
SUPPLY CHAIN RISK & INNOVATION:
PAGE 18
NGOS AND CAMPAIGNS

oil,” says Katie McCoy, head of the forests
programme at Carbon Disclosure Project. “I
think we can be positive about the momentum
and attention it has received but we need to
be cautious because clearly things are not yet
quite right.”
Supply/demand gap
Morley agrees that there remains much work
to be done. “Today only half of the palm oil
certified as sustainable is sold as such and
there remains a gap between supply and
demand. It also remains the case that certain
markets are further ahead than others in
terms of the amount of sustainable palm oil
they use,” she says.
However, despite the focus on the
problems of palm oil cultivation, “it’s not
an evil crop”, says Keller. In addition to its
versatility, palm oil is also very productive, she
points out. The yield (amount of oil produced
per hectare per year) is far greater than for
other vegetable oils, while production costs
are lower, mainly due to low labour costs in
the countries in which palm oil is grown.
“The problem is with how it is produced,”
Keller says, but she says that a boycott is not
the answer. “If we were to substitute all the
palm oil we use with other oils, we would
need nine times as much land, which would
make the deforestation problem even worse.”
RSPO too slow?
RSPO wants more consumers to demand
products made with sustainable palm oil. The
group has set a target in Europe to achieve
100% sustainable palm oil by 2020, supported
by targets of 50% in Indonesia, 30% for India
and 10% for China.
But despite the progress RSPO has made,
it has been criticised for the slow pace at
which it makes decisions. As a result, many
companies are looking to move “beyond
certification”.
In part this has come about as a result
of pledges by industry groups such as the
Palm oil is, in many ways, a victim of its own
versatility. The oil, mainly grown and produced
in Indonesia and Malaysia, is found in
approximately 40-50% of household products
in countries such as the United States, Canada,
Australia and England. These range from
cosmetics to cakes, while in other markets
such as India, it is a popular cooking oil.
The oil comes from trees mainly grown in
tropical forests, which hold the greatest diversity
of life on earth. Its production has contributed
to deforestation and climate change, as well as
habitat degradation, animal cruelty and abuse of
indigenous peoples' rights.
To tackle these problems, the Roundtable
on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was created
in 2004. It now has more than 2,400 members
and represents 40% of the global palm oil
industry, including producers, processors,
buyers, retailers and civil society groups. The
organisation certifies 11.64m tonnes of palm
oil, equivalent to 20% of global production,
says Danielle Morley, RSPO’s European
director of outreach and engagement.
Mass balance and beyond
There are three main certification approaches
– the most basic is Green Palm Certificates,
which allow companies to buy certificates for
sustainable palm oil equivalent to their own
palm oil purchases. Then there is a “mass
balance” approach, where sustainable palm oil
is blended with other supplies.
“What we are encouraging, though, is a
third approach where companies buy segregated
supplies of sustainable palm oil from a dedicated
supply chain. If supplies are ‘identity-preserved’
there is very sophisticated traceability so
the buyer knows what mill the palm oil
comes from,” says Emma Keller, agricultural
commodities manager, WWF-UK. “There is
lots of activity going on against a backdrop of
significant movement from companies to find
sustainable sources of supply.”
“Of all the forest risk commodities,
progress to date has been strongest for palm
SECTOR SNAPSHOT – PALM OIL
Palmoil’smultiplechoicesolutions
Campaigners have long called for the palm oil industry to cut its links with deforestation. Numerous strategies –
not always complementary – are being adopted to improve standards across the industry’s complex supply chain
Essential insight
• Palm oil is one of the most widely-used
vegetable oils: as a basic cooking oil and
as an ingredient in products ranging from
lipstick and toothpaste to ice cream and
biscuits.
• The industry is linked to deforestation and
climate change in the countries where it is
produced.
• Starting with the Roundtable on
Sustainable Palm Oil, a number of
initiatives are developing more sustainable
palm oil.
• Experts disagree on the best approaches,
including on whether certification actually
works and how to identify valuable forests.
Roundtable on Sustainable
Palm Oil
ESTABLISHED
2004
2,475 members
11.64m TONNES –
20% of world palm oil
production – RSPO certiﬁed
2.56m HECTARES
palm oil production area
RSPO certiﬁed.

