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INVITATION: Certificate Course on Applied Sustainability Management in Asia Pacific
Invitation:
July 28 – August 1, 2014
University of Asia and the Pacific
Manila, Philippines
Certificate Course on Applied Sustainability Management in Asia Pacific
We wish to invite you or your colleagues to participate in the “Applied Sustainability Management Program (ASMAP)” of the Center for Social Responsibility of the University of Asia and the Pacific (CSR-UA&P). The ASMAP is the first of its kind in the country to offer:
(1) Intensive 5-day multidisciplinary program (at least 40 hours) for sustainability professionals and executives who want to blend their understanding of sustainability concepts with live, visceral and tools-based business management practices;
(2) Participants with concrete business solutions to everyday sustainability challenges as well as the necessary skills to make sustainability work to the competitive advantage of their organizations;
(3) Opportunity to network with sustainability professionals in ASEAN through get together sessions participated in by UA&P and industry experts;
(4) CSR-UA&P certificate to participants who have taken all the course modules and successfully passed the practical exam at the end of the program.
The CSR-UA&P has brought together a team of faculty members supported by a pool of industry-based resource persons that are highly qualified to deliver the certificate program and bring a practical focus and clarity to sustainability management. The first cohort for this course is scheduled on July 28 to August 1, 2014 at UA&P (Manila, Philippines).
To find out more about the certificate program, see the brochure below. Alternatively, you can also call our office for more details:
Center for Social Responsibility – University of Asia and the Pacific
Tel. No. 6370912 local 360 c/o Prof. Daniele Coronacion or Mr. Ruben Nicolas, or send an email to csr@uap.asia.
If you need a formal invitation, please let us know. Likewise, please feel free to disseminate this announcement to your network.
We look forward to your participation in the course. Thank you.
Supply chain transparency: forging better relationships with suppliers
Supply chain transparency: forging better relationships with suppliers
In the aftermath of the horsemeat scandal, what can companies do to manage supply chains and put sustainability at the heart of sourcing?
Global supply chains are long and complex and must be managed correctly to ensure environmental, social and economic sustainability. Photograph: Royalty-Free/Corbis
Findus, the frozen food brand at the centre of the horsemeat saga, last week announced it is taking action to address the shortcomings of its supply chain management. The frozen food giant, whose beef lasagnes were found to contain up to 100% horsemeat, has joined the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex), a not-for-profit organisation that allows suppliers to share responsible trading data with retailers and brands online.
With the support of Sedex, Findus will conduct ethical and health and safety audits of its suppliers and then, armed with this information, it aims to manage risks throughout its supply chain, engaging with suppliers to create greater transparency across its global supply network. The move is also intended to help restore trust in the wider food industry.
Retailers have come under intense scrutiny since the explosion of the ubiquitous horsemeat scandal. More than 5,430 Food Standards Agency tests have so far revealed 44 UK products containing horsemeat, putting retailers including Tesco, Aldi, Ikea and Asda under serious pressure to clean up their supply chains.
Supply chain disasters
Lack of visibility and a lack of direct influence over suppliers further down the supply chain can lead to distinct problems: work can be sub-contracted or even contracted directly to suppliers with poor health and safety standards, dismal labour rights records or detrimental environmental practices.
Just last week, it emerged that Zara is under investigation for ‘degrading’ factory conditions in Argentina, where Bolivian labourers, including children, allegedly worked 16-hour days without breaks.
Labels belonging to Inditex (the parent company of Zara), Walmart and Sears were found in the ashes of the latest factory fires in Bangladesh, where more than 100 workers died in factories with appalling health and safety standards.
Elsewhere, Yum Foods!, the owner of fast food giant KFC, says it plans to stop sourcing packaging derived from tropical rainforests, following a scandal that erupted last year over its former supplier Asia Pulp and Paper trashing Indonesian forests to source paper for KFC ‘buckets’.
