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Blog | Monday February 20, 2017

Building a Culture of Integrity to Transform the Maritime Industry

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The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) is a global business network working toward the vision of a maritime industry free of corruption that enables fair trade to the benefit of society at large. In the last five years, MACN has developed and shared practical tools and best practices on anticorruption and has initiated and implemented collective actions. Designed in collaboration with external stakeholders, such as port authorities and local governments, these collective actions have resulted in reductions in demands for facilitation payments in the Suez Canal, new regulations in Argentina that make it more difficult for officials to demand bribes, and improved ease of operations in Lagos, Nigeria, with the implementation of standardized operating procedures and grievance mechanisms. Thanks to the impacts of its capability-building and collective action programs, MACN has become a preeminent example of collaboration for tackling bribery and corruption.

The network’s rapid growth in the last five years has required MACN to adapt quickly and react to input from its members to determine its focus on collective action and capability-building. This agility will remain a key feature of the network. However, MACN is also launching a revised strategy to provide a clear framework for increasing its impact and global reach. The strategy expands and solidifies the work MACN has undertaken to date and is divided into three pillars, the “three Cs”: collective action, capability-building, and culture of integrity.

With its new “culture of integrity” pillar, MACN is setting out to completely transform the maritime industry. Rather than resolving issues as they arise or worsen, MACN now aims to shift the integrity culture of the maritime sector to a point where corruption is no longer entertained as a possibility in any port.

Why is MACN focusing on culture? It’s useful to consider a parallel with the maritime industry’s approach to operational safety—an area of direct relevance to the network. MACN captains and crews continue to face direct threats to their personal safety from corrupt officials when bringing ships into port, as the following testimony from one of our members indicates:

“This call during berthing, the [tug boat] pilot boarded the vessel after making the usual request for cigarettes. The request was declined by the vessel … [Later] I noticed that the stern was moving out … I knew something was wrong, and I asked the second mate to check the tug, only to be told that the aft tug had cast off the ship’s line and had left … It was totally unprofessional both for the pilot to leave and for the tug boat to cast off the line and leave without informing the vessel. Holding the ships to ransom and endangering the crew and vessel for what—a carton of cigarettes.”

As MACN members know—many through direct involvement in safety implementation—the maritime industry has spent a great deal of time and resources on safety measures and policies, with the aim of ensuring that our seafarers and offshore colleagues return home safely.

However, the industry has also long recognized that while providing personal protective equipment (PPE) and safety management systems (trainings, processes, toolbox talks, and forms) is a vital first step, it is not enough. Maritime companies clearly understand that to eliminate incidents, the organization must develop a culture of safety that governs every aspect of working life for all employees, whether they are based in an office, on an oil rig, or onboard a vessel. The mindset of the company and of its entire value chain governs the strength of its approach to safety.

This holds true for efforts to eliminate corruption. MACN members have led the charge and played a pioneering role in developing tools, trainings, and procedures to build capabilities internally and to drive the change externally. However, these will only take us so far. MACN members recognize that, as with safety, it is the culture that governs deep-seated change. By working explicitly on integrity culture programs, MACN will ensure a long-term, sustainable change of mindset across the industry, laying the groundwork to realize its vision: a maritime industry free of corruption. 

More than 80 shippers and carriers, including many of the biggest players in the maritime industry, are a part of MACN. The power of MACN—its ability to influence legislation or drive change in ports—comes from the breadth and depth of its member base. These companies are creating a simpler, more efficient, and safer environment in which to operate; at the same time, they are helping themselves and each other by sharing their learnings. If you would like to join the movement for a maritime industry free of corruption, don’t hesitate to get in touch.   

This blog is part of our February spotlight on collaboration. To find out more about BSR’s Collaborative Initiatives, read our overview blog or visit the Collaboration page.

Case Studies | Friday June 3, 2011

Driving Innovation Through Partnerships

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Since BSR’s founding, we have been strongly committed to achieving our mission through powerful partnerships. BSR’s Partnership Development team is dedicated to catalyzing collaboration between business and social and environmental innovators in the public and nonprofit sectors to make progress on systemic sustainable development challenges.