SUPPLY CHAIN RISK & INNOVATION: SUPPLY CHAINS IN FOCUS
are also concerns that China and India will
try to expand their own palm oil industries
by creating plantations on areas of high
conservation value.
For some, the whole certification process
is a failure. Scott Poynton of forests group TFT
says that “over the last 20 years, certification
has not really worked”.
“If you look at the state of the world’s
forests and other natural resources where
certification is in operation, things look
pretty grim – and they are getting worse,” he
adds. He says certification is a “command
and control” response to a problem that does
not stand still but is moving all the time. As
a result, it stifles the innovation that such a
complex problem requires, he argues.
government policy and the political will to
enable these companies to make good on their
commitments.
Changing demands
Another big challenge in years to come will
be in Asian markets, particularly India and
China, which are currently the two biggest
importers of palm oil. “They are very different
markets from those in the west,” she adds. “In
India, for example, the highest proportion
of palm oil is used by the poorest sectors of
society as a basic cooking oil. It will be a huge
challenge to engage with the small traders
who sell to them.”
WWF in India is working to raise
consumer awareness of the sustainability
issues around palm oil as well as engaging
with large consumer goods companies. There
Consumer Goods Forum, which in August
2015 published the first Sustainable Palm
Oil Sourcing Guidelines, which it hailed as
“an important step in helping the consumer
goods and retail industries to achieve zero net
deforestation by 2020, as outlined in the CGF’s
Deforestation Resolution”.
Another important driver – or at least
it should have been – is the 2014 New York
Declaration on Forests, which commits
signatories from companies, government and
NGOs to halve deforestation by 2020 and
completely eliminate it by 2030.
Brendan May, chairman of sustainability
experts Robertsbridge, argues for more
and faster progress. Around the time of
the declaration’s launch “there was rhetoric
aplenty from governments and companies
about cutting deforestation. Since then,
however, what have we seen in terms of action
plans and concrete commitments? Not a lot.
We need to inject some pace – transformation
of business models that we need is simply not
happening fast enough.”
Elsewhere, in Europe, EU food labelling
regulation that requires all palm oil in food,
which had hitherto been a hidden ingredient,
to be identified has also played a part in
awareness raising and increasing supply chain
transparency.
However, while buyers profess their
willingness to go beyond certification, they
are not yet prepared to pay the extra costs this
incurs – and nor are producers, either the large
producers or the many smallholders in the
sector, who do not have the resources to do so.
There is also concern that “most of the
action is coming from western multinationals”,
Keller argues. Certainly this has been the case
until recently – though now there has been more
pressure from grower countries.
May highlights that in terms of progress
on deforestation it is “big producer companies
in the developing world – from sectors
such as palm oil – that are now leading the
charge”. The challenge, May argues, is for
FOUR
PILLARS:
• improve environmental
stewardship;
• strengthen policy
and regulations;
• expand social benefits;
• improvecompetitiveness
ofIndonesianpalmoil.
MISSION:
“Create an environment
in Indonesia which
enables and promotes
the production of
sustainable palm oil
that is deforestation
free, expands social
benefits, and improves
Indonesia’s market
competitiveness”.
FIRST
SIGNATORIES:
Wilmar, Golden-Agri
Resources, Cargill and
Asian Agri. Musim Mas
signed in 2015.
INDONESIAN PALM OIL PLEDGE
Private sector collaboration
signed first in 2014

This has proved to be the case.
Greenpeace has accused the coalition of
“greenwashing” but others argue that the
original limit was too restrictive. Recognising,
perhaps, the risks from developing potentially
confusing competing definitions of what is
and isn’t sustainable palm oil, there are people
from both sides keen to develop a common
approach.
Meanwhile, the RSPO has responded to
the development of the HCS Approach by
introducing RSPO Next, a new voluntary
addendum to its standard that allows
members to adopt a “best in class” approach
to sustainable palm oil production.
The multiplicity of approaches illustrates
the complexity of the problem, but also the
fact that more and more industry participants
see the need for change as unavoidable. ★
they contain. Greenpeace, TFT and Golden
Agri-Resources (GAR), the largest Indonesian
palm oil producer, started work on an HCS
definition in 2011, which has evolved into
what is now known as the “HCS Approach”.
