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Blog | Monday October 2, 2017

Q&A: The Future of Supply Chain Sustainability

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As part of our Q&A series with our experts on the past, present, and future of sustainable business, we sat down with Supply Chain Sustainability lead Tara Norton to discuss innovations, opportunities, and challenges in the field.

Elisabeth Best: What has been the single most important innovation in supply chain sustainability in the last 25 years?

Tara Norton: The first innovation came in the 1990s, with companies’ realization that the rights of workers in their global supply chains were their responsibility. This launched the labor standards and social compliance movement and the raft of industry vertical initiatives and certifications that we see today, addressing many of the most critical human rights and environmental issues in each industry’s supply chains.

I would say we are now waiting for the next innovation. There has been a definite realization that the current accepted approach is not driving meaningful change. Our leading member companies are looking for better solutions. There are many promising developments underway today, largely around the use of data and integration of technology, that are laying the groundwork for disruptive innovation. 

Best: What does sustainable business, specifically as it relates to supply chain sustainability, look like in 2030? 

Norton: What the future holds is always hard to say, but we are excited to publish a primer on the future of supply chains today that summarizes the biggest procurement trends and forces of change affecting supply chains between now and 2025.

Two big trends happening in supply chain management are the rising importance of the Chief Procurement Officer within businesses and the digitalization of supply chains. Increased digitalization is allowing for data analysis that wasn’t possible before: Companies can better analyze and therefore manage the risk in their supply chains. However, there is also the massive impact of the rise of automation in supply chains, where machines will replace people, not only as workers, but also, in some cases, as decision-makers.

One significant and related change that we anticipate is transparent supply chains, across industries. It’s going to be increasingly easy to see where things are made and how goods and finance flow, and sharing this data will become business as usual. Companies may as well get out ahead of this trend—it’s coming anyway, and it’s going to be increasingly difficult to keep supply chain information private or to hide behind the idea that supply chains are too complex for visibility. 

Best: What’s the biggest challenge or opportunity you see looking forward?

Norton: Supply chains are enablers for businesses to achieve positive human rights, climate, inclusive economy, and women’s empowerment impacts on a mass scale. This remains a huge opportunity.

One of the biggest challenges and opportunities is automation. The impacts of automation on supply chains, and specifically on the global work force, are enormous. There are obviously significant efficiency opportunities, but the impacts of automation on workers should be top of mind. The conversation about worker rights and worker empowerment changes completely when machines can replace entire workforces in factories. What is a company’s responsibility for the people in its supply chain that are being displaced by automation?

Best: What are leading companies doing today to make a sustainable future a reality? 

Norton: BSR articulates what supply chain leadership looks like in the Supply Chain Leadership Ladder—leading companies at the “driving impact” level described in our Ladder are shifting their activities away from compliance toward engagement and impact on the most critical areas of their supply chains. Leading companies are making commitments on their most material issues, integrating sustainability throughout their whole procurement lifecycles, and actively leading in the global collaborations that are improving global supply chains.

Best: What aspect of this year’s BSR Conference are you most excited about?

Norton: We have an excellent line-up of speakers, including Al Gore, and I expect to be inspired and come away with new ideas to meet the supply chain challenges of the future. I am looking forward to the discussion we are going to have during Harnessing New Technologies for Supply Chain Sustainability, where we will explore some of the trends we’ve discussed in this blog. And it’s going to be nice to hang out by the beach with an amazing group of sustainability professionals, many of whom are old friends at this point.

Blog | Tuesday July 3, 2018

How to Prevent Your Sustainability Collaboration from Failing

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More than ever before, companies are collaborating with stakeholders across their value chains, and even across entire regional or global governance systems, to learn about the systemic issues that curb long-term business growth—such as keystone species extinction, talent shortages, and climate-threatened supply chains—and agree on joint actions to address them.

There are numerous examples of successful and impactful multistakeholder collaborations for sustainable development: For instance, half a billion children have been vaccinated and more than nine million lives have been saved in the world’s poorest countries since the founding of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in 2000. And the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) is successfully driving progress to eliminate corruption across the maritime industry’s value chain, including influencing country regulatory frameworks to increase the efficiency, integrity, and transparency of vessel inspections.

But it is also important to acknowledge the numerous collaborations that never get off the ground, are bogged down in governance negotiations, or struggle to drive meaningful action from participants to meet their impact goals. Learning from both the failures and successes helps to ensure that future collaborations do not repeat the mistakes of the past.

In our recent report, Private-Sector Collaboration for Sustainable Development, we reviewed 21 current and previous collaborations and interviewed more than 40 experts about collaborating for sustainability. From this research, we identified risk factors across the lifecycle of collaborations, from start-up to early implementation to scaling. These include launching prematurely (before participants have had the opportunity to build trust and buy into the proposed solutions), insufficient resources to meet the ambitions of the collaboration, breaches of trust between participants, lack of leadership succession planning, and mission creep.

If you are thinking of starting or joining a collaboration or are currently involved in one, you may encounter some of these red flags. Below are our recommendations for how to address or mitigate them. Some of these steps will require collective action from your collaboration, but you and your partners can improve the odds of success by raising issues as they arise, demonstrating commitment, and taking actions to reduce the risk of failure.   

