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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 | Monday April 1, 2019

Four Ways Companies Can Transform the Health of Communities

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Health is not just for healthcare companies: All businesses have an important role to play in community health. In the United States, close to 80 percent of one’s health is determined by where you live and work. Leading companies both invest in employee health and well-being and go beyond their four walls to make an impact in local communities. By doing so, they are creating business value and a competitive advantage.

Already, a wide range of companies are taking action to improve health outcomes in their communities through various channels, such as expanding employee wellness programs to family members, partnering with local organizations like schools to reach community members, promoting healthier choices and/or behaviors to customers, leveraging technology to benefit vulnerable or underserved populations, and investing in affordable housing projects near corporate headquarters. Together, BSR’s Healthy Business Coalition and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have developed a collection of case studies to demonstrate how companies are taking action on community health and to assess the landscape of corporate healthy business program metrics. These case studies supplement a series of resources in the Healthy Business Toolkit that support companies in identifying opportunities and developing programs and partnerships to improve the health of employees, customers, and communities.

Beyond charitable donations, philanthropic giving, and employee volunteerism, businesses are making investments in community health by integrating health and well-being into core business practices across four scopes of action:

Create a workplace that values health 

Businesses have an opportunity to serve as a model for health by creating a workplace that values positive health outcomes for employees as well as exemplifying corporate environmental responsibility.

Johnson & Johnson’s HealthForce 2020 is an integrated initiative to empower at least 100,000 employees by 2020 toward a personal best in health and well-being at work, home, and in their communities by enhancing their core employee health and well-being programs and services. The program measures employee engagement and utilization, in addition to business metrics (like recruitment, retention, performance, and promotion) and health outcomes.

Differentiate products and services by taking a health lens

Businesses have an opportunity to not only mitigate negative health impacts but to also improve health outcomes of current products and services. In addition, they have the tools to develop accessible solutions for critical health and well-being needs.

Every year, around 3.6 million Americans miss doctor appointments due to lack of reliable transportation.  Uber Health, a HIPAA-compliant technology solution, helps to address this problem by helping patients and caregivers get to and from care. Providers also use Uber Health to transport crucial staff to work. The program aims to eliminate access to transportation as a barrier to receiving health care services.

Another great example is The Walt Disney Company’s Healthy Living program, which seeks to improve child nutrition and well-being by providing food options in parks, products in stores and online, recipes, and physical activity ideas that meet Disney’s nutrition guidelines. The program tracks the number of servings of fruits and vegetables provided to kids every year and the percentage of guests that make the healthier choice.

Partner with community organizations to have a bigger impact

Businesses have an opportunity to incubate more meaningful health programs and partner with community organizations to improve community health outcomes of a company’s key communities and focus populations. Partnerships with community organizations can enhance a business’s reputation and help achieve more than they could alone.

The One for Good Initiative is an exemplary collaboration among Consumer Goods Forum members, such as General Mills, PepsiCo, Walmart, and others, in partnership with a local public-private collaborative, Healthy Washington County. The collaboration supports community wellness by empowering consumers to make healthier choices, from food and exercise to smoking cessation and medication adherence.

Take a stand against health inequality through public policy engagement

Businesses have an opportunity to influence the cultural dialogue and policy debates by promoting health equity through public policy engagement as well as public communications that serve to promote health.

Few companies have engaged in policy and advocacy like Etsy has in its effort to increase economic security for the gig economy. Etsy is working to foster economic security for its sellers and other workers in the gig economy via targeted research on the future of work. Further, the company is supporting advocacy to U.S. policymakers to streamline employment benefits and to minimize the impacts of income variability.

We need more U.S. companies to see the strategic significance of healthy business programs and leverage their core business assets to make a positive impact.

Across these four scopes, it is encouraging to see companies across industries invest in improving the health and well-being of employees, consumers and communities. Still, we need more U.S. companies to see the strategic significance of healthy business programs and leverage their core business assets to make a positive impact. Our findings show that most companies have not yet gone beyond tracking outputs and/or are solely tracking metrics on outcomes or impacts for internal purposes. As such, there are limited outcome and impact metrics from companies’ community health programs. By measuring and publicly disclosing outcome metrics, companies can increase the rigor of the program, quantify how the company is making positive change, create opportunities for collaboration by sharing information, and encourage peers to do more. 