With grant support from public and corporate foundations, governments, and multilateral institutions, we design unique partnerships on topics ranging from women’s health to the environmental impacts of port operations. By working with funders ranging from a Swedish aid agency to the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, BSR leverages “venture capital,” our member company network, and our own expertise as well as the expertise of our diverse project partners to help solve development challenges in emerging economies.

HERproject | www.herproject.org

We expanded our factory- and farm-based women’s health training program—HERproject—with a major investment from the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency and ongoing support from the Levi Strauss Foundation. This support allowed BSR to link member companies with local partners who designed and provided training for female workers on health-related issues in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Kenya from our original base in China, Egypt, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam. These training programs, now active in 50 factories, have impacted more than 70,000 women. Based on return-on-investment metrics, this training has not only brought improved worker health and awareness, it has led to reduced absenteeism, lower turnover, and increased productivity.

CiYuan (China Philanthropy Incubator) | ciyuan.bsr.org

With support from the U.S. Department of State, CiYuan is designed both to increase the impact of social investments in China, and to build the capacity and expertise of Chinese nonprofit organizations and their project partners to fund and implement additional efforts. For example, BSR is supporting a new, cross-sector collaboration that includes a multinational company (HP), a U.S.-based nonprofit (the Taproot Foundation), a local nonprofit (Huizeren), and a local foundation (the Narada Foundation) to advance the pro bono service model in China. Our hope is that this model will allow companies and civil society organizations to share skills and build stronger organizations capable of partnering with a wider range of partners.

Migration Linkages

A four-year program in partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, our Migration Linkages initiative helps protect the rights of migrant workers who are moving between developing countries. We connect multinational companies and their business partners with civil society groups, international organizations, labor unions, and governments to make the global migration system more transparent and advance responsible labor practices. In 2010, we launched a pilot program to protect human rights in the recruitment process for migrant workers in Malaysia and in the Persian Gulf.

Green Ports and Energy Efficiency

With new funding from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and building on our experience with BSR’s Clean Cargo Working Group, this project is aimed at evaluating the environmental performance of freight carriers, and working to make ports and terminal operators more sustainable. As a first step, we identified ports’ most significant sustainability issues and developed a framework for ports to consistently report on their performance on those issues. This funding also will allow BSR to expand our Energy Efficiency Partnership, a China-based effort to enhance the energy efficiency of small- and medium-sized enterprises in the Pearl River Delta.

Major Funders in 2010: Private, Corporate, Government

• British Consulate General in Guangzhou
• GE Foundation
• International Finance Corporation
• Levi Strauss Foundation
• MacArthur Foundation
• Rockefeller Brothers Fund
• Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency
• U.S. Department of State

Blog | Thursday September 21, 2017

Redefining Sustainable Business: Radical Collaboration, Inside and Out 

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As our CEO Aron Cramer articulated in his recent post, our continually evolving landscape means “a new agenda for business, new tools for sustainability leaders, and, in a world of political volatility, a new approach to business leadership” are urgently needed.

The world is increasingly looking to businesses—and business leaders—to chart a path forward on a range of critical topics, from diversity and inclusion to climate action.

One key element of this new approach will be a dramatically increased role for collaboration, both within organizations and between companies and their stakeholders.

For example, at BSR we are engaging member companies in the development of formal strategies and plans to understand and address vulnerability to climate change and related impacts across their entire value chains. These rapidly growing efforts aimed at building climate resilience provide a useful case study of what sustainable business will increasingly require.

While we are still in the early stages of this work, two things have become clear.

First, business can’t do it alone.

The challenge of building resilience to climate change—as so painfully illustrated by recent extreme weather events around the world—is the very definition of a “systems challenge.” Most companies have some degree of business continuity planning in place focused on the “hardening” of physical company infrastructure. This is of course critically important, but it is just the beginning of a journey that must also address the following questions:

• Even if our facilities are secured, will our employees be able to make it work?
• Will our suppliers be able to provide the inputs we need to maintain production?
• How well equipped are the communities we operate in to restore/resume operations and commerce in the aftermath of a storm or other disruptive event?
• What investments can and should we make in building critical infrastructure and capabilities across our value chain—and what is our best role vis-a-vis public sector and other players?