In the Start-Up Phase

• Spend the time to prepare and engage critical participants. Multistakeholder initiatives take an average of 18 months to move from early discussions to launch. This is a longer time frame than most participants expect, but the time is well spent on attaining buy-in and refining the initiative’s value proposition. Organizations that launch more rapidly are more likely to face challenges early in their growth because they don’t have sufficient participant support or an initial strategy for impact
• Diversify funding. Seeking seed funding from foundations or governments can help initiatives build their value proposition for companies to eventually back the effort themselves. This diverse funding can also make a collaboration better plan for the long term and can help to avoid the “free rider” problem, where competing companies avoid being the sole contributors to an effort that they see as beneficial to their peers.

During Early Implementation

• Prioritize personal relationships and trust-building. Trust is the glue that holds organizations together when the going gets rough. Scheduling meetings in person–while time-intensive and expensive–can be an important investment in building relationships between participants, increasing their commitment to each other and the effort.
• Build a database of participant contacts. Relying too heavily on one point of contact for a participating organization can lead to burnout or loss of the relationship with his or her firm if that person leaves. Collaborations do well to identify several participant contacts and keep them informed about the collaboration’s progress, in case they need to step in.

When Scaling

• Rotate leaders. Some initiatives expose more people to leadership roles by instituting terms for key positions, such as the steering committee. This allows more organizations to participate in governance and creates natural periods for an initiative to refresh its strategic vision under new leadership. To maintain some consistency, it can be helpful to stagger terms. For example, a vice-chair could remain in office when a new chair is elected.
• Agree up front on milestones for scaling or sunsetting. When designing the initiative, members can agree on indicators or milestones to review during each strategy cycle to determine when it may be time to consider different growth paths, including scaling to new geographies or sectors, spinning off, merging, pivoting, or sunsetting the initiative. Some initiatives may determine from the beginning that they will be time-bound, lasting only a few years to accomplish their objective.

Private-sector collaboration for sustainability has enormous potential—but it is challenging to do well. Rushing into a collaboration without the necessary structures and planning can be a recipe for failure.

At BSR, we have 20 years of experience in designing, implementing, and scaling collaborative initiatives. Some have run for decades with ever-growing impact; some have sunset with relative satisfaction; and some have failed to take off. These successes and the failures help us build our expertise in managing collaborative initiatives.

If you are planning to collaborate for sustainability, let us help you do it right. Contact us for more information.

Blog | Monday October 16, 2017

Q&A: The Future of Business Action on Climate Change

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As part of our Q&A series with our experts on the past, present, and future of sustainable business, we sat down with Climate Change lead David Wei to discuss innovations, opportunities, and challenges in the field.

Elisabeth Best: What has been the single most important innovation in business action on climate change in the last 25 years? 

David Wei: For climate practitioners, the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 is the most important development of the past 25 years. For the first time in history, countries rich and poor alike agreed to reduce their emissions and build climate resilience. This sends a strong signal to the business community.

The agreement was as ambitious a text as 195 countries could agree on, and it includes clear long-term goals that set a new international standard to hold warming well below 2 degrees Celsius: to peak global emissions as soon as possible, rapidly reduce them to reach net zero in the second half of this century, build climate resilience, and reduce vulnerability. Equally important is the fact that the agreement asks governments to enhance their commitments every five years, repeatedly creating opportunities to push the global emissions trajectory downward.

Best: What does sustainable business, specifically as it relates to climate change, look like in 2030? 

Wei: It’s only 2017, but emissions reductions in direct operations are already becoming mainstream. The business case for renewable energy procurement and energy efficiency, for example, is very strong. Leading companies are moving to new frontiers of climate action—engaging their supply chains to reduce Scope 3 emissions, assessing and disclosing the climate risks that their businesses face, and building and implementing strategies to become more resilient to those risks. 

In 2030, supply chain climate action and the integration of climate resilience throughout companies’ value chains could be mainstream sustainable business. Indeed, by 2030, high-carbon business models in energy, transport, and agriculture could be relics of the past.   

Best: What’s the biggest challenge or opportunity you see looking forward?

Wei: While our collective direction toward the resilient, low-carbon economy envisioned by the Paris Agreement remains clear, the U.S. Administration’s intention to withdraw has injected short-term uncertainty into the policy landscape, which is a challenge. However, other major economies have made their continued commitment to climate policy clear.

As the BSR/Globescan 2017 State of Sustainable Business Survey anticipated, the U.S. decision about the Paris Agreement has not changed company commitments to climate action. Indeed, climate action is warranted by a broader business case, including companies’ desires to demonstrate leadership, respond to shareholder resolutions, manage risk, address stakeholder expectations, and control energy costs. The challenge for business will be to take the broader and medium-term perspective to continue to lead on climate.  

Best: What are leading companies doing today to make a sustainable future a reality? 

Wei: More companies are engaged on climate today than ever before, and individual companies are making commitments on an unprecedented scale.