HCS spat
This initially defined HCS forests as those
containing more than 35 tonnes of carbon per
hectare. More recently, a coalition of palm oil
companies led by Malaysia’s Sime Darby has
proposed that a line be drawn at 50 tonnes per
hectare. This alternative proposal, backed by a
new high carbon stock study would allow “the
carefully planned conversion of some forest
to oil palm. Understandably, this suggestion
may – initially at least – alarm supporters of
current HCS policies,” the group’s consultation
report says.
On-the-ground improvements
While certification and other schemes focus
on demand for palm oil, there have been
significant developments in producer regions
as well, in part because of increasing concern
about the pollution problems caused by
fires that are used to clear land for palm oil
cultivation.
The Indonesian Palm Oil Producers
Association says it will expel members
found to have caused forest fires while the
environment and forest ministry has revoked
the licences of three palm oil producers for
illegal land clearing.
A number of producers have committed
to a high carbon stock (HCS) approach,
which identifies areas of forest that should
be preserved because of the amount of
carbon that they lock up and the biodiversity
• Comply with existing RSPO principles and criteria, or equivalent standards.
• Protect high conservation value (HCV) areas.
• Involve no burning in the preparation of new plantings, re-plantings or any
other developments, including the management of existing plantations.
• Respect human rights, and endorse and support the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
• Engage in free prior and informed consent of indigenous and local
communities concerning activities on their customary lands where
plantations are planned for development.
• Operate an open, transparent and consultative process to resolve
complaints and conﬂicts.
In addition to these, companies should consider developing an approach for
addressing the following criteria (which go beyond current RSPO certiﬁcation
standards):
• Protect high carbon stock (HCS) forests.
• Do not establish new developments on peatlands regardless of depth.
CONSUMER GOODS FORUM
– SUSTAINABLE PALM OIL
SOURCING GUIDELINES

Collaboration is becoming a vital component
of long-term business success. And nowhere
is this more apparent than in global supply
chains. Big companies are scrutinised
with supply chain crises catapulted into
the headlines and stakeholder concerns
continually intensifying.
However, without full visibility or direct
influence over complex, multi-tiered chains,
the immense challenge of securing ongoing
supplies – while protecting workers, reducing
environmental impacts and preventing further
resource depletion (and escalating material
costs) – remain.
In this context, competitors are
increasingly working alongside each other
and their stakeholders through collaborative
movements.
These can take different forms, of course.
Leading companies work together to develop a
new initiative that can become an organisation
in its own right. Or publicly-shamed corporate
giants are now in conversation with the very
activists who brought their ill-judged activity to
the world’s attention.
Underlying all this is the fundamental
realisation that the social and environmental
challenges at hand, often systemic and
interrelated in nature, are simply too great for
any one company to tackle alone. This may
seem simple enough, but it is still a significant
ideological leap that many big companies
struggle to make.
Clearly there’s an opportunity to identify
common solutions and take them to scale.
But as supply chain collaborations multiply,
is there a danger of “collaboration fatigue”?
How can multi-brand and multi-stakeholder
initiatives thrive and how can businesses
support suppliers in meeting diverse
requirements?
Collaboration’s rise and rise
What started with the Ethical Trading
Initiative’s (ETI’s) visionary move to assemble
multiple stakeholders to protect workers’
rights back in 1998, has gathered momentum
as the complexity of the issues has deepened
and companies’ supply chain footprints have
become clearer.
There has been a flurry of collaborations
in recent years, encompassing cross-sector
movements (Consumer Goods Forum,
AIM-Progress), sector-specific initiatives
(Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals
(ZDHC), Better Cotton Initiative, Tea 2030,
Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition)
and country-focused initiatives (Bangladesh
Accord, Courtauld Agreement).
Big group collaborations may take on
a convening or enabling role, such as the
ETI, they might be focused on raising the
bar through standard-setting, or overtly
"implementation focused", such as Impactt’s
Benefits for Business and Workers programme
or the ILO’s Better Work initiative.
Others provide a service, such as
platforms for sharing tools or data – Global
Social Compliance Programme (GSCP),
Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI),
Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex) and
the Sustainable Apparel Coalition.
While the initiative may be the result
of far-sighted companies’ efforts to lay the
groundwork, the outrage surrounding supply
chain crises often sparks decisive action
among a far wider group, galvanising many
parties around a shared concern.
SUPPLY CHAIN COLLABORATION
Collectiveactiononsustainability.Canitwork?