Blog | Thursday March 28, 2019

Getting to a Price on Carbon: Collaboration, Action, and Leadership

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At GreenBiz 19 in February, BSR and Ceres convened business and civil society leaders to explore new collaborations in pursuit of public policy to support climate ambition in the U.S. The meeting was a prime example of the work of BSR’s CoLab, an incubator and accelerator of private-sector collaboration that mobilizes the collective power of business to solve the world’s biggest sustainability challenges. The conversation was framed around one big question: “How can businesses work together to support meaningful public policy to address the climate crisis?”

Our session at GreenBiz 19 left us more convinced than ever that the time is right for action guided by a thoughtful and inclusive long-term strategy and action plan—and we are committed to working with our many partners in the field to make it happen.

We had a rich discussion of the many barriers we will need to overcome—both within companies and across the broader political landscape. But for every barrier identified, we surfaced several great ideas for how to address it. Some of the key “design criteria” we took away from the meeting include the following: 

• Move from an ad hoc to a strategic approach. We need to create a framework and priorities for policy advocacy that enable companies to advocate with confidence. What do we want for the future, and what policies are necessary to get there?
• Organize around principles before policy details. Rather than overcommitting to a specific policy proposal, we need a set of “principles” to identify specific policies for which to advocate and to serve as the focal point around which to mobilize a broad and diverse coalition. Carbon pricing is important but not a silver bullet, and it will need to be accompanied by many other policies and practices—from new actuarial standards to building codes.
• Connect climate action to existing priorities. We can create a better foundation for consistent policy advocacy by linking climate change to issues that already obviously matter within our organizations (rather than trying to “add climate to the list”). Most companies have stated “values” or priority areas that drive programs and choices—and many of those elements link to aspects of the climate crisis. For example, building resilience may be a key piece in supporting local community development.
• Build a more powerful narrative. At the same time, we should balance the language of “business case” with the language of society and morality. It is always strategic to put the issues in terms and metrics people understand, to meet your audience where they are, and to encourage stakeholders to consider going further.
• Acknowledge and address the diverse needs and impacts of different sectors. Some industries will fare better than others in the transition to a zero-carbon economy, and we need to have a plan for addressing all of them.
• But above all, get started! Even as we work to build out a longer-term strategic approach to climate policy advocacy, we need to show up and engage with lawmakers, both on a local and national scale, to send a clear signal as well as to test and refine our approaches.

We see an opportunity for companies to highlight the need for a strong and meaningful price on carbon as part of the overall response to climate change.

What Comes Next?

On that last point, we are delighted to partner with more than 15 highly respected organizations to field a Lawmaker Education and Advocacy Day (LEAD) in Washington, D.C. on May 21-22, bringing together companies large and small from all over the country to drive forward three key messages:

1. Climate change is an urgent threat to the American economy.
2. Businesses are taking action to reduce emissions, but they cannot tackle the problem without strong leadership from Congress.
3. Congress must put forward a policy response equal to the severity of the challenge—and that should include a price on carbon.

Led by a core group of CEOs and organized by an unprecedented collaboration of NGOs, think tanks, trade associations, and other groups, this event will help to elevate and emphasize the private sector’s vision for lasting, predictable, and effective climate solutions. In particular, we see an opportunity for companies to highlight the need for a strong and meaningful price on carbon as part of the overall response to climate change.

If you would like to learn more, BSR and Ceres are hosting a webinar on April 3 at 2 p.m. EDT to provide more details on the LEAD event and the state of play of climate policy in Washington, D.C. and share our vision for how this event contributes to overall efforts to move climate policy forward at a national level. In addition to speakers from BSR and Ceres, the webinar will feature Joseph Majkut, director of climate policy at the Niskanen Center.

We will also use our time together in Washington to advance the conversation on a broader and longer-term strategic approach to public policy advocacy. Please join us and don’t hesitate to contact either BSR or Ceres with your thoughts and ideas in the meantime. For more information about the LEAD event, please reference this resource or connect with us via email.

Blog | Friday March 22, 2019

To Advance Gender Equality, We Need to Tackle Climate Change

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Tackling climate change requires tackling gender inequality. On International Women’s Day, an article in Business Green quoted L’Oréal’s Chief Sustainability Officer Alexandra Palt as saying, “I do not think we will see any advances in gender equality if we do not succeed in mitigating the consequences of climate change on women's lives.”  

As the effects of climate change continue to exacerbate poverty, inequality and other social issues, the solutions we put forth must include social focus. This includes empowering women to be leaders. Even if slowly, we’re moving in the right direction. The international community has begun to mainstream gender-friendly decision-making through policies and solutions: in 2015, through the development of the SDGs, both climate change and women’s empowerment were prioritized as goals, and in 2017, the UN climate change negotiations put forth the Gender Action Plan to promote gender equality throughout climate change policy.  

