In This Issue
Editor's Note
Experimenting With Sustainable Consumption
The outdoor apparel company Patagonia reports that since 2005, customers have returned 45 tons of clothing, which the company has recycled and turned into 34 tons of new clothing through its Common Threads program. Recently, Patagonia expanded that program, forming a partnership with eBay to create a place for its customers to sell used Patagonia products online.
This week, BSR’s new consumer products and innovation practice Director Ted Howes uses Patagonia’s program as an example of how companies can “prototype” sustainable consumption—a challenge that can seem so daunting that Howes suggests not trying to solve it by redesigning the systems (that can come later), but instead by experimenting with smaller-scale solutions.
On a related note, we profile a new Forum for the Future report that outlines four consumption scenarios for the year 2020, and how companies can meet future consumers’ needs.
We also hear from a participant in a recent BSR workshop that looked at how information and communications technology companies can think beyond traditional notions of human rights areas such as supply chain and labor.
 |
In Depth
Who’s the Champion? Why We Need to ‘Prototype’ Sustainable Consumption
By
Acting on sustainable consumption—a systems-level challenge that involves production, usage, and end-of-use processes—is so daunting, most companies (and consumers) feel paralyzed. Instead of trying to redesign the system, we need to experiment to learn, create, and test solutions.
Read more →
|
Toolbox
Consumption Scenarios Help Business Prepare for the Future
Forum for the Futures “Consumer Futures 2020”—created in partnership with Sainsbury’s and Unilever—outlines four scenarios that explore possible consumption patterns in 2020. Each scenario includes a toolkit with examples of how companies can meet future consumers’ needs based on the consumers’ “personas”:
“My way”: In this high-tech world, smart products promote consumption patterns that use less energy and water. Community-based trade dominates, and people put their own satisfaction before the greater good.
“Sell it to me”: This world is about the “personalized consumer,” and large companies and other institutions are expected to solve global problems.
“From me to you”: In this uncertain economy, severe weather and resource constraints have led people to lose trust in business. Instead, they’re using peer-to-peer services for selling and swapping goods.
“I’m in your hands”: The economy is recovering from the recession, so consumer confidence is low and credit is tight. People depend on companies and government to provide goods and services, and companies are bound by government’s strict sustainability regulations.
On the Record
Moving Beyond Traditional Notions of Human Rights in the ICT Sector
By
Last week, BSR facilitated a workshop with sustainability, procurement, and legal representatives from nine information and communications technology (ICT) companies—Alcatel-Lucent, Belgacom, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Nokia, SAP, ST Microelectronics, Telefonica, and Telia Sonera—on implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights. Participants discussed how to conduct a human rights impact assessment, develop and integrate a human rights policy, and measure progress.
During a conversation about moving beyond traditional human rights areas such as supply chain and labor, one attendee noted that ICT companies need to think both about how they can provide solutions to support human rights and also how to minimize negative impacts on human rights that might be created by their “solutions”:
“ICT solutions support the development of human rights—access to education, for instance—which cannot be perceived as a way to compensate risks. We need to work on both fronts at the same time: to max out opportunities [that support human rights and address] … the risks that our solutions are likely to generate.”
—Workshop participant (October 12, 2011)
|