Even more important than the increased expectations of business is the stark reality that business cannot achieve its objectives without working with other sectors. Specifically, business needs to step up its approach to advocacy and collaboration, using the full range of its core competencies to enable and influence stakeholders in the public sector and civil society.

And the sustainability department certainly can’t do it alone.

This leads us to a second, more internally focused point about addressing resilience and other critical systemic challenges. The scope and complexity of issues and efforts necessitate a whole organization approach to sustainability, leveraging the combined competencies of multiple functions and disciplines. Here are just a few examples of how departments across companies are engaging on climate resilience:

• A dramatically expanded approach to enterprise risk management, with participation from strategic planning, is critical to development and acceptance of an expended approach to risk assessment/management.
• Operations and transport/logistics teams assess vulnerability across company-owned operations and networks, while global supply chain and procurement organizations do the same for key input providers, and these departments will be the owners of programs and partnerships to address their respective vulnerabilities.
• Public affairs and government relations teams evaluate climate-related regulatory and policy risks and determine how best to address them in the context of companies’ overall public policy objectives.
• The human resources team develops enhancements to workplace policies, training, and capability-building.
• A company’s foundation identifies how to allocate resources and pursue partnerships key to the implementation of the resilience strategy.

What does this mean for CSOs and sustainability teams?

Sustainability leaders and their teams will play important roles in enabling other parts of the business, both internally through cross-functional work and externally via significantly greater collaboration and advocacy. In order to do this, however, most sustainability teams will need to increase their focus on organizational change and capability-building.

Sustainability teams will also need to leverage their external engagement and relationships with unusual actors to help other departments spot trends and proactively respond to issues as they arise. They will be called upon to incubate new public-private projects and partnerships, too—sometimes in conjunction with their company foundations. The UN Sustainable Development Goals in particular can serve as a vehicle for sustainability teams to build coalitions around key issues and priorities for the organization.

The bottom line: Sustainability departments need to embrace and promote a spirit of “radical collaboration” if they are to achieve their objectives in a rapidly changing environment.

Join us to continue the conversation on how business leads at the BSR Conference 2017 in Huntington Beach, California, from October 22-24.

This week, we are featuring several blog posts about the role of collaboration in shaping our climate future. Follow @BSRnews on Twitter for updates from Global Goals Week and Climate Week NYC; see our recent blog post for the full list of where we’ll be.

Blog | Tuesday April 16, 2019

Supply Chain Sustainability in a Rapidly Changing World

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Ten years ago, Norway-based Telenor Group transformed its approach to supply chain sustainability. To mark this anniversary, Telenor commissioned BSR to review lessons learned and consider what direction both Telenor and the broader telecoms industry should travel over the next 10 years. Telenor’s supply chains include thousands of suppliers around the world, which provide goods and services ranging from IT equipment and devices from global suppliers to a wide range of local services needed to build and run the network, including construction and maintenance. In addition, suppliers are needed in areas such as digital services, brand and marketing support, and outsourced customer services and business processes. 

Informed by this work, today we are sharing our thoughts on relevant global shifts transforming telecommunications supply chains and best practices for companies in the industry to improve supply chain sustainability in the future. 

Three Global Trends  

Three key trends are likely to influence the future of sustainable supply chains in the telecommunications industry—new technologies and digitization, climate resilience, and large-scale human migration.  