As these gender and climate solutions trickle down through global, national and subnational solutions, what does this mean for business?  

First, as we’ve seen in multiple climate-fueled extreme events, climate risk can affect every aspect of a business from operations and supply chains to the communities crucial in providing raw materials or labor. Following severe flooding in Thailand in 2011, reported insured losses were estimated as high as US$20 billion, and more than 14,500 companies reliant on Thai suppliers suffered business disruptions.  
 

Second, the opportunity for empowering women to lead on climate solutions can unlock multiple business benefits, including driving productivity and innovation, especially within sectors with large women workforces; protecting raw materials; increasing financial stability and returns; and strengthening the resilience of local communities because women are well connected in their communities. The broader business benefits of investing in women are already clear: BSR’s HERproject, for instance, found that following the implementation of workplace programs promoting women’s health in 37 factories across six countries, turnover of the workforce decreased by 4.5 percent. When women are empowered not just in the workplace but as changemakers and leaders for their communities, the benefits multiply and the return on investment grows. And companies are already seizing this opportunity: Through the Women4Climate initiative with C40, L’Oreal aims to provide climate change leadership opportunities for women in their own company and influence others to do the same.  

Business has a role to play here not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes pure business sense.

Although acting at the intersection of climate change and social issues, including women’s empowerment, are new topics for business, over the last few years we’ve seen companies step up to tackle the challenge, recognizing how it’s a win-win-win for business, society, and women.  

Mondelez International, recognizing that increasing resilience of farmers and communities is necessary to maintain sourcing of one of their crucial commodities, has developed The Cocoa Life Program. The program increases women’s access to farm inputs and land ownership, supports young women by ensuring participation in youth-oriented programming, and helps women improve their livelihoods through access to finance, entrepreneurial skills, and more. 

Business has a role to play here not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes pure business sense. By addressing these barriers through the provision of basic human rights, access to education, finance and decision-making, and the removal of discriminatory laws, it enhances the resilience of women so that they can be better positioned and able to lead.  

More specifically, companies can:  

• ACT to put women at the center of all internal climate change approaches and solutions. In particular, they can provide women in their operations access to relevant trainings, inputs, financing, and technologies.  
• ENABLE women throughout the value chain and broader community to effectively respond to climate-related events by linking them with local networks and partners, which can serve as mutual support mechanisms to strengthen climate change solutions.  
• INFLUENCE underlying inequalities such as the lack of decision-making power or access to financial resources that exacerbate the disproportionate negative impacts for women in the context of a changing climate. 

While undoubtedly women are disproportionately affected by climate change due to the various social, economic, political, cultural and economic barriers they face, women are far from the vulnerable victims as often depicted. Given the opportunity, women can be great leaders that will help to catapult society forward while tackling the greatest crisis we’ve ever faced.  

While there are few examples of corporate solutions that aim to put women at the center of their climate change solutions, many are beginning to see the opportunity of expanding their women’s empowerment and climate change programs to intersect. The business case for opportunity is clear to put women at the center of climate solutions.  
 

To learn more about business can act at the intersection of climate change and women’s empowerment, read BSR’s report, Climate and Women: The Business Case for Action. As an official partner of the Women Deliver Conference, which will take place from June 3-6 in Vancouver, Canada, BSR will also co-host three sessions on women and climate, exploring how to finance a “just” transition to a low-carbon economy and why empowering women and girls is key to addressing climate change. For more information, please contact us.  

Blog | Friday March 15, 2019

Three Ways for Companies to Promote Women’s Leadership across the Supply Chain

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More than 90 guests joined BSR's HERproject, The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., Nordstrom, UGG, and Williams-Sonoma, Inc. for a special event on women’s leadership on the eve of International Women’s Day last Thursday, March 7, 2019. In two engaging panels, leaders from business, politics, development, and media explored the challenges and opportunities for empowering women to progress as leaders.  

For companies, three clear opportunities emerged.  

Companies Can Act to Demonstrate They Value Women’s Leadership 

All brand speakers emphasized the importance of walking the talk at the corporate level. From Pottery Barn, whose CEO is a woman and whose overseas leadership is 67 percent women, to The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., which this year enacted a 20-week parental leave policy for men and women in the United States, panelists emphasized the need for companies to live their values and demonstrate a belief in women as leaders.  

