In This Issue
Editor's Note
Hong Kong: Model City for Sustainability?
In Hong Kong, which packs an average of 6,540 people into each square kilometer, “suburban sprawl” takes on a new definition (“up”), and the resulting sustainability challenges are unique—relating to infrastructure and social issues, air quality, and water.
This week, as part of our ongoing series on sustainable urban growth, BSR’s Raj Sapru asks experts what other emerging cities can learn from Hong Kong’s successes and challenges. Given changing demographics and tensions among government, business, and civil society, Sapru reports that it’s an open question whether Hong Kong will remain a positive example of sustainable urban growth.
Also this week, we report on a new tool from BSR’s Mills & Sundries Working Group aimed at helping suppliers take the lead on sustainability challenges, and Bhutan Luminous Consultancy’s Isabel Sebastian makes the case for using well-being as a measure of progress in sustainability.
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In Depth
Sustainable Urban Growth: Is Hong Kong a Model for China?
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In the second of our series on sustainable urban growth, we look at Hong Kong: Will it be a model of success or suffer from a fractured approach to engagement among government, business, and civil society? Can business lead the way forward?
Read more →
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Spotlight
Mills and Sundries Working Group: New Tools to Help Suppliers Lead on Sustainability
By Tiffany Finley, Manager, Advisory Services, BSR
BSR’s new model for its Mills and Sundries Working Group offers tools to help suppliers take the lead on sustainability issues.
Surprisingly, suppliers are often left out of brand companies’ supplier-ownership strategies, which define performance metrics based on brands’ most material issues to identify good business and sustainability partners. The flurry of scorecards, certifications, and self-assessments developed without supplier input have reinforced that suppliers should prioritize their customers’ sustainability issues over their own, which often differ greatly from brands’ material issues.
Launched in 2012, BSR’s Supplier Performance Tiers tool helps tier 2-plus suppliers understand their current performance and what leadership looks like as they develop more robust sustainability programs.
In 2013, the working group will complement this tool with the formation of the Supplier Leadership Network, which will evaluate the sustainability issues for suppliers and identify strategic next steps for addressing risks and opportunities.
BSR is hosting two upcoming webinars for the Mills and Sundries Working Group and interested parties. To learn more, please contact Tiffany Finley.
On the Record
Isabel Sebastian of Bhutan Luminous on Happiness and Sustainability
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In a video interview at the BSR Conference 2012, Isabel Sebastian of Bhutan Luminous Consultancy discussed how happiness and well-being could be used as a measure of progress in sustainability.
Sebastian highlighted the shift over the past 20 years in how companies and individuals are thinking about sustainability—from environmental awareness, to community awareness, and now to a personal level of awareness. Companies are not only measuring profits but also their contributions to human well-being. Likewise, individuals are shying away from over-consumption in the context of happiness:
“For most of us who live in Western societies, who live a comfortable life, there is a new conversation to be had: We have all this, and at what point is that enough?”
—Isabel Sebastian, Business Development Manager at Bhutan Luminous Consultancy, Kingdom of Bhutan, October 2012
Read more about Sebastian’s insights in the summary of her BSR Conference 2012 session, “Happiness Is . . . A Business Model for the Future.”
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