As supply chain collaborations and collective organisations multiply, what are the ingredients for success?
What are the dangers from ‘collaboration fatigue’?
Essential insight
• Business recognises that collaboration is
vital for long-term success.
• Success is tough. It takes time to build
agreement, even if there’s shared vision.
• Good examples of agreement: the
Consumer Goods Forum, AIM-Progress,
the Better Cotton Initiative, Tea 2030
and the Bangladesh Accord.
• Practical elements – such as an unbiased
secretariat and funding – are crucial.
• Too many collaborations and suppliers will
get tired and confused.
• Demonstrate that collaborations work and
get results. Impactt’s Benefits for Business
and Workers programme has 41 factories
in Bangladesh involved, making savings of
$5.85m in two years, with pay increasing
6% for 83,000 workers.
ACT is backed by 15 brands,
including H&M, Arcadia, Tesco
and Primark.
Its aim is to improve wages
across the garment sector by
establishing industry collective
bargaining in key sourcing
countries.
The outrage surrounding
supply chain crises often sparks
decisive action, galvanising
parties around a shared concern.
The ﬂurry of collaborations
encompasses cross-sector
movements, sector-speciﬁc
and country-focused
initiatives.

transparent and open to change as they move
forward. This is a tough process and there’s no
easy way round it.
Importantly, it requires patience, and
the ability to listen and take things step by
step, according to Maritha Lorentzon, social
sustainability lead at the fast-fashion brand
H&M. She cites the example of Action,
Collaboration and Transformation (ACT), a
new initiative to create a fair living wage for
garment workers in developing countries.
A group of brands initially convened to
develop a set of enabling principles, gradually
building momentum by inviting all relevant
parties to the table. Together, they have come
up with a shared vision to help empower
workers while improving manufacturing
standards and responsible purchasing
practices. “It has triggered a positive dialogue
that’s vital for the industry,” says Lorentzon
“Ultimately, we all want the same thing.”
The path to success
Building a successful collaboration starts with
analysing the need that exists, clarifying the
purpose, and convening relevant partners.
Together, the partners must ensure they
develop a full understanding of the context
and define the scope of their work.
Importantly, they must decide from the
outset how the project can be scaled, Smith
points out, in order to avoid scalability issues
further down the line.
Practical issues such as a solid, unbiased
secretariat – when the collaboration
requires a formal organisation structure
– and sustainable sources of funding are
important considerations, Hurst believes. An
inspirational steering group can help to keep
everyone moving in the same direction.
With a shared vision or set of principles in
place, the group can begin to create strategies
and take collective action, remaining flexible,
Barriers to progress
“It’s important to consider whether a small,
fleet-footed group should risk taking the lead
without knowing if others will follow, or if a
large group should move en masse, possibly
buckling under its own weight,” says Rosey
Hurst, director of ethical trade consultancy
Impactt. “And when there are different priorities
and agendas in the room and participants range
from the conservative to the radical, building a
concrete agreement takes time, even if there’s a
shared vision.”
Indeed, while involving multiple
stakeholders can accelerate progress, the
journey is often challenging, according to Sally
Uren, chief executive of Forum for the Future,
which runs the Tea 2030 programme for a
number of the big tea companies. “It’s really
hard work,” she says. “The closer you get to
shifting a system, the harder it pushes back. The
biggest barriers are often short-term thinking
and vested interests.”
Finding a balance between addressing
the diverse issues and avoiding duplication
is also becoming harder as the number of
collaborations grows. “When the going gets
tough, businesses in particular have tended to
create new collaborations rather than making
the existing ones work harder,” says Uren.
Suppliers, too, are finding it hard to keep
up with the requirements of multiple initiatives,
particularly when it comes to standards and
certifications, leading to what some see as
collaboration fatigue.
“Duplication is a big issue for suppliers,”
says Tom Smith, director of strategy and
planning at Sedex, which works with companies
to help them drive improvements in responsible
and ethical business practices in their global
supply chains. “In the same way that suppliers
were facing audit fatigue, there’s now duplicated
training and capacity building initiatives.
They often look to us to help cut through the
confusion, clarify what the collaboration stands
for, who the key players are and if it’s likely to be
around for the long term.”
Fast fashion and fair wages not incompatible

chain thinking to consider how they can use
power and influence to create positive change,”
he says. “Taking steps such as striking certain
suppliers from their supply base is simply not
enough. “In order to make a real difference,
they’ve got to ask how they can become
advocates for systemic change on key issues.”