This also extends to how leaders promote and nurture women within their organizations. Andrea O’Donnell, President, Fashion Lifestyle, Deckers Brands (UGG), pointed out that “our responsibility is to allow women to find their voice and their confidence, and be active mentors and cheerleaders for them”—a sentiment shared by Nancy Mahon, Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability at The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., who highlighted the need for women to “throw the ladder back down.”  
 

Systems Need to Be Changed to Enable Women to Succeed 

While individual leaders and companies have significant roles to play, panelists also highlighted the many barriers that might stand in the way of women becoming leaders—or prevent them from fulfilling their potential once in leadership positions. Citing her own experiences of pregnancy and childbirth, Penny Abeywardena, Commissioner for International Affairs at the New York City Mayor’s Office, commented on the inadequacy of existing structures: “Women make up more than half of the American workforce, but the policies that dictate our experience in the workforce are from 50 years ago.”  

For Maria May, Program Officer at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, these challenges affect how women progress into leadership: “The balancing that women have to do, and how silently they do it a lot of the time, leads women to evaluate opportunities differently and require different kinds of support.” And Jenny Hollander, Deputy Editor at marieclaire.com, highlighted the complacency that may develop as women achieve leadership roles: “People assume that the problem goes away when you put women and minorities into positions where they should be. I think you also need to make sure you are giving them the tools to succeed, because otherwise you are dooming them to fail.”  

For companies, it is therefore critical to maintain a focus on the specific challenges that women may face once in leadership positions, such as time poverty, lack of voice, and social norms that hinder career progress.  

Companies Can Influence Peers and Partners for Greater Impact 

Beyond the corporate office and across the supply chain, barriers to women’s leadership are greater still. Latha Ramakrishnan, an expert on women’s empowerment programs in India, highlighted the situation of many low-income women workers in India: “A woman faces limited access to the outside world and to education, and she has a limited voice. A girl has always to be under the shadow of a male person: her parents, then her husband, then her son.” This discrimination has knock-on effects, with girls and women less likely to acquire critical skills, more likely to accept low positions in business, and less likely to believe in their own abilities.  

Panelists, however, felt that change was possible through partnerships. Abeywardena highlighted how “the private sector has a beautiful opportunity to partner with governments to help develop and shape policies” and asked: “What does it look like if we work as a collective to move it for the entire community?” Mandy Seidel, Vice President, Global Sourcing at Pottery Barn, explained that through partnerships with suppliers and local experts within HERproject, Pottery Barn has created a happier and more stable workforce: “One of our largest manufacturers has run HERproject. They wrote to me and said that because of the investment we have made and that they have made in the workforce, they saw 100 percent worker retention rate after Chinese New Year, versus 80 percent in previous years.”  

Despite the ongoing challenges, panelists were optimistic about the future of leadership for and by women. Through individual and collective action, companies have the chance not just to promote women as leaders but to become leaders on women’s empowerment—and there has never been a better time to do so. As Hollander put it, “there is huge opportunity in this space where everything is changing so dramatically.” 

If you would like to find out more about how your company can empower women across your supply chain, please contact our team of experts.  
 

Blog | Thursday March 14, 2019

Access to Modern Family Planning Products: Time to Address Social Stigma

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In Kenya, HERproject has been working with global brands to increase use of family planning. Our program employs supply-side strategy, which involves facilitating healthcare linkages from the workplace to external service providers to improve healthcare access for low-income women and men, as well as demand-side strategy, which involves reducing the barriers to access and participation. Our experiences support the widespread view that addressing both demand-side and supply-side barriers concurrently is critical to improving access to modern family planning products for women workers in global supply chains.

According to the most recent Step-Up Kenya report released by the Population Council, UK Aid, and the African Population Health and Resource Center (APHRC), over 40 percent of pregnancies in Kenya are unintended—either mistimed or unwanted. The average Kenyan woman has a fertility rate of 4.6 children; meanwhile, the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics estimates that if women were to achieve their ideal family size, the rate would drop to 3.4 children per woman. Unplanned pregnancies stem largely from an unmet need for contraceptives: one in four married women in Kenya want to stop or delay childbearing but are not using a family planning product. And control over sexual and reproductive health and rights is a prerequisite for women to reach their full potential.

Access to healthcare is about more than geographic availability: it's about ensuring that necessary health products and services are available, accessible, affordable, and acceptable to people.

Family planning initiatives that focus on ensuring access to modern family planning, reducing the distance required to access these products, and educating women and girls on the benefits of family planning can have (and have had) positive impacts. However, addressing social norms that both women and men hold, as well as enhancing men’s awareness and support for their partner’s health, are essential to improving access and use of family planning products.

