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Blog | Tuesday May 9, 2017

New BSR Report: Scaling Clean Energy through Financial Industry Collaboration

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BSR’s new report, “Scaling Finance for Clean Energy: Collaborative Solutions for a New Economy,” outlines how the financial services industry can collaborate to scale