1. New technologies: Innovations and digital advances are revolutionizing supply chain management across industries, and more companies today are using technologies like automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain, and augmented reality to supplement traditional approaches. There are opportunities to consider how new technologies can increase financial incentives for suppliers that are performing well on social and environmental indicators—for example, blockchain technology and financial technology solutions are making it easier for companies to gear their supply chain finance mechanisms more readily toward incentives for these high-performing suppliers. 
2. Climate resilience: While it’s impossible to predict the exact effects of climate change, it’s clear that supply chains are vulnerable to global warming, especially for those companies with operations and infrastructure in countries that are already experiencing more frequent and severe weather events. Over the past decade, the telecommunications industry has done an impressive job building climate resilience, and networks are increasingly able to withstand severe weather events. Looking to the future, telecommunications companies have an opportunity to expand their approach to climate resilience by focusing on opportunities to deploy telecommunications networks and digital services in ways that support the resilience of other industries.  
3. Large-scale human migration: Companies will also need to prepare for the burgeoning trend of human migration at a massive scale. More than 240 million people now live outside their country of birth, and a record number of people have become refugees. This is already affecting many companies. While local contexts vary significantly, migrant labor presents risks in both emerging economies as well as in developed markets. One of the biggest risks is that migrant workers represent a vulnerable group requiring special protection. Often, these people may not be aware of their rights, or they are willing to take jobs where rules and regulations are not followed. As a result, they might be paid under the table in cash, they might be paid below the legal minimum wage, or their employers may force them to work excessive hours or in unsafe conditions. It is important for companies to identify and eliminate these violations, and it’s also important for companies to invest in strategies to create decent jobs that integrate migrants into the workforce, develop their skills, and give them opportunities to make positive contributions to society. 

What Companies Can Do 

We recommend companies dig deeper on impact—encourage more local ownership, connect more deeply on key issues, and create change for rights-holders. 

A dedicated company’s efforts in an era of rapidly accelerated change has the potential to create value for its business, its stakeholders, and society at large. Our recent work with Telenor illustrates how companies can act within their own boundaries, enable relationships with stakeholders, and influence policy change to advance sustainable business goals, drawing from the “Act-Enable-Influence” framework articulated in Redefining Sustainable Business: Management for a Rapidly Changing World.

We recommend companies dig deeper on impact—encourage more local ownership, connect more deeply on key issues, and create change for rights-holders. We also suggest more proactive engagement with global peers and suppliers in collaborative efforts, such as advocacy for necessary policy changes.  

Our additional guidance for companies includes the following: 

• Companies can act by taking local context into account in risk assessments, audits, inspections, and capacity-building, as well as by prioritizing efforts based on risk to the rights-holder (i.e., supply chain employee), rather than risk to the business. This focus on risk to the rights-holder rather than risk to the business is consistent with the expectations in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. 
• Companies can enable change by creating and participating in local collaboration platforms among telecommunications companies and their suppliers, as well as with other industries and key stakeholders. This can also include making the case for more telecommunications operators, including local competitors, to join relevant industry associations and strengthen their ability to drive industrywide change.  
• The telecommunications industry can influence change by adopting an advocacy agenda that represents the complete company and industry value chain. This means promoting rule of law and good governance, especially effective enforcement of labor, health, safety, environment, and anticorruption regulations.  

If you’d like to connect with us to learn more about our work on the future of supply chain sustainability, please don’t hesitate to contact us. 

Blog | Thursday March 22, 2018

Why Hiring 100,000 Impact Workers Is Only the Beginning: Interview with The Rockefeller Foundation

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This week, the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition (GISC) challenged the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry to hire 100,000 new impact workers by the end of 2020. The group also announced the launch of the world’s first Impact Sourcing Standard, designed to increase the adoption of Impact Sourcing by setting out uniform criteria for what it entails.

At the launch, we caught up with Mamadou Biteye, Managing Director, Africa Regional Office, The Rockefeller Foundation, as he reflected on the development of the GISC and its progress to date.

Mark Williams: What need led to the formation of the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition?

Mamadou Biteye: Economic inequality is one of the most threatening global challenges of our time, jeopardizing stability and social progress worldwide. The World Bank estimates that 2.1 billion people in the developing world are surviving on less than US$3.10 a day, and more than half of the world's poorest people are in sub-Saharan Africa. For these individuals and their families, income inequality creates a cycle of poverty that can persist for generations. One of the most sustainable means to reduce such inequality is to ensure that poor and vulnerable populations have access to formal employment and training, giving them the opportunity to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. GISC is trying to do this by creating access to opportunities of gainful employment.

Williams: How did the GISC come into being?