Access to healthcare is about more than geographic availability: it’s about ensuring that necessary health products and services are available, accessible, affordable, and acceptable to people. In the context of family planning, this means that modern family planning products such as male or female condoms, intra-uterine devices (IUD), or injectables should be in stock, within geographic reach, at a price that people can afford, and socially and culturally acceptable.  

In four agricultural workplaces in Kenya, HERproject asked low-income women workers about their access to modern family planning products. On the supply side of the equation, of the women workers surveyed:

• 97 percent of women reported that family planning products and services were available, with 82 percent reporting that modern family planning products were within walking distance.
• 96 percent of women reported that family planning products were affordable.
• 76 percent of women reported using family planning products.

Yet of those not using modern family planning products, nearly 20 percent said that they would want to use it. So what is holding them back?

Social norms and attitudes that reinforce inequality can act as a barrier to women accessing family planning products. 

We found that the “acceptability” dimension of access is key to understanding women workers’ demand for family planning products. Our data suggest that family planning remains a taboo topic for many Kenyan women. Take the women who are not currently using family planning products. As noted above, 20 percent explicitly said they would want to use it, and 10 percent said they would not want to. Yet nearly 70 percent declined to answer the question, which may well indicate pressure and fear surrounding women’s use of family planning products.

In addition, HERproject seeks to understand the extent to which women have decision-making power and control over use of health products and services. Lack of this decision-making power is likely a barrier for women to use family planning products, even when they wish to delay childbearing.  

In the same four workplaces, we presented workers and managers with the statement: “I think family planning decisions should be made by the man.” Twenty-two percent of women and 19 percent of men—around one in five people surveyed—agreed with this statement.

Together, these data suggest that social norms and attitudes that reinforce inequality can act as a barrier to women accessing family planning products.

HERproject works to improve access and use of modern family planning by addressing stigmas that women and men hold about family planning products during workplace training. We empower women workers to address family planning questions with their partners. We also include male workers in awareness-raising sessions to reinforce the role men can play in promoting the health of their partners and the benefits of this approach for the whole family.

This is an important area that demands comprehensive planning and local expertise to address sensitive topics. We believe that applying a gender lens to access to healthcare and family planning products requires more attention from practitioners, healthcare providers, and employers alike. We invite companies with supply chains in Kenya, as well as healthcare companies, to contact our team to learn more.  

Blog | Thursday March 7, 2019

Three Changes for Women and Business Coming in 2019

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We celebrate International Women’s Day this year, as ever, with the launch of a wealth of new initiatives and commitments from companies, governments, and civil society organizations. And yet, the pace of change is still too slow: The most recent World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap report found that it will take another 200 years to achieve parity in the workforce. This serves as a stark reminder to all of us to continue to push ourselves to do more.

At BSR, this past year was focused on deepening and expanding our work, including efforts in new industries, the development of influential guidance on gender and supply chain management, and the launch of a refreshed HERproject strategy. As we look ahead, we are closely tracking three events in 2019 that have the potential to alter how business influences women’s empowerment.

Understanding What the Future of Work Means for Women

The debates rage on as to what the impact of automation and new technologies, dubbed the “Future of Work,” will have on entire industries, overall employment, and current social policies. Amidst this, BSR will partner with Women Deliver to explore these challenges through a gender lens. At the Women Deliver Global Conference, the world’s largest global conference on the health, rights, and well-being of girls, BSR will host a private sector pre-conference, How Business Can Build a Future of Work That Works for Women. The event will bring together companies and experts to explore whether the “Future of Work” will erase gains in employment and work quality women have made and/or potentially contribute toward improvements in women’s workforce participation based on new skills and increased flexibility that can benefit women workers.

The Women Deliver Global Conference, which convenes only once every three years, will gather nearly 7,000 participants in Vancouver June 3-6, providing an ideal opportunity to connect global businesses committed to gender equality with grassroots women leaders and organizations from over 177 different countries. In addition to the private sector pre-conference, the BSR team will be on the ground highlighting HERproject’s work on the advancement of female workers in global supply chains, Business Action for Women’s work in providing a platform for collaboration and knowledge-sharing, and the need to address the disproportionate impact of climate change on women.

Applying a Gender Lens to Human Rights

There is a growing realization that women often experience business-related human rights abuses in a distinct and disproportionate way in various situations such as discrimination in hiring and pay, challenges with labor rights due to the nature of women’s roles in global supply chains, and increased instances of harassment and violence. In response to this, a new set of recommendations and findings related to these and other challenges will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council this June.