Similarly, fashion companies have been forced to address the issue of toxic chemicals being used in the dyeing process. The Roadmap to Zero coalition now aims to stamp out harmful dyes from apparel manufacturing.
So, what can retailers do to avert further catastrophes? What are the challenges they face? And where do they start on the journey to greater transparency?
Current state of play
Climate change, more frequent extreme weather, unsustainable farming practices, water scarcity and population growth are taking their toll on global supply chains, sending raw material costs soaring and threatening the security of retailers’ operations.
However, the sheer size and complexity of global supply chains means tackling sustainability is a monumental task. Pinpointing risk is an uphill struggle; retailers can end up inundated with data, and suppliers become reluctant to ‘waste time’ completing check-lists and audits.
The food and fashion industries are leading the charge on supply chain sustainability. With many high profile brands operating in these sectors, criticism of food and fashion supply chains has been severe.
While some companies, including Unilever and Marks & Spencer (M&S), are seeing the commercial benefits of responsible sourcing, globally, there is still a huge amount of progress still to be made.
Clarity of purpose
“Retailers need clarity of purpose,” explains Sedex CEO Carmel Giblin.
“Establishing a code of conduct that sets clear, realistic expectations is vital. Taking a risk-based approach is also important, identifying the high risk areas and tackling these first.
“Getting robust data is great, but retailers must take this further by understanding suppliers’ business challenges, offering support and developing long-term relationships.”
Louise Nicholls, head of responsible sourcing and Plan A at M&S, also stresses the importance of setting clear standards. She advocates taking a pragmatic approach to reviewing supply chain issues, listening to suppliers, providing evidence-based training and highlighting the business benefits of sustainability. Importantly, she says, retailers should lead by example.
Effective communication is all important
‘Telling the story’ of how sustainability links to business growth using real life examples is essential. Suppliers should also be encouraged to tell their story back to their customers, clarifying the progress they’re making on specific sustainability challenges.
The role of collaboration
Nicholls recommends that retailers participate in working groups and joint initiatives, such as the Ethical Trading Initiative’s recent trip to Peru. This saw M&S, Tesco, Waitrose and Co-op meeting with Peruvian stakeholders in the fruit and vegetables sector to discuss common challenges.
Tackling industry-wide issues collectively can accelerate the pace of change in a cost-effective way and collaborative industry platforms are becoming increasingly popular. These include the Global Social Compliance Programme, the FMCG forum Aim-Progress and the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition.
Empowering the supplier who holds the direct relationship with companies further down the supply chain is also important. Retailers must ensure they ask relevant, searching questions of their first tier suppliers, working closely to make their expectations crystal clear.
When recruiting new suppliers, use credible, industry-standard scorecards, reinforced by mandatory data-sharing on carbon, environmental and social performance.
Engaging positively with suppliers
Retailer collaboration with NGOs and local groups on the ground can be instrumental in communicating more effectively with suppliers.
UK retailer John Lewis has established a sourcing office in India and launched a new bath mat range via its sustainable cotton farming project in Gujarat. This initiative, developed by CottonConnect, is helping to improve the environmental performance of the company’s cotton supply chain while enhancing supplier livelihoods.
HP has recently introduced new supplier guidelines to protect the rights of student and temporary workers in China, while Sony’s ‘Green Partner’ programme defines clear standards for its suppliers of chemical substances, ensuring that only approved suppliers are retained.
Katharine Earley is a freelance copywriter and journalist, specialising in sustainability.
Asia Pulp & Paper – Market pressures tip the balance By Andy Tait
Asia Pulp & Paper – Market pressures tip the balance
By Andy Tait on Apr 2, 2013
Asia Pulp & Paper’s change of heart is good news for forest conservation, but consumers need to keep up the pressure, says Greenpeace’s Andy Tait
In recent years, Greenpeace has helped persuade some of the world’s largest corporations to tackle deforestation in their supply chains, both through hard-hitting confrontational campaigns and through backroom lobbying and collaboration.