Biteye: As part of its Digital Jobs Africa initiative, whose aim was to catalyze new, sustainable employment opportunities and skills development for African youth through ICT, The Rockefeller Foundation had been working with the private sector for six years to influence their adoption of Impact Sourcing in their hiring practices. We later partnered with BSR, a global non-profit organization that works with its network of more than 250 member companies to build a just and sustainable world. BSR is today the secretariat and facilitator of the Coalition.

Williams: How has the GISC grown since its launch?

Biteye: In September 2016, The Rockefeller Foundation and BSR launched the GISC with 20 founding members, including companies and partner organizations. An additional 23 organizations have since joined. GISC’s member companies have a combined workforce of over 1.6 million BPO workers, representing an estimated 10 percent of the global industry.

Williams: How important is the collaboration for the BPO industry and can other industries follow its lead?

Biteye: The Rockefeller Foundation initially targeted the BPO industry in areas such as call centers and data entry, due to their fast growth and high potential for job creation. Today, leading BPO providers have become early champions of Impact Sourcing and are eager to prove the business case for this inclusive hiring practice. While the initial uptake has been a major success in the BPO sector, Impact Sourcing is applicable across sectors and across industries. The BPO sector serves as an excellent forerunner.

Williams: How does The Rockefeller Foundation support industry collaboration?

Biteye: For more than a century, we have worked through partnerships to create the change we want to see and improve the lives of poor and vulnerable. This has been the case not only via Digital Jobs Africa and GISC, but across many of our initiatives at The Rockefeller Foundation, so it is truly in our DNA to bring different organizations together and facilitate their working together to address our challenges for greater impact. We have been fortunate to work with very capable organizations, BSR being one, to catalyze our funding and especially our impact.

Williams: What do you predict for the future of Impact Sourcing?

Biteye: Since the formation of the GISC, we have seen the increasing positive social impact that can be achieved through Impact Sourcing and the power of procurement. The Global Impact Sourcing Challenge will take this ambition to the next level and, together with the new Impact Sourcing Standard, will be the catalyst for a global increase in inclusive hiring practices.

To learn more, please email gisc@bsr.org, and visit our website at gisc.bsr.org. Read more about how The Rockefeller Foundation and BSR approach private-sector collaboration for sustainable development.

Blog | Monday December 9, 2019

If Corruption Is a Cancer, How Do We Cure It? Lessons for International Anti-Corruption Day

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Twenty years ago, researchers and experts were relatively oblivious to issues of bad governance and corruption, but today, the link between the quality of government institutions that implement policies controlling corruption and economic development is clear. However, in many parts of the world, corruption is still one of the biggest obstacles to social and economic development. As the international community’s focus on corruption has increased, the following question has been increasingly asked: Are we winning or losing the battle?

First, fighting corruption may mean different things to different people and is unquestionably driven by different factors. In a company, the focus for a compliance officer or the head of the legal department is on legal risks; i.e., if a company engages in corrupt behavior, this may lead to massive investigations, potential prosecution, high fines, and senior management liability. For others, tackling corruption leads to a better and safer work environment, reduces operational costs, and avoids delays.

In the long-term perspective, being a clean company makes it easier to do business.

However, regardless of what the argument is internally, questions from front-line employees working in locations prone to corruption will be: “What are our competitors doing about it? If we say no and everyone else says yes, how can we eliminate it? What are governments doing about it? We can’t change the world alone!” As a compliance officer, you may have heard this input during compliance training sessions.  

Arguments like these are hard to answer and are one of the reasons why the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) was created in 2011.

MACN now has 128 members, and our collective voice is strong when engaging in dialogue with governments. Within the network, members can discuss challenges and solutions to tackle corruption at the front line with one another. MACN’s in-country collective action programs mean that companies are not alone when saying ‘no’ to corrupt demands. In our case, the ship before you, and after, will have said ‘no’ to illegal demands. Captains and crew will be better protected by tested processes and procedures and by weight of numbers.

In answering the above questions, MACN members can say:

• We are working with peers and partners to address these challenges with global governments.
• We are stronger together.
• We may not change the world today but working together is a great place to start.