One collaboration perceived as
game-changing is the Bangladesh Accord.
Forged in the wake of the Rana Plaza factory
collapse, which killed more than 1,100
garment workers, it has seen 190 brands
commit to improving building safety via a
legally binding agreement. Trade unions and
NGOs have an equal voice at the table, and
although there are criticisms surrounding the
rate of progress on remediation, the structural
and fire safety changes are starting to make
a difference. Spanning 1,600 factories and
touching two million workers, the work in
progress is intended to support worker health
and safety for the long term.
Communicating with suppliers
While partnership approaches between
brands and suppliers are really starting to
bear fruit, a lot of work is still happening in
isolation, according to Smith. As the spirit
of collaboration grows, there’s an important
opportunity to bring this all together.
AIM-PROGRESS has organised a
series of events in this vein, including in
Committing to systemic change
For a collaboration to truly be successful, a
commitment to real, systemic change is vital.
“You really need to set out to change the
world,” says Hurst. This perspective is echoed
by Phil Aikman of Greenpeace, who leads the
campaigning group’s engagement with pulp
and paper giant Asia Pulp & Paper. All too
often, he believes, corporate discussions centre
on removing risk from the supply chain and
protecting brand reputation.
“Companies need to move beyond supply
BANGLADESH ACCORD:
Legally-binding agreement
between brands and trade
unions to improve health and
safety across the country’s
garment sector.
Involves 190 brands and
two million workers.
1,300 factories have been
inspected.
Shanghai, where brands presented as a group
to suppliers. The GSCP, facilitated by the
Consumer Goods Forum, is also helping
major retailers and brands to strive towards a
harmonised, global approach for sustainable
supply chains, providing both individual
companies and collaborative initiatives with
best practice information and "open source"
supply chain management reference tools.
“We help set the stage for companies to
collaborate,” says Didier Bergeret from the
GSCP. “Paving the way to convergence is vital
to driving positive social and environmental
change in the supply chain. Drawing inspiration
from the tools we provide frees companies up to
focus on what’s really important.”
For example, the ZDHC initiative
(which has recently published a landmark
manufacturing restricted substances list)
tailored GSCP methodologies to its needs,
saving cost and time, and accelerated its
journey towards action. Also, brands can
take advantage of collaborative platforms and
databases to identify issues as a group.
Using the Sedex database, for example,
it’s possible to identify the top ten issues for
suppliers in a particular sector. Equipped
with this information, Smith says, brands
could approach suppliers as one unified force,
ensuring clarity of message and requirements.
The ITC Standards Map also offers robust
help here, as a highly pragmatic tool to
pinpoint the differences between multiple
sustainability standards, codes of conduct and
audit protocols.
Rana Plaza shocked 190 brands into commitments
GLOBAL SOCIAL
COMPLIANCE PROGRAMME
Consisting of a giant library
of reference documents for
400 member companies in
70 countries.

Demonstrating concrete results
Everyone wants to see the results of initiatives,
and sometimes the results can’t come fast
enough. However, where initiatives are able to
prove concrete results, they are steadily scaling
up as more brands and suppliers realise the
business benefits. For example, Impactt’s
Benefits for Business and Workers programme
has now attracted 16 brands and 185 factories
in Bangladesh, Myanmar and India by proving
that improving pay and labour conditions is
directly linked to increased staff retention,
productivity and profit.
By participating in the training, 41
factories in Bangladesh made $5.85m in
savings in just two years, while their 83,000
workers saw a pay increase of more than 6%.
Elsewhere, the Better Cotton Initiative
has ambitious plans for 30% of the world’s
cotton production to be made in line with
the BCI standard by 2020. Supported by 500
companies, including H&M, Nike and Ikea, it
unites people across the cotton supply chain in
a collective effort to cultivate cotton in a way
that respects the environment, boosts farmers’
incomes and strengthens the industry. It has
already reached one million farmers in 20
countries, and is targeting 11.5% BCI cotton
production in 2015. BCI farmers in Pakistan
increased their use of organic fertilisers by
85% in 2013 (compared to farmers not using
BCI techniques), expanded their yields by
15% and saw profit increases of up to 42%.
Is accelerating progress possible?