BSR’s Human Rights and Women’s Empowerment teams are partnering to create a series of tools and resources to assist companies in better integrating gender into their human rights due diligence.

The project is being led by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights and seeks to effectively apply a “gender lens” to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The work emerged following the recognition that the business and human rights field has not fully captured the differentiated impacts of “business-related human rights abuses on women” and the additional challenges women face when trying to access effective remedies. The goal is to provide guidance to both governments and businesses on “how to adopt a gender lens in implementing the UNGPs,” including by making the case for the importance of doing so, developing guidance, and bringing together experts to collaborate on solutions. BSR’s Human Rights and Women’s Empowerment teams are partnering to create a series of tools and resources to assist companies in better integrating gender into their human rights due diligence.

Eliminating Gender-Based Violence

As part of their due diligence, companies will need to examine their impacts and policies on workplace harassment and violence more closely. The public momentum behind #MeToo will be brought directly to companies as they will be required to consider their support and response to not only the new gender lens of the UNGP’s recommendations, but a new binding International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention on violence and harassment at work as well. Given the global operating context in which 59 countries still do not have laws protecting against sexual harassment at work, a new ILO Convention can provide the necessary internationally-accepted standard to prevent and respond to harassment and violence at work. BSR will be exploring the forthcoming convention, opportunities for companies to support it, and more in a webinar on April 17.

Accelerating the pace of change in workplace gender equality efforts will require the types of multi-stakeholder efforts represented in each of the initiatives listed above. Civil society organizations help to identify systemic realities facing women, international standards help to define what good looks like, and business can implement and scale solutions to reach wide numbers of women. This year, BSR will be paying close attention to the three issues listed above as we continue to pursue a future in which women achieve equity and empowerment in all settings, including the workplace.

If you’d like to take part in empowering women in the workplace with BSR, please contact us to learn more.

Blog | Wednesday March 6, 2019

#ThisIsALeader: Raising the Profile of Women Making a Difference

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When you think of inspirational women leaders in business, who comes to mind? Is it Mary Barra, Chairman and CEO of General Motors—the first female CEO of a major global automaker? Or maybe Indra Nooyi, who served for 13 years as CEO of PepsiCo, one of the largest food and beverage businesses in the world? 

With women at the helm of such large enterprises, it’s hard to believe that there had not been a woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company until 1972—when Nooyi was 17. No doubt she and Barra faced formidable obstacles in their journeys to leadership, including discrimination against women in education, in business, and across societal expectations. In spite of this, they rose to prominence and success, blazing a trail for others to follow, and we are right to celebrate what they have achieved.   

However, the celebration of women leaders should not be limited to the C-suite. Out of the spotlight and away from the media attention, women throughout global supply chains are quietly taking on leadership roles and driving change for their colleagues, families, and communities. To highlight these lesser-known leaders on International Women’s Day, we have partnered with four committed partners of BSR’s HERproject—The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., Nordstrom, UGG®, and Williams-Sonoma, Inc.—to raise the profile of and increase support for women leaders right across the supply chain, from corporate offices to the factory floor.  

Out of the spotlight and away from the media attention, women throughout global supply chains are quietly taking on leadership roles and driving change for their colleagues, families, and communities. 

Our #ThisIsALeader campaign celebrates workers from factories in China, India, Vietnam, and other countries where HERproject is active. Through HERproject, these women have become peer educators: sharing knowledge and skills on health, financial inclusion, and gender equality with their colleagues. And as leaders in their respective communities, these peer educators advocate on behalf of their colleagues, provide them with support, and show what is possible even in societies where women often face overwhelming challenges. 

Take Sapna, a HERproject Peer Educator in Agra, India: 

I was the sole breadwinner of my family for a long time and I was responsible for the overall well-being of everyone at home. For reasons we never discovered, one of my brothers fell ill and suffered a paralytic stroke. He was bedridden for months. My mother was also unwell and eventually passed away after a heart attack. That happened just after my engagement. 

Because of this series of sad events, culminating in my mother’s death, the groom’s family decided that I was a bad omen and called off our engagement. These were really bitter and tough experiences for me. But they only strengthened my determination to succeed in life.  

I didn’t know what the HERfinance program was, but when I heard about it, I was curious, and I thought that I wouldn’t lose anything by attending it. So, I took part in the trainings at the factory and they helped me to regain the confidence I had lost. I realized that, along with education, financial planning is critical for our generation. The trainings made me decide to spend wisely and save so that my future is secure. 

My brother has now recovered from his illness. He recently started a new job and is looking forward to a bright future. For myself, I’m pursuing higher education again and I’m hoping to graduate.  