A few lessons from MACN that can be replicated in any industry are:

• Multi-stakeholder dialogue works. Blaming someone who is not in the room gets us nowhere. We need to create and foster dialogues and forums where the public and private sector can come together, where issues can be addressed, and where we move away from general statements about corruption and work on realistic outcomes.
• A sector-specific approach. Addressing issues unique to the sector helps with internal arguments so that front-line staff do not feel alone. They feel supported by a wider external argument of building a strong industry voice in combination with governments and other stakeholders.
• Identify drivers to improve the operating environment. When approaching governments, MACN’s argument is not to address corruption, but to support governments with experience and insights from our member base to reduce trade obstacles. This links the challenges to the government’s own priorities, which, in our case, focus on international seaborne trade.
• It is not a blame game. One of MACN’s key pillars is to support efforts and raise the bar within our own industry. This approach helps governments understand that it is not only about them. It is important we articulate that there is both a supply and demand side to this issue that need to be addressed, and it requires efforts on both sides to fight corruption.

In order to cure the cancer that is corruption, we must identify the challenges and discuss practical solutions that can implemented now—and not tomorrow. We must find ways to bring different stakeholders to the table, engage with industry peers to create a level playing field, and implement solutions on the ground.

Blog | Wednesday August 10, 2022

Business Leadership in the Great Fragmentation: Part 2

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Editor's Note:

It is obvious that we are living through a time of profound and accelerating change. Our world has been rocked by a series of disruptions: COVID-19, war and social conflict, rollback of rights and democracy, and now high inflation and the risk of recession. These developments have jolted society, and business.

To help our 300+ member companies navigate this volatile environment, we're releasing a series of blogs over the coming weeks to build insight into how to shape business approaches that address this unique moment. Following the first piece on the role of business in combatting societal fragmentation, today we focus on how business can reorient their efforts around four main objectives.

We’ll conclude with a deeper dive look into how BSR’s 2025 strategy can help your company to navigate these turbulent times—and how you can collaborate with our global network to push us further, faster, to achieve a more equitable, just world for all.

The Business Response

The divisions caused by “The Great Fragmentation” are a barrier to achieving an economy that drives equitable and sustainable progress. This represents the great project of the 21st century: enabling all people to thrive and live in dignity on a healthy planet.

The Great Fragmentation also presents an extremely serious challenge for business. Social division, political dysfunction, and constant conflict result in complexity, costs, and structural barriers that undermine the ability to plan and operate. 

To meet the needs of our fragmented world, business can reorient their efforts around four main objectives: 

• Close the gap between ambition and delivery on ESG: Business can accelerate delivery of existing commitments. The gap between corporate ambitions and tangible impact hinders social progress and invites skepticism of the bona fides of business’ stated objectives. The gap between stated net-zero commitments, for example, and tangible delivery—let alone progress—sparks cynicism and social division. Delivering on goals is not only an end in itself—it can also heal divisions regarding economic models and establish trust in business as a credible partner.
• Take on the sources of fragmentation directly: Business activities are an important source of fragmentation. Mis- and disinformation, income inequality, and gender and racial pay gaps arise in part from business models and actions. Businesses cannot be a bystander as society fragments. It has an opportunity—and obligation—to remedy the steps it is taking that contribute to widening divisions. The failure to act is a missed opportunity and risks further erosion of trust in business and, more broadly, global market economies. 
• Modernize and strengthen the social contract: At the root of this fragmentation is the fact that our social contracts have outlived their use. Existing social contracts are largely based on the world as it was in the immediate aftermath of World War II and are no longer fit for purpose. Modernized and strengthened social contracts can provide the security and mobility people need and deserve, establish the foundation for dynamic and equitable economies, and address 21st-century questions, such as the role and application of new technologies and the energy transition. For business, a more constructive role regarding social contracts also means moving away from reflexive opposition to tax and regulation.
• Increase engagement in constructive public policy solutions: Finally, it is essential that business reorient how they use influence in the development of public policy. It is long past time that the discrepancy between business aspirations and the lobbying efforts of trade associations was erased. In many places, not least the United States, this also means that business should engage more forcefully to ensure that democratic processes are restored and sustained. Business can make fundamental changes to their approach to political contributions and be willing to withdraw support for political figures undermining democracy and rule of law, even if they may advance other policies seen to be “business-friendly.”