In fact, the one often leads to the other. With Kimberly-Clark, we fought a five-year campaign to end its links to destructive forestry in Canada’s Boreal Forest. With McDonald’s, the campaign to end its involvement in Amazon deforestation for soya was short and sharp, as was our campaign against Nestlé regarding the sources of its palm oil. Change within Indonesia’s largest palm oil producer – Golden Agri-Resources, the palm oil division of Sinar Mas – came after a longer fight.
Many of these companies, and others, have become strong advocates for broader action to tackle deforestation across supply chains, partly as a result of our work.
The most recent and perhaps the most unexpected shift has come with our decision to suspend public campaign work against Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) – one of the largest paper companies in the world.
In February 2013, the company announced a new forest conservation policy. The policy commits APP to no further plantation establishment or peatland development on forested land. Underscoring this commitment, APP announced the immediate suspension of all remaining natural forest clearance and peatland development across all concessions that supply it.
APP has not suddenly “seen the light”. Remember that the new policy follows roughly a decade of persistent campaigns from Indonesian and international NGOs. Commercial pressure also played a role, coming from international businesses such as Adidas, Disney, Mattel, Nestlé and Unilever whose customers did not want to buy products linked to deforestation. This decision is based on an assessment that APP can cope without further expansion into forest areas and that this move will end up being a good one for business.
Onus on APP
Only time and on-the-ground evidence of change will succeed in convincing APP’s critics and its former customers that the company is genuinely turning over a new leaf. Unquestionably, the onus is on APP to demonstrate that it is delivering on its commitments and addressing the major environmental and social costs of its operations until now.
Fortunately, at this stage, the signs are positive that APP is serious about implementing its forest commitments. An endorsement by the company chairman suggests that the new policy is supported at the highest level, and the company is investing a lot of money and resources on the ground to oversee the first stage of implementation.
If implementation does succeed, many challenges remain. Until the end of January 2013, APP suppliers were still clearing rainforest. Many social conflicts across the company’s supply chain must still be addressed. Peatland areas previously drained and cleared will continue to emit large amounts of greenhouse gases if management of these areas does not change rapidly.
In this context, at what stage should the international market recognise and reward progress? And if there is no market benefit where is the incentive for the company to change practice?
In the short term, the attention of some campaigns will now turn to APP’s main competitor in the Indonesian pulp sector, April (Asia Pacific Resources International), which continues with the deforestation activities APP has just committed to end. This now makes April the leading driver of deforestation for pulp in Indonesia. And April, like APP, depends on the international market.
Greenpeace has recently sent letters to April’s chief executive, Sukanto Tanoto, some of its key customers and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development of which, surprisingly, this most unsustainable company is a member.
Indonesia’s pulp and palm oil industries have relied on rainforest peatland destruction for far too long. Forests play a vital role, not just for biodiversity and for the communities that depend on them, but also for storing carbon and thereby protecting the global climate. By continuing to clear rainforests, plantation companies put themselves on a collision course with their customers, consumer-facing brands that have pledged to tackle climate change and to clean up their supply chains.
Zero deforestation policies driven from the consumer side are helping to drive change in supply chains through excluding poor practice and supporting commodity producers that commit to implement more responsible practice. But the landscape remains extremely complex and questions remain about how to link market changes to political policies and governance that genuinely protect forests and reward better industry practice.
Through confrontation and collaboration, NGOs can play a vital role in driving change on the ground and in corporate supply chains. But that market pressure alone cannot deliver change quickly enough for Indonesia and other countries’ rainforests. Ultimately, we need political solutions. And soon.
Andy Tait is a senior campaign adviser at Greenpeace. He tweets at @andyrtait.
How the company of 2020 will operate in a resource-constrained world By Steven Wilding
“…94% of businesses lack an adequate long term strategy to deal with
resource scarcity.”