That’s just one of the amazing stories we hear through HERproject. Like Sapna, women leaders within brands are driving commitment to women’s empowerment. They are connected across geographies by the belief that they can help others and improve the lives of people around them—especially fellow women.  

In addition to our #ThisIsALeader social media campaign, we are hosting an evening event on Thursday, March 7, to celebrate women’s leadership. Senior leaders from The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., UGG®, and Williams-Sonoma, Inc. will join nonprofit leaders, public officials, and members of the media for a discussion on what is needed to ensure that women around the world can fulfil their potential as leaders. If you would like to join us, please register your interest here.  

We invite you to join the conversation on social media by sharing a photo of an unsung woman leader with the sentence “#ThisIsALeader because…”.

Beyond celebrating women across the global supply chain, we want to catalyze support so that they can go further as leaders: spreading knowledge, belief, and confidence, and unlocking the potential of women around them. Because we believe that when business and partners work to unlock this potential, the impact will be unprecedented.  

Ahead of International Women’s Day, we call on businesses to commit to empowering women leaders right across your supply chain. And we invite you to join the conversation on social media by sharing a photo of an unsung woman leader with the sentence “#ThisIsALeader because…”. Together, we can raise the profile of the women who are making a difference and step up our support for them as they drive positive change.  

Blog | Tuesday March 5, 2019

How Private Equity Can Address TCFD and Climate Change

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In the face of mounting global climate action and inquiries from institutional investors, private equity firms should anticipate that addressing climate change will move from being an emerging interest to a fundamental expectation—just as it has for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. 

We are in the midst of a new era of climate action. The UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) recently announced that reporting based on the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) will become mandatory for PRI signatories. The proposal for a Green New Deal is expanding the boundaries of the US political conversation. More companies are making commitments to science-based targets for emissions reductions, and in December, investors managing $32 trillion in assets called on governments to accelerate climate action. 

The upshot for private equity firms is this: It is imperative to better understand, manage, and disclose climate risks and opportunities in your investments. While some call for firms to conduct carbon footprinting for their entire portfolios, others in the industry have expressed concerns that such an undertaking would be resource-intensive and of unclear value. Firms should consider how climate trends affect their investments, not just in terms of flood risk or energy costs, but in terms of the technologies they use, the products they source, and the labor forces they employ. 

So the question arises: What courses of action will help private equity firms address climate risks and opportunities in an actionable, meaningful way? BSR suggests two types of approach. 

TCFD Maturity in Climate Management 

Private equity firms should be in the business of building better managed, more valuable companies.  That same objective applies in responding to climate change: Private equity firms should engage with portfolio companies to ensure that all parties can effectively understand and manage climate risks and opportunities. Further, firms should be able to demonstrate such an understanding to investors and stakeholders in relation to the TCFD framework. Firms can do this by applying similar approaches as have been used to address other ESG topics, such as responsible sourcing.   

Major steps to improve TCFD maturity in climate management would include: 

1. Assessing portfolio companies’ exposure to climate risks and opportunities using simple, open-source tools to evaluate physical and transition risk (e.g. the Climate Policy Tracker for Business, developed by BSR) 
2. Evaluating companies’ climate maturity using the TCFD framework  
3. Mapping climate exposure vs. maturity for the portfolio to identify the most significant sources of climate risk, the highest priority companies, and the most common gaps in practice 
4. Using the results to inform firm-level reporting and to enable portfolio companies to report their own information 
5. Providing guidance, resources, and tools to improve practices for high-priority companies and topics (e.g. sample policies, data sources, and position descriptions) 

By using such an approach, private equity firms can avoid more academic exercises and use the TCFD framework to support practical actions, meaningful reporting, and improved business outcomes.   

Strategic Foresight and TCFD Climate Scenario Analysis 

Given the uncertainty surrounding the cascading impacts of climate change, as well as society’s collective response to the issue, the TCFD has recommended that all firms undertake “climate scenarios analysis” to assess their exposure to a range of climate-related risks and opportunities and enhance their strategic resilience. To derive the true benefit of this methodology, climate scenario analysis should not treat global temperature increase (e.g. 2 degrees vs. 4 degrees) in isolation or as a one-dimensional quantitative calculation.  

Unlike forecasts or predictions, scenarios describe multiple plausible futures that may confront a business. Scenario analysis offers a multidimensional perspective that examines how inter-related social, technological, economic, environmental, political, and business factors can drive highly divergent outcomes, with profoundly different impacts on investments. These additional dimensions of information transform scenario analysis from a dry accounting task to a robust, generative activity with major strategic implications, as was illustrated in BSR’s Doing Business in 2030 report. 