Conclusion

There is little doubt that many business leaders would prefer not to have this assignment. Traditional business questions are challenging enough with an economic downturn looming, the ongoing march of new technologies, and continuing disruption of business models. Diving into the fragmentation presents a risk. Turning away from this central problem, however, creates even greater risk. It is unrealistic on the part of business to assume that others will step in to turn the page. It is irresponsible for business to look away from the sources of fragmentation where they take responsibility. And it is unwise to assume that business is immune from the impacts of our deep fragmentation.

By redoubling efforts to deliver on ESG ambitions, helping to reshape the social contract, directly addressing the causes of fragmentation, and taking a more active role in positive policy engagement, business can help reorient societies away from a vicious cycle of division and restore a more favorable operating environment. This is the only sensible path forward if we are to collectively escape the descent to further fragmentation and a world that is increasingly ungovernable, inequitable, and unlivable.

Case Studies | Tuesday November 4, 2014

Global Network Initiative: Protecting Human Rights in the Digital Age

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The Challenge

The rapid growth in global internet and telecommunications services has resulted in significant gains in our ability to communicate freely. However, this growth has been accompanied by government efforts to restrict user access to content, acquire personal information, and interfere with private communications.

For many years, information and communications technology (ICT) companies were caught between government requirements and the users’ expectations and rights—lacking international standards to apply when governments made demands that might result in human rights infringements. To determine best practices and create these standards, BSR partnered with the Center for Democracy and Technology in 2006 to design and facilitate a multistakeholder process to fill this void.

Our Strategy

BSR worked with the group to write the foundational documents—principles, implementation guidelines, and a governance charter—that shaped the work of the Global Network Initiative (GNI), which launched in 2008 as the first group of its kind that included representatives from ICT companies, civil society groups, investors, and academics.

BSR served as the co-facilitator during this process, helping with negotiation and conflict resolution to generate consensus during debates. We also undertook the work of the GNI until it became its own legal entity in 2010. Following this, BSR wrote a public report for GNI on “Protecting Human Rights in the Digital Age,” outlining the main freedom of expression and privacy risks at different layers of the ICT value chain.

Since 2010, the GNI has had a full-time secretariat in place, and BSR no longer facilitates the organization—which reflects BSR’s occasional role as an incubator of innovative, collaborative efforts that are then implemented by others. Today, the GNI focuses on advancing its principles, recruiting new companies, sharing best practices, engaging in policy debates, and implementing its accountability mechanism.

Our Impact

The sustained success of the GNI is an indication of BSR’s own story of impact.

Partly as a result of this work, the GNI’s five member companies, which together serve more than 2 billion users, have implemented new global standards on freedom of expression and privacy. In 2013, nine global telecommunications companies launched a set of principles focused on free expression and privacy.

The GNI’s work also helped build understanding among experts from the ICT industry and from the field of human rights—two groups that previously did not regularly work together. This has helped build a growing community of experts in ICT and human rights—a significant development given the increasing importance of technology in our pursuit of human rights today.

While exact cause and effect is difficult to pinpoint, ICT companies’ increased transparency about their relationships with law-enforcement, and companies’ reformed approaches to surveillance and data collection, are among the GNI’s recent successes.

Lessons learned

The multistakeholder approach and emphasis on accountability standards has enhanced the credibility of the GNI among human rights organizations, and it is unlikely that the depth of collaboration between companies and human rights organizations would have happened without it.

However, the GNI has faced challenges expanding its corporate membership base, which has grown from three to five major internet companies. That said, because of the GNI’s open standards and multistakeholder approach, other companies that have not joined the GNI have deemed the GNI’s founding documents highly credible, and have adopted key features of the underlying principles.

Blog | Tuesday January 24, 2017

Forging the Missing Link: What the 2017 CDP Supply Chain Report Says About Supplier Engagement

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Supply chains may be the most under-recognized opportunity for companies to address climate change. While companies tend to focus, understandably, on energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions in business operations and products, supply chains often account for the majority of product greenhouse gas emissions.