For many large companies, climate action increasingly means collaboration—no matter how ambitious these organizations are, they cannot reach their GHG emissions reduction goals without forging partnerships throughout their value chains. Leading businesses are adopting emissions reduction targets that follow a trajectory to hold warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, and they are also stepping up by engaging their suppliers to reduce emissions and build climate resilience. 

Best: What aspect of this year’s BSR Conference are you most excited about?

Wei: I’m excited about Al Gore’s opening plenary speech. I’m also looking forward to the discussion about the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit, which BSR is proud to sit on the Steering Committee for on behalf of business. The Summit will feature climate leadership from businesses, investors, cities, sub-national regions, and civil society, and demonstrate our collective impact in achieving the vision articulated by the Paris Agreement. 

Blog | Wednesday February 8, 2023

Family Medical and Leave Act Turns 30: Five Actions Business Can Take in 2023

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This month, on February 5, 2023, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) turns 30. The FMLA—which guarantees job-protected, unpaid leave to certain workers—was always intended as a first step toward a country that honors and supports all working people, families, and businesses. But decades later, its promise has not yet been fulfilled.

Since 1993, the law has been used more than 460 million times to help working people welcome a new child, care for a spouse or for parental and sick leave. Yet despite its benefits, many—including those in disproportionately low-wage jobs, hourly workers, workers of color, rural workers, immigrants, and others who make our workplaces thrive—are unprotected. Even among workers covered, the fact that the law only guarantees unpaid leave means millions of working adults cannot use the FMLA due to financial risks.

Among the 44 percent of the workforce excluded are people who work for smaller businesses, part-time workers, and any workers with less than 12 months’ tenure. This translates into workers trying to fit healthcare appointments, both routine and significant, on their breaks; children being placed in daycare settings where quality is second to coverage of hours; and frontline workers worrying about ailing loved ones in hospital rooms alone. These gaps can also impact job stability: nearly one in four parents reported last year being fired from their jobs due to the continuing breakdown of child care for their kids.

Access to paid family leave, and expansions of the FMLA, are social justice issues that companies can address internally as well as champion externally.

The US is an outlier when it comes to paid family leave and paid sick or medical leave relative to our economic peers. While most other countries’ laws guarantee paid leave to workers—and multinational companies outside the US are used to doing business within these regulatory landscapes—there is no US equivalent.

Despite the lack of federal requirements for paid family and medical leave, two programs have helped fill the FMLA’s gaps and paved the way for future progress.

First, 11 states and the District of Columbia (DC) have created public programs that guarantee access to paid family and medical leave to all workers. More state programs are on the horizon in 2023 and beyond—and they will help to build additional momentum for a national paid leave program, which a range of communities, including smaller and larger employers, has endorsed. 

Second, private sector innovation has shown the value of paid leave in helping to create healthier and more diverse workforces, with benefits for productivity, retention, and profits. For companies that articulate equity, inclusion, and justice and set goals to achieve gender and racial equity, paid leave is a policy that can help drive positive outcomes.

Despite important business and economic benefits, paid leave leadership is still the exception rather than standard business practice—only 24 percent of private sector workers have dedicated paid family leave at their jobs.

Business can become paid leave leaders by taking the following five actions in 2023:

1. Adopt comprehensive paid family and medical leave programs. Make programs meaningful in terms of duration. Offer a flexible process for returning to work. Make the program reflective of new parents and all workers with caregiving responsibilities. There are examples of great corporate leadership to draw from.
2. Ensure paid leave are provided to all workers, regardless of job, and with minimal tenure requirements. Take a proactive approach to closing the gaps between professional and hourly workers, full-time and part-time workers, and new employees. If a substantial part of your business includes contractors, ensure they have the same policies as your own.
3. Encourage workers to use the policy. Manager training is an essential precondition to the success and utility of your policy, but so is storytelling—from workers and managers, from your employees’ family members, and from company leadership. When leaders can set an example by taking leave of their own, they should do it and talk about it.
4. Measure and report publicly on the impact of your policy. Add to the data about effective paid leave programs, and help answer the questions of other companies looking at new policies, by measuring the relationship between paid leave and retention, advancement, employee health, healthcare costs, and more. Help other companies and policymakers understand the costs and benefits of paid leave by tracking and reporting on the costs and multiple measures of value you see with your newly implemented policy.
5. Advocate for public policies. Officeholders take business leaders’ views with great weight. Help them understand the value, lead on paid leave for everyone, and help dispel preconceptions they might have about business opposition to national paid leave programs.

In addition, be a leader for change within the trade associations you belong to. Don’t let them talk about the value of gender and racial equity and the importance of a strong and diverse workforce while opposing public policies that would help to achieve these goals.

By becoming a paid leave leader, you’ll join other corporate and business leaders on advocating for social justice issues, setting the country on a better path for all.

BSR’s Center for Business and Social Justice works with a network of civil society partners and experts in paid family and medical leave to provide tangible guidance to business. All BSR members can contact the Center for specific inquiries.