It seems that by their very nature,
collaborations can move slowly. That said, all
parties agree that, in the long term, they stand
to deliver greater impact. As Lorentzon puts it:
“If you want to run fast, you go alone, but the
impact is not the same. We need high quality,
sustainable solutions and long-term thinking.”
The quality of the work achieved is
steadily improving. Collaborations such as
the Bangladesh Accord are raising the bar
for future initiatives, Hurst believes, and the
group of leading companies learning how to
do this right is growing all the time.
Harmonising collaborative efforts will
grow in importance as collaborations evolve
and new collaborations emerge, and will
help to reduce the burden on suppliers,
accelerating progress.
Knowledge-sharing will also continue
to be important, both within the private
sector and across whole systems. H&M is
starting to share the lessons from its social
dialogue initiative (which aims to have
democratically elected worker representation
in all the company’s factories by 2018) with
other brands, for example. Meanwhile, the
G7 made responsible supply chains a key
focus for discussion at its recent conference
in Germany, further building the case for
optimism, Bergeret believes.
So, while there is still much to be done,
more companies are collaborating towards
shared goals, exploring radical new business
models and considering how to achieve
systemic change. They are applying passion,
intelligence and knowledge to addressing
major social and environmental challenges
in global supply chains. ★
BCIbringstogetherfarmers,
ginners,traders,spinners,
mills,manufacturers,retailers
andbrandstodeﬁneand
supporttheimplementation
ofmoresustainablewaysof
producingcotton.
BETTER COTTON INITIATIVE SUPPORTED BY:
reaching one million farmers
in 20 countries
500COMPANIES

What'snext
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY –
UPCOMING INNOVATION
FORUM EVENTS
Sustainable drinks – strategy and
collaboration in spirits, beer and wine
oliver.bamford@innovation-forum.co.uk
15th-16th March 2016, London
How business can build resilience for
smallholder farmers
boris.petrovic@innovation-forum.co.uk
22nd-23rd March 2016, London
How business can tackle deforestation
lea.vavrik@innovation-forum.co.uk
6th-7th April 2016, Washington, DC
Sustainable apparel forum
natasha.bodnar@innovation-forum.co.uk
19th-20th April 2016, London
Sustainable extractives forum
amelia.shean@innovation-forum.co.uk
27th-28th April 2016, London
How business can tackle modern slavery
5th May 2016, London
Sustainable fish sourcing
charlenne.ordonez@innovation-forum.co.uk
24th-25th May 2016, Washington, DC
Biotechnology – the route to a sustainable
future?
21st-22nd June 2016, Washington, DC
Sustainable sugar forum
natasha.bodnar@innovation-forum.co.uk
June 2016, London
European sustainable agriculture
amelia.shean@innovation-forum.co.uk
June 2016, Amsterdam
INNOVATION
Learn via best practice examples from the
leading organisations, with insight and
support from the likes of Novo Nordisk,
Microsoft, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and Ford.
TOOLS
To minimise risk and stay on top of
potential NGO campaigns that could
disrupt your brand reputation and licence
to operate, with a key focus on climate
change action, human rights, labour
issues and deforestation.
ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
Exploring the big issues keeping
today’s supply chain and procurement
professionals awake at night, including the
fall-out of COP21, the impact of modern-
day slavery legislation, strategies for using
standards and certification, and engaging
suppliers to effect change at scale.
SECTOR ANALYSIS
Exploring soy, timber, extractives, food
and drink, apparel, sugar, coffee and
many more.
PEOPLE
A chance to learn from those making it
happen right now, with featured Q&As and
interviews with the very best supply chain
innovators working for the big brands and
businesses across the globe.
The easy-to-digest business briefing
getting you to the heart of today’s
essential value chain issues quickly
and comprehensively – making your job
easier and your business more resilient,
sustainable and successful
In the coming months, Supply
Chain Risk & Innovation will track
the key issues, trends, challenges
and opportunities for businesses
looking to create more sustainable
and resilient value chains.
Through a mix of editorial
commentary, analysis, insight,
interviews and practical tips
and advice, Supply Chain Risk &
Innovation will deliver the data
and essential information
business needs.
PAGE 26
SUPPLY CHAIN RISK & INNOVATION WHAT'S NEXT

Supply Chain Risk & Innovation - Sustainability analysis by Innovation Forum

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