To call attention to supply chain opportunities, BSR has again partnered with CDP on the annual CDP Supply Chain Report—this year, teamed with the Carbon Trust and supported by funding from ClimateWorks Foundation.

Although in many ways encouraging, our findings highlighted the need for urgency. The 4,300 suppliers that reported to CDP increasingly identify business opportunities coupled with their actions to address climate change—benefits like brand and product differentiation, energy and operational efficiency, or the ability to attract and retain talent. But at the same time, the number of companies taking significant action on climate change remains far too low. Only 34 percent of companies reported an overall emissions decrease, while a similar percentage were unable to track their progress. Such limited management both contributes to ongoing climate change and limits the ability of companies to build resilience in the face of increasingly severe climate impacts.

Supply chain engagement remains a challenge: Companies generally have much less control over their supply chains than they do over their owned operations or products, and supply chain emissions typically come from multiple, independent companies—many of which may be several steps removed from the purchasing company attempting to act on climate change. For example, significant emissions in electronics supply chains may happen in extraction and processing of raw materials—but these mining and processing companies are suppliers of suppliers (of suppliers … ) of the company that makes your smartphone.

Supply chain engagement may not be simple. But it is worth the effort. By working with their suppliers, companies can better identify and address the specific and growing physical, regulatory, and other risks they face from climate change. And they can take advantage of opportunities to build closer relationships and help suppliers build their own climate resilience. Because of these types of efforts, suppliers reporting to CDP in 2016 saved more than US$12 billion from emissions reduction projects—a significant increase compared to 2015. Understanding the types of climate risks that suppliers are facing and building resilient supply chain networks will help companies thrive over the long term.

BSR, CDP, and the Carbon Trust plan to continue using the lessons learned from the CDP supply chain program to help companies understand their risks and support greater climate resilience. Whether working with our members to establish and implement bold climate goals, as BSR did with General Mills and Walmart, or conducting industry benchmarking and other research to identify opportunities for action, we look forward to the coming year’s engagements, and we hope to see further improvements in next year’s report.

Blog | Tuesday October 20, 2020

BSR Conference 2020: Coming Together to Meet the Moment and Build the Future

Preview

It’s hard to find the words to describe the current moment. COVID-19. One million deaths. Economic shutdown. Racial injustice. Unemployment. Remote work and school. Extreme hurricanes and historic wildfire events. Political polarization and election fraud allegations in the U.S.

In 2020, we are navigating not one major challenge, but the convergence of public health, economic, political, societal, and existential crises.

So, how do we begin to think about meeting this moment? One thing that is true for all the crises I just described is this: No one solution, no single individual or company, no country on its own can overcome the challenges we face.

Now, more than ever, we need to come together.

Since 1993, the BSR Conference has convened sustainability professionals to connect, share, and learn together; to collaborate and inspire one another; and to create community. This year, however different the circumstances, will be no different.

As 2020 nears its end and we look to move beyond the current moment, we have the opportunity to build a more just, more resilient, and more sustainable future. 

This week, we will gather virtually with sustainability leaders around the globe to explore this year’s theme: Meet the Moment. Build the Future. While we won’t be meeting in person, the BSR Conference experience will provide the same unique value it always has:

• Inspiring and thought-provoking speakers
• Interactive sessions on the most pressing issues facing sustainable business
• Opportunities to network with peers and colleagues from different regions and industries

We’re excited to connect with the change makers that we’re proud to call our community. If you haven’t yet registered, there is still time to sign up and join us. Your Conference pass gives you a front-row seat to our whole program for the week—and access to the recording for an entire year.

As 2020 nears its end and we look to move beyond the current moment, we have the opportunity to build a more just, more resilient, and more sustainable future. Building that future will not be easy. It will take cooperation and collaboration—from business, investors, government, and civil society—and a range of tools and strategies to combat everything from climate change to systemic racism to future pandemics.

But that future is one we must continue to pursue: Sustainable, responsible business is the primary source of strategic advantage and the best route to a just and sustainable world. Through our collective work, as our President and CEO Aron Cramer recently said, we can build the kind of economy, the kinds of businesses, and the kinds of societies that we all want and need.

Only together can we meet the moment and build that better future. We look forward to taking the first step this week.