BSR Insight Articles About Strategy & Integration
Going from ‘What’ to ‘How’ in Sustainable Procurement
Celine Suarez, Manager, Advisory Services
Making sense of the increasingly dizzying array of product certifications, labels, data and other sustainability initiatives is a challenge, even for experts. While the best of these efforts provide comprehensive, accurate data on a product's many sustainability attributes, it can be exceptionally difficult to synthesize the data and judge the relative "sustainability" of different products. Procurement professionals face the additional challenge of integrating these criteria into purchasing decisions that must also account for traditional considerations like cost, quality, and delivery. Even initiatives such as the Sustainability Consortium, which takes a comprehensive, science-based approach to conveying the full lifecycle of products' sustainability impacts, will need to be applied to thousands of products that companies purchase before the system can realize its full impact. So how can companies start using the information from the Consortium and other initiatives to evaluate things like light bulbs, bath towels, or milk? How can companies begin to unpack and compare the lifecycle sustainability attributes of the products they procure? If a light bulb is Energy Star certified, is that the best indicator of its overall energy efficiency? If a bath towel was made with certified organic cotton, but that cotton was shipped from Uzbekistan to Saskatchewan, is it considered sustainable? If a gallon of milk is hormone-free but made on a factory farm, is it healthier for humans, or is that benefit outweighed by the fact that it's polluting the soil? A single product might be rated on as many as 20 to 30 sustainability metrics covering issues from natural resource extraction, material inputs, manufacturing, carbon footprint, waste, water use, packaging, and more. BSR's Center for Sustainable Procurement (CSP), an initiative funded by Hilton Worldwide, is examining how procurement professionals can more effectively and efficiently integrate sustainability considerations into their day-to-day purchasing decisions. Read more
New Tool Guides Companies on Supply Chain Sustainability
Cody Sisco, Former Manager, Advisory Services
Making progress on supply chain sustainability is a challenge that cuts across topics, organizations, and locations. BSR has launched an e-learning tool in collaboration with the UN Global Compact and Maplecroft to help companies take stock of and improve their approach to supply chain sustainability. The UN Global Compact Quick Self-Assessment and Learning Tool helps procurement, sourcing, and other managers quickly and anonymously gauge their company's supply chain sustainability strategy against a set of criteria, such as the existence of clear and established codes of conduct for the company and suppliers, internal roles and responsibilities, and sustainability goals. The tool will: Read more
Survey: Help Shape China’s Nonprofit Sector
Cammie Erickson, Manager, Global Partnership Development
How would you revamp the nonprofit sector in the United States if you could build it from the ground up? What would you do differently? What would you keep the same? BSR's CiYuan initiative would like your input for a survey that will help us shape China's nonprofit sector. At the end of May, BSR's CiYuan will convene several nonprofit leaders in New York to debate what works--and what doesn't--in the U.S. nonprofit sector. We will use ideas from that discussion and this survey to inform CiYuan's work to strengthen civil society and cross-sector partnerships in China. Share your ideas through our survey. For additional context, read Taproot Foundation President and Founder Aaron Hurst's HuffingtonPost.com blog. Read more
KPMG Report Picks 10 Sustainability ‘Megaforces’
Population growth, material resource scarcity, climate change, and energy and fuel are among the issues in sustainability that could have significant impact on the business landscape over the next 20 years, according to a recent report by KPMG International. The “Expect the Unexpected: Building Business Value in a Changing World” report outlines 10 global sustainability “megaforces” that are putting the world on a development trajectory that is “not sustainable.” Others on the list include water scarcity, wealth, urbanization, food security, ecosystem decline, and deforestation. (The report is 180 pages; the executive summary is here.) The report notes that all of these forces are interconnected, and insists that in order to manage the risks, businesses must use a systems thinking approach that addresses the ways megaforces relate to each other. Specific recommendations include: * Companies should turn strategic plans into ambitious targets and actions for sustainability supply chain management. * Companies should seek collaboration with business partners on sustainability issues. * Governments should increase collaboration with the private sector. Read more
How Partnerships Give Business Power, Prescience, and Potential
Kara Hurst, Former Vice President
As we celebrate BSR’s 20-year anniversary in 2012, we are reflecting on the dramatic progress that has been made in the sustainability field through partnerships between government, civil society, and the private sector. As a mission-driven organization, BSR has always been motivated by the desire to create a more just and sustainable world through collaboration with all sectors. We believe it is only through these types of partnerships that we can truly push change on some of our most systemic and entrenched social and environmental issues. Consider the roles—as well as the opportunities and constraints—of the individual sectors: While civil society has the freedom to spur progress in areas of emerging significance that have not yet hit the current corporate agenda, it does not have the same power of the private sector to take this progress to scale. And while government can establish the policy infrastructure to encourage progress, it is only by working together that the actions of civil society and business can effect true change. At BSR, we have seen these sectors act in concert to generate new ideas and initiatives that address complex, systemic issues such as conflict minerals, the rights of international migrant workers, and women’s health in the global supply chain. Through our work with the U.S. State Department, we helped businesses in the DR-CAFTA region develop responsible labor practices as a competitiveness strategy for the region. Through BSR’s HERproject, we are encouraging businesses and their suppliers to partner with local nonprofit organizations to address women’s health concerns in the workplace. The benefits to the women are great, and there’s an equal benefit to business: The program has provided a four-to-one return on their investment in the form of increased worker productivity and reduced absenteeism. Through our CiYuan initiative in China, we see immense possibilities in businesses helping increase the knowledge and resources of NGOs to address social needs in rural and urban settings. All of these projects have one common denominator: They are based on, and benefit from, cross-sector partnerships. In the next 20 years, it’s clear that to guarantee sustained growth, business must learn to manage natural resources and human capital. In doing so, smart business leaders understand that their essential partners lie with individuals, governments, and civil society organizations. There’s another benefit to these partnerships that has come to light more recently in our global, 24/7 world: They give business a chance to engage the next generation of leadership. To succeed in the next couple decades, business leaders must think holistically, globally, and inclusively. An engaged leader—someone who can work collaboratively outside of the business and across sectors—will understand that accessing opportunities and new markets will take an expansive approach to decision-making. The most effective leaders will be able to anticipate changes in the marketplace and build a flexible, responsive internal culture that adapts quickly to the external environment. Insular, non-networked, internally focused companies are not yet a thing of the past—but they will be soon. Working with partners across sectors is therefore not only the best way to address complex environmental challenges or seemingly entrenched labor issues, it is a way for business to practice, learn, engage, and evolve. Looking over two decades of impactful work at BSR, I know the most important sustainability challenges require systemic solutions that draw on multiple institutions—and the individual leaders within them—working together. And now, as I look forward to the next 20 years, I remain excited and optimistic about working with our network of multinational corporations and experts in government and civil society to identify the opportunities for change and the solutions to the most urgent issues of our time. Read more
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