How the company of 2020 will operate in a resource-constrained world
By Steven Wilding on Feb 18, 2013
Key findings and challenges identified during the recent hour-long webinar
The extract includes some key findings and future challenges identified by our expert speakers and contributions from the audience. Several industry polls took place during the webinar which have also been factored into the selected findings.
The webinar featured the following expert speakers:
- Raji Hattar, Chief Sustainability and Compliance Officer, Aramex
- Nicola Kimm, Corporate Sustainability Director, CSM
- Ioannis Ioannou, Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business School
A few of the webinar’s key findings
- 94% of businesses lack an adequate long term strategy to deal with resource scarcity.
- Lack of C-suite engagement. Currently there is too much emphasis on so called “super CEOs” such as Paul Polman at Unilever. Most CEOs are not showing enough leadership on the issue of resource scarcity.
- Sustainable products are only more expensive when a company has failed to innovate sufficiently to create a green and competitively priced product or not invested enough in R&D.
- Greater competition for resources will lead to price volatility and supply shortage making it essential competing companies operate with suppliers in a collaborative way.
- Creation of closed loop supply using by-products traditionally classed as waste will become the standard model.
- Investors are increasingly taking note of resource scarcity as part of ESG assessment. Access to finance is improved for companies adopting a more sustainable business model.
- Key to delivering a business model adapted to resource scarcity is the creation of a more sustainable supply chain.
- Promoting sustainable consumption among consumers is of equal importance as engagement with frontline managers and staff.
- Collaborative industry groups and associations, such as RSPO, are crucial for companies to manage their supply chain in a more resource friendly way.
- Targets matter to frontline staff. Frontline managers and staff need to identify realistic, manageable and localised goals which will contribute to ambitious long term companywide targets to reduce resource usage.
- In the Gulf States and the Middle East the attitude is moving away from sustainability as philanthropy and more towards integration of corporate responsibility in business processes especially amongst public shareholding companies.
Whilst the webinar was a solution driven debate and discussion, the challenges to overcome are immense with implementation taking place over the coming years and decades. As such, speakers and participants identified some future challenges to address in order to move towards a resource friendly business model.
Ten challenges for the future
- Decoupling increased growth and profitability from greater use of resources.
- Identifying resource scarcity not just as a business threat but an opportunity to develop long term partnerships with suppliers.
- Adopting a “circular economy, cradle to cradle” approach.
- Ending artificially cheap oil prices in resource rich states and creating awareness of its finite supply and true value.
- Innovative development of renewable technology and its integration into mainstream energy generation.
- Going beyond the niche of “eco labels” and “eco brands” to generate mainstream demand for sustainable products.
- Teaching consumers which products are sustainable and why they should buy sustainable products.
- Increasing government involvement to incentivise resource friendly business models and if necessary legislate to ensure it happens.
- Increasing the pace of change in the Gulf States and Middle East where abandoning a philanthropic attitude to corporate responsibility is slow amongst medium sized and small companies.
- Convincing companies of the business case for renewable energy in the long term even if the benefits may be limited in the short term.
A recording of the full hour-long webinar is available as a free download here
The discussion going forward…
All of the speakers who took part in the webinar at will be speaking at Ethical Corporation’s flagship Responsible Business Summit, May 7th and 8th in London where resource scarcity will form a key part of the agenda.
Debating resource scarcity on of the opening keynotes will be:
- Barbara J. Krumsiek, Chief Executive Officer and Chair, Calvert Investments
- Gerard Hoetmer, Chief Executive Officer, CSM
This will be followed up by several roundtable debates looking at different aspects of resource scarcity in-depth. These will be facilitated and moderated by speakers from: Rio Tinto, Rezidor Hotel Group, ING Group, Aramex, CLP Group and First Climate.
For more information about this and all of the sessions download the Summit brochure.
Center for Social Responsibility of the University of Asia & the Pacific 