Resources to Help Your Company Become a Paid Leave Leader:

Paid Family Leave: Why It’s Essential and How to Design An Effective Policy (ADP)

Designing Equitable and Effective Workplaces for A "Corona-normal" Future of Work (Better Life Lab at New America)

Partnership in Action: An Employer Guide to Building Gender Equity in the Workplace (National Partnership for Women & Families)

9to5 Newsline (9to5 National Membership Organization)

Blog | Wednesday November 29, 2017

Climate Lessons from the Vehicle Industry

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For the third year in a row, global carbon emissions leveled off in 2016. Unfortunately, however, to avoid unmanageable climate impacts, we don’t just need emissions to level off—we need to ski down what Al Gore refers to as the “double black diamond” emissions reduction slope necessary to keep the Earth inhabitable for humans and realize the vision articulated in the Paris Agreement.

Business is an essential component of this effort. That’s why at the BSR Conference this year, I led a breakout session exploring lessons from companies that have been working on emissions reductions and energy efficiency for decades: global automakers and other vehicle manufacturers.

Alex Keros represented General Motors, one of the world’s largest automakers, and Laurie Counsel spoke for Cummins, a leading supplier of heavy-duty engines. The two of them highlighted several ways that companies in any industry can address climate change:

• Envision a different future. Climate change regulations, together with technology and market shifts, are creating more uncertainty in the vehicle industry than at any point in the past 70 years—pressures that other industries are also feeling. In the face of this uncertainty, companies that help shape a low-carbon future will be well positioned to thrive in it. Cummins’ scenario planning, its technology portfolio that includes all-electric trucks, and its leadership’s willingness to envision an energy-diverse future illustrate this approach, as do GM’s electric vehicle launches and its engagement in shared-use platforms, such as ride-hailing and car-sharing.
• But build on your legacy. Keros told the story of his kids learning to ride bikes to demonstrate that even if the nature of transportation is changing, people’s desire for freedom and flexibility isn’t. Cummins and GM are applying their legacies of innovation and mobility to meet new climate and market realities while supporting their core customers, whether building an EV that becomes Motor Trend’s Car of the Year because it is “fast, fun, and genuinely entertaining to drive,” or helping customers improve efficiency of products already in use.
• Identify and address potential roadblocks. An audience member highlighted concerns about growing resource use for vehicle electrification, such as the human rights concerns associated with cobalt mining. Panelists acknowledged that because transitions inevitably create new challenges, business leaders need to better understand what these changes are going to look like so that they can address them—a running theme of BSR17, particularly in relation to futures thinking.
• Engage in policy. Policy and regulation have important roles to play in addressing climate change, and we have seen a lot of company engagement in the climate negotiations, most recently at COP23 in Bonn. The climate policy environment is particularly complex and uncertain for automakers, and while they cite challenges related to vehicle efficiency regulations, they are also promoting policies at local, state, and national levels that encourage innovation, electrification, and shared mobility. Company support for effective policy, as well as collaboration with public officials in new ways to quickly learn about emerging technologies, will be important for continued progress. 

Overall, however, the panelists encouraged business practitioners to think holistically. Through their power purchases, renewable energy goals, and work to evolve their products and business models, Cummins and GM are tackling numerous aspects of climate change.

For business, addressing this challenge won’t only be about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It’s also about an uncertain and highly dynamic future. We will need to involve business leaders from product design, internal operations, supply chain, government affairs, communications, and other departments, in addition to executive leadership, if we are to “ski down the double black diamond” emissions reduction slope.

Cummins and GM demonstrated that even some of the most carbon-intensive industries are developing their maps to navigate this journey. Other companies can (and should) do the same.

Blog | Wednesday January 12, 2022

2022: Purposeful Sustainability Leadership for Turbulent Times

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The last two years have made predictions seem to be exercises in futility. In fact, the dynamics reshaping our world are largely the product of underlying changes we already were fully aware of; none of this was entirely unexpected.  

Looking ahead to 2022 then, we need not only to have a healthy dose of humility, but we need to also keep in mind what we know to be true and focus on the important ways those things will shape the year ahead, no matter what surprises might happen.  

• Net zero needs to get real. The rise of net-zero commitments is one of the good news stories of the past two years. Every company that is remotely realistic knows that getting there requires some hard work, and tradeoffs. Progress on Scope 3, including logistics, represents one of the best opportunities for achieving the needed. Every company also should know that the risk of greenwashing claims is growing. A world increasingly disrupted by extreme weather, economic loss, and unequal impact today is impatient and on edge, and it will not accept net-zero commitments that don’t pay off until tomorrow.  
• Climate action without social justice simply won’t work. It was clear at COP26 in Glasgow that climate action without climate justice is no longer credible—or strategic. Whether it is about a just transition, addressing loss and damage, or ensuring that the clean energy economy offers economic opportunities to all and protects human rights, companies cannot claim to have a comprehensive climate strategy without a climate justice strategy. In the year ahead, we will be working with more companies to help them develop climate action strategies that reduce emissions while enabling social progress. 
• ESG has the attention of investors and regulators: let’s make the best use of that. 2020 saw the rise of ESG investing, 2021 saw signs of a backlash and claims of greenwashing. But the shift is real, and it is making an impact: any CFO would confirm this. And the rules of the game are changing, with both the EU Taxonomy and SEC climate disclosure rules, along with the ISSB Framework, to emerge with greater clarity in 2022. These mechanisms are of signal importance, but their credibility and ambition are not yet secure. Whether they advance is not in question; how they advance is crucial. In 2022, BSR will continue to advocate for comprehensive models that address a full range of issues material both to investors and wider society.   
• Boards are redefining their roles. Survey after survey show that directors understand the business relevance of ESG and the need to steward companies in a socially useful way. Unfortunately, these surveys also typically reveal that many directors don’t feel equipped to make good on this aspect of their mandate. 2022 should be the year when this changes in a decisive manner. This involves three main points: diversifying boards, reorienting their mandates, and bolstering their knowledge base. BSR will be launching a new offering for boards and directors in the year ahead to enable faster progress. 
• Business will continue to use its voice amidst “the great fragmentation” pulling our world apart. Any CEO wishing for times when the business voice on social issues is not needed will be sorely disappointed by what is to come. All signs point to continuing debates over contentious issues that are driving society apart: generational differences in mindset and priorities, tensions between China and the West, populist movements on the left and the right, and socially divisive information bubbles. All this is leading to “the great fragmentation,” which leaves business in a bind when other elements of society cannot function effectively. Business has a strong stake in social cohesion based on democratic values for shared human progress. 

There are many more examples of this roiling turbulence, including many tech solutions, innovation, changing consumer preferences, democratic decline, and catalytic philanthropy. We will no doubt have more to say about this over the next 12 months.  

We enter 2022 with more uncertainty than any of us would like to see. Omicron, let alone other variants to come, are bedeviling us. The perilous state of the Thwaites Glacier in the Antarctic threatens to accelerate sea level rise and reminds us that climate change has unleashed unprecedented volatility and risk. The drive for social justice remains very much unfinished, at a time when local and global divisions are plain to see. And there can be no doubt that this year also will produce its share of unexpected shocks and surprises. 

BSR is celebrating our 30th anniversary in 2022. We are proud to be growing in many ways. First and foremost, we are here to advance the efforts of our member companies—now numbering more than 300 for the first time—who are seeking to transform their business models, operations, products, and global supply chains in truly innovative ways, working also with funders and civil society actors. Our team is also growing, and we will surpass 200 staff for the first time in 2022. And building on a more flexible staffing model, we now have “hubs” in Singapore, the UK, and Washington, DC, adding to the eight locations where we maintain offices. We are also expanding our expertise, with new offerings on Social Justice, Nature, and Governance, amongst others. 

We are both excited by what lies ahead and aware that we are on the clock, with the need to act urgently, with purpose, clarity, and precision, to make this decisive decade one in which real achievements are delivered. 

Blog | Thursday October 22, 2020

Election 2020: A Test for American Democracy, and A Test for American Business

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American democracy is facing an immense test in 2020. This is also a test for American business.

Amidst a pandemic that renders some forms of in-person voting dangerous, a wide array of actors is exploiting both social and mainstream media to spread rumors, conspiracy theories, and outright lies concerning both the campaign and whether votes will be counted accurately. The FBI continues to make clear that there is a concerted effort from Russia, and to a lesser degree other countries, to sow chaos and interfere with both the electoral process and faith in the outcome. The U.S. Postal Service has undermined its ability—and commitment—to enable mail-in voting to proceed on a timely basis. And in a time when the persistence of systemic racism demands action, steps have been taken in many states to suppress access to voting, particularly for people of color who have faced serious restrictions throughout American history.

And, shockingly, for the first time in American history, the incumbent President is consistently undermining public trust in the electoral process. By hinting loudly that the courts rather than the American people will decide the election; making dishonest, unfounded claims of voter fraud; and most importantly, refusing to abide by the results of the election; this President is proving his commitment to his own power rather than protecting citizens’ right to vote.

No business can afford to stand by while this happens. No boardroom can say this is a matter for elected officials, journalists, and political analysts.

American business has thrived over the past 75 years in no small part because of the relative stability and predictability of the American political system. CEOs know well from their operations around the world that business is hindered by the political instability that all too often has roiled countries around the world. Business leaders invest in political risk analysis for good reason. Until now, the U.S. has not been viewed the same way as other countries roiled by coups, general strikes, and corrupt courts.

Process matters to business. Rule of law matters to business.

No company operating in America will want to face a society—and a workforce—that is torn asunder by even more profound polarization and the prospect of growing civil unrest in the wake of an election that is illegitimate or seen as illegitimate.

With all this in mind, the time is now for American business to align on the side of American democracy. As Ronald Reagan said in 1964 (in a very different context), this is “a time for choosing.”

In addition to the steps that many companies have already taken to enable voting and to promote free and fair elections, there are five additional things that business should do to sustain a healthy democracy.

1. Take preventive action: In advance of Election Day, companies can convey to elected officials how essential it is that democratic processes be protected. This may be most effective for companies and CEOs who have good lines of contact with GOP Senators. They should understand that the business community is watching and will not support officials to support or enable election interference.
2. Work through trade associations: Companies can leverage their voice and find strength in numbers by working through trade associations. If trade associations stand only for the narrow self-interest of their members, their purpose is highly questionable. Very specifically, this is a test for the Business Roundtable’s 2019 statement of purpose. There is no better way to demonstrate that it has real meaning than by using it as the basis for pro-democracy views.
3. CEO coalitions of the willing: Like-minded CEOs could band together to be prepared to speak up should things go off the rails. This is what happened in advance of the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. CEOs can convey their views to the White House and make clear that election interference is not only wrong but bad for business.
4. Communicating with employees: We have seen multiple examples of employee activism in recent years. In the event of a contested election or interference with vote counting or the right to vote, companies will need to be ready to speak with their employees, who will want to know where their companies and their CEOs stand on American democracy. While companies need to respect diverse political views in their workforces, support for democracy is a basic principle that should not be presented as partisan.
5. Partnering with NGOs: Aligning with pro-democracy organizations for advice and support is also valuable, whether the ACLU or younger organizations such as NationSwell and Business for America. Business partners with NGOs around the world for similar purposes: why not in the United States also?

And in all these cases, business should also take care to address the fact that voter suppression all too often restricts access to the ballot for Black Americans and other people of color. The workforces of Fortune 500 companies are more representative of America than the U.S. Congress. In a year when many companies and business leaders are straining to demonstrate their commitment to their BIPOC colleagues and customers, calling for an end to voter suppression laws and regulations is a great step.

The test we face is a binary choice. It is not, however, a choice between Democrats versus Republicans. It is true democracy versus a degraded system that will undermine American society and American business. History will cast a keen eye on what happens over the next few weeks.

BSR’s founding Chairman, Arnold Hiatt, who served as the CEO of Stride-Rite Shoes for many years, said this at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in 2002: 

Business is the most powerful force in our society—particularly if it is willing to accept moral, civic, and financial leadership. Business has the tools, the energy, and the will to fill the growing leadership vacuum in government.

This leadership is badly needed in 2020. Will business pass the test?

Blog | Wednesday March 28, 2018

Next-Generation Private-Sector Collaboration for Sustainable Development: Q&A with Neste

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This blog post is part of a series of interviews on how the private sector contributes to sustainable development through collaboration. It is adapted from an interview that BSR’s Cecile Oger and Laura Marie Uhlmann held with Adrian Suharto, Sustainability Manager at Neste, as research for Private-Sector Collaboration for Sustainable Development, a new report from BSR and The Rockefeller Foundation.

BSR: What role does multistakeholder collaboration play at Neste?

Adrian Suharto: Collaboration is anchored in Neste’s sustainability strategy. As a company, we seek to act responsibly in society and in the use of natural resources, and one way to do so is through multistakeholder collaboration. Neste is an active member in collaborations like the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) Association, the RSB, and other industry collaborations or working groups, all of which help us address sustainability challenges crucial to not only our company but our industry more broadly. Hence, there is a strong internal drive at Neste for collaboration motivated by both our sustainability goals and business goals, as we understand that we cannot tackle industry-level problems in isolation.

BSR: How does collaboration start?

Suharto: Collaboration can be used to leverage influence and economic power to drive positive—even transformational—change. A natural starting point for collaboration is when an organization realizes that it has a stake in a certain issue that aligns with the interests of other stakeholders.

If you take the example of RSPO, one of the key reasons that global brands and retailers, palm oil processors and traders, manufacturers of consumer products, social and environmental NGOs, smallholders, investors, and many others started collaborating on palm oil sustainability was that there was increasing pressure to act as civil society organizations were raising public concern and awareness about the adverse environmental and social impacts associated with palm oil cultivation and increasing use. Companies quickly understood that this issue touched upon different sectors, and the challenges could not be addressed by any single actor or even a single industry alone. Hence, the RSPO was founded as a platform to convene a diverse range of stakeholders around this one common challenge and seek to collectively and effectively address the sustainability challenges of palm oil.

BSR: In your experience, what are some of the key challenges that companies face when engaging in collaboration, and how can these be overcome?

Suharto: A major obstacle to collaboration is a lack of consensus. This is especially common in large, multistakeholder collaborations. Although all actors might acknowledge the need for collaboration, reaching consensus to take action and move ahead on certain issues can be a real challenge.

Competition between companies can also impede successful collaboration. While large companies have a lot of leverage in collaborations due to their economic power, some can be afraid to compromise their competitiveness, be accused of antitrust violations, or lose face in collaborations for which they do not feel prepared. Neste’s commitment to sustainability is very strong, and our palm oil supply chain is 100 percent traceable. We additionally use only certified palm oil. We have experienced cases in the past when other companies that were less advanced in terms of their sustainability commitments on certain issues have been reluctant to collaborate with us.

At the RSPO, we have been successful in avoiding these challenges by working with selective suppliers with similar ambition levels to push forward on the sustainability of palm oil. The lesson here is the role of leadership: If you want a collaboration to be successful, it is important to have a few strong leading organizations that set an example and demonstrate how shared challenges can be solved collectively.

BSR: You mentioned leadership as a success factor for collaboration. What are additional drivers that make collaboration successful?

Suharto: Collaborations are successful if they are relevant to the companies that participate in them, or, in other words, if there is a strong value proposition for companies to collaborate. The RSPO is again a good example. But companies also need to recognize that collaboration requires dialogue, rather than competition. Hence, dialogue and the intention of different actors to collectively tackle shared sustainability challenges are what truly drive successful collaboration.

BSR: What role will collaboration play in the future, and what are the opportunities for companies in engaging with different stakeholders to address sustainability challenges collectively?

Suharto: I believe that the private sector will increasingly look at collaboration as a means to tackle major sustainability issues because it is the most effective way to achieve improvements and transformational change. This will become the new norm.

I also expect to see an increasing level of consolidation in the collaboration space. Many collaborations target similar sustainability challenges and operate in the same region. Understanding common goals through dialogue, not only between companies but also between and across collaborations, is the way forward.   

Blog | Thursday February 15, 2018

Why We Need a Loud (and Consistent) Business Voice on Policy Issues

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In our recent report, Redefining Sustainable Business: Management for a Rapidly Changing World, we outlined new directions for companies as they manage sustainability through their business strategies, with ever greater impact.

Our “Act, Enable, Influence” framework represents a comprehensive approach from business, in which it is not merely an actor implementing rules and regulations, but instead an active participant in shaping its operating environment. 

As my colleague Alison Taylor put it when we released the report, “Companies should influence the policy and legal environment via vocal support for sustainable business. Silence on key policy issues is no longer an acceptable stance: The public—and your employees—wants to see more concrete evidence of business values and want business to take a more active role in shaping policy for the long term.”

The World Economic Forum in Davos last month provided one opportunity for business to engage with government leaders. Interestingly, conversations there about how to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focused heavily on all-important Goal 17, which calls for partnerships across all sectors of society. 

In discussions on how to realize the vision of the Paris Agreement, companies called for policy frameworks that create the right kind of incentives. With more than 70 heads of state and heads of government present at Davos, it was sometimes hard to tell who was who: The CEOs just as often called for policy solutions to pressing global challenges as the political figures did.

Why is this crucial, and why now?

The world is changing ever more rapidly around us, and business—the source of many of the innovations that are generating many of these changes—has expertise on a number of key topics that tomorrow’s policy frameworks will need to address. Because global companies have an essential appreciation of the international business implications of things like free trade agreements, privacy and data protection laws, and materials disclosure requirements, it is crucial that their expertise and perspective inform smart regulatory frameworks. Businesses are well placed to speak, for example, to the listing rules that promote short-term decisions at the expense of investments in employees and climate-resilient infrastructure. They are also essential to involve in conversations about the human rights implications of new technologies.

In an era when leadership is badly needed and trust is in short supply, business leaders should work to ensure that the incentives created by governments align with high levels of ethical, environmental, economic, and social ambition. It is clear that the lowest-common-denominator approaches that have been the default position of traditional business associations in the past are no longer fit for purpose: Business must be part of the solution to our shared challenges.

Moreover, in a hyper-transparent world, discrepancies between the arguments companies make in hushed tones in the offices of their representatives and the aspirations they express in the colorful pages of their sustainability reports are not, to put it lightly, sustainable.

There is also an important incentive for business to promote effective and consistent frameworks. In recent years, we have seen a welter of frameworks develop on reporting and transparency, supply chain due diligence, and other topics. Companies operating globally do not benefit from an inconsistent set of rules and regulations; such a system incentivizes compliance, rather than creativity. It is therefore valuable for companies to support consistent policy frameworks across jurisdictions. Otherwise, the core objectives of advocacy—business certainty and predictability—are unlikely to be realized.

There is often a high degree of skepticism about where corporate interests lie, so this model only works if there is both transparency in how business engages and alignment in the public and private interests companies address. 

This is a point to be heeded. But it should be reason to participate in public policy the right way, not a reason to stay away from it altogether. Just as in past years it became untenable for companies to ignore labor conditions in their supply chains or the impacts of their products and services on the environment, we are at a time when any company aspiring to sustainability leadership will be judged not only on its performance, but also on how it shapes the rules of the game.

Ultimately, businesses press for policy changes on all sorts of issues: Why should sustainability be any different?  

Blog | Thursday June 5, 2025

Four Tips for Authentic Business Leadership During Pride 2025

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This June’s Pride celebrations will occur as LGBTIQ+ equality advocates and inclusive business practitioners confront ongoing challenges to hard-earned progress that have raised the stakes of private-sector engagement.

This is especially true in the U.S., where federal research programs benefitting LGBTIQ+ people have already been cut by nearly a billion dollars. The future of preventative health care programs supporting LGBTIQ+ people is at risk, given longstanding efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and legal rights and protections related to dignity, safety, and healthcare of transgender people are being litigated in U.S. courts.  

Some companies have limited their public communications or otherwise ended voluntary LGBTQI+ programs, including philanthropic grants, event sponsorships, and promotion of voluntary performance standards, efforts that were increasingly commonplace prior to the recent resurgent wave of anti-LGBTIQ+ political advocacy. Furthermore, social media campaigns driven by conservative “influencers” have undercut some business relationships with their core consumers, attacking brands for their inclusive advertising and/or retail choices. Special interest groups have instigated legal challenges to business’ DEI programs, creating unfavorable media attention and leading to uncertainty on company commitment to building organizations, products, and services that can meet the needs of their diverse consumers and stakeholders.  

Still, there’s evidence that LGBTIQ+ equality and inclusive business practices remain a business priority even as some companies scale back. Participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index increased over the last year in spite of some high-profile withdrawals from the effort in the fall. More and more, business shareholders have voted to uphold diversity programs and underscore the importance of inclusion despite recent legal flashpoints and an effort by federal officials to cripple these programs through executive orders and allegations of illegality. Though company sponsorship of Pride festivals is expected to lag overall, a majority of corporations have recently reported little to no change in their expected participation.

In this landscape, business actions on LGBTIQ+ equality efforts appear to be fueled less by sector-wide alignment and more by each company’s unique operational posture and the media/risk tolerance of its leaders. It is understandable, then, that many business practitioners, including communication, inclusion, human resources, and government affairs leads alike, may be questioning what current expectations or best practices they might advance within their company. Considering the risk-averse environment in which many business practitioners may find themselves, we share four practical tips for LGBTIQ+ engagement for the 2025 Pride season and beyond.

1. Celebrate LGBTIQ+ Pride, even if it means doing so less publicly or with fewer resources. Like other cultural, civic, and social commemorations, LGBTIQ+ Pride is an opportunity for businesses to underscore its inclusive values and appreciate broader business success in the context of the contributions of its diverse leadership and workforce. It also offers businesses a chance to showcase positive impacts in communities where they are headquartered and operate more broadly. This remains true despite current sociopolitical headwinds. Indeed, even some companies that have made headlines for reported cuts to these engagements have privately indicated their intent to support Pride observances through more local sponsorships, events, and gatherings, yet with less budget, public fanfare, or formality. Ultimately, your company might choose to observe this Pride season with fewer resources and with greater awareness of potential scrutiny and/or worker safety risks. Still, these concerns should not preclude your company and your workers from engaging in lawful activities that help promote a culture of inclusion and positive impact, even if such activities are tailored to your specific circumstances and operational footprint.
2. Share updated communications and policy materials, acknowledging your company’s responsibility for ensuring a workplace free from LGBTIQ+ discrimination and harassment. Include relevant global and local policies that guide your company’s efforts to uphold that responsibility. Your current employees and teams likely include LGBTIQ+ individuals or individuals who have loved ones who are directly impacted by social, legal, and cultural debates and/or shifting policies focused on LGBTIQ+ equality. Via diversity, legal, or communications officers, ensure clarity about your company’s nondiscrimination and harassment expectations and policies, as well as the processes/infrastructure that are in place to manage potential issues. The UN Standards of Conduct for Business Tackling Discrimination Against LGBTIQ+ People offers guidance for global businesses navigating wide-ranging expectations, and sometimes conflicting jurisdictional laws, for LGBTIQ+ workplace, marketplace, and community standards. 
3. Invite leaders of regional/local business headquarters and workforce volunteer coordinators to uplift local direct service/volunteer organizations providing general support to LGBTIQ+ workers and their families in communities touched by your business’ operations. Data from past few years, including the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professional’s Annual CSR Insights Report, has repeatedly indicated that employee volunteerism and issue-focused pro-bono engagement is both a norm and increasing throughout the private sector. Just as donation drives like Giving Tuesday raises billions in annual donations to nonprofits around the globe, Pride is a great opportunity for businesses to highlight employer benefits, including paid time-off for volunteerism, matched donations, and other community-sponsored activities that may benefit LGBTIQ+ community members, including your company’s workers and their families. Indeed, some of your workers may be especially keen to find volunteer activities or donation drives given the current climate. Driving awareness for such opportunities through regional/local leaders who may be able to share vetted information may be a great way to ensure your company enables its teams to align their efforts with local dynamics in place of overcompensating for broad-based concerns that may be best navigated at the corporate level.
4. Create informational resources that can help address how your company may respond to various LGBTIQ+-related cases expected from the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming weeks. In the coming weeks, several Supreme Court decisions are anticipated on litigation that will directly/indirectly affect LGBTIQ+ individuals and families. From national coverage of preventative care treatments, including HIV and breast cancer medications, to the scope of certain healthcare programs available to transgender youth, some cases may lead to questions about the consistency or coverage provided in employee benefits and healthcare plans. Here, your company’s human resources team might host or commission an informational webinar, develop FAQ documents, and/or establish a small team/individual as the main point of contact for inquiries on any legal changes affecting LGBTIQ+ workers. 

There is a lot of room for ambitious leadership for business engagement on LGBTIQ+ equality efforts, not only in the U.S. but globally as well. For more information on how your company can support LGBTIQ+ workers and communities, please reach out to BSR’s Inclusive Business team and explore the team’s latest insights on the BSR Member Portal.