Scenario planning is a prudent undertaking for current portfolio companies. By assessing companies against relevant scenarios, a firm can better understand the potential impacts of climate change and other related factors; optimize company governance, strategy, risk management, and measurement; protect against future risk and pursue future opportunities; and report on findings to key stakeholders. 

Strategic foresight may be even more exciting for assessing future investment opportunities. By exploring multiple plausible futures, scenarios can help companies and investors move beyond present-day thinking, envision disruptive new possibilities, and be proactive in seizing emerging opportunities. Furthermore, unlike large players within industry, private equity investors have the advantage of being able to act quickly to integrate lessons into their investing decisions without major damage to their incumbent interests.  

As climate impacts become increasingly material and the pace of change in climate action and expectations increases, it is critical for private equity firms to begin acting now. Through pragmatic, strategic approaches, there are valuable opportunities for firms to ask the big questions on climate change and begin taking action, both to support the long-term success of their investments and the economic, social, and environmental imperatives for climate action. 

Blog | Monday March 4, 2019

How Private Equity Firms Can Develop Responsible Investing Policies

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Over the past 10 years, the private equity sector has seen responsible investment approaches move from exception to expectation. Recently, PRI reported that over 60% of its private equity firm signatories surveyed have implemented responsible investment strategies, an increase of 25% from 2015—and over a third are linking responsible investment objectives to key performance indicators of their investment staff. It’s clear that the formalized integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations is becoming the norm. 

As a result, General Partners (GPs) that do not yet have these formalized approaches to responsible investment are moving quickly to develop the policies, management systems, reporting tools, and follow-up initiatives to meet evolving stakeholder expectations. For all firms, a meaningful policy is fundamental to responsible investment and ESG integration.

Furthermore, while there has been some useful guidance for asset owners, there is limited current guidance for GPs about what should go into a responsible investment policy.  Many firms end up using generic language, leading to policies that are not well-tailored to the individual firm’s investment profile, creating a disconnect between the firm’s investment strategy and ultimate ESG objectives, leading to less effective and less efficient approaches.

That’s why we have developed a white paper that outlines guidance on a straightforward approach, relevant principles, and practical tips to use in developing a responsible investment policy.

Why Firms Need a Responsible Investing Policy

A responsible investment policy is a firm's commitment to incorporate ESG factors into investment decisions to better manage risk and generate sustainable, long-term returns. The policy serves as the cornerstone of a firm's responsible investment efforts in the following ways:

• Establishes a “North Star” by providing direction to employees and other external stakeholders in understanding the firm’s core investment beliefs
• Communicates commitments to Limited Partners in a clear, consolidated, effective statement
• Aligns expectations and builds trust with broader stakeholders including investors, investment professionals, regulators, portfolio company employees and local communities where portfolio companies operate
• Establishes the framework for a consistent approach to implementation by clearly describing the scope, governance structure, actions, and reporting to support the integration.

Who Develops the Responsible Investing Policy

Typically, an executive or member of senior management will lead the process of drafting the policy, securing buy-in, and assigning resources needed for its implementation. This person ought to work in tandem with a cross-functional working group of committee to help steer the policy through the different steps of policy development. In all cases, it is essential for investment and portfolio teams to play a role in policy development and sign-off in order to develop a policy that can be successfully operationalized.

What a Responsible Investment Policy Includes

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to responsible investment—the investment strategy of the fund will be key to determine the responsible investment approach, and the policy ought to be tailored to the investment profile and beliefs of the fund.  BSR recommends that policies indicate that the firm will focus on “material” ESG issues. At the same time, several foundational elements are considered best practice to include in the policy. Our paper delves further both into definitions of materiality as well as the elements of a responsible investment policy listed below.

• Title and approval date
• Purpose and priorities
• Scope
• Governance structure
• Implementation approach
• Reporting
• Regular revisions of the policy
• External collaboration

How To Implement a Responsible Investment Policy

Once the policy is finalized, the real work starts. The firm ought to act to implement and uphold the policy, including developing an implementing plan, effective governance structures, regular teach-ins for investment professionals, and taking action to enhance portfolio performance. The policy should not sit on a shelf—it should be the impetus for action and results.

We hope our paper will provide GPs a blueprint to write policies that align with their unique investment principles and strategies.  If you’d like to reach out to us with feedback or start a conversation about developing your own policy, please contact us at web@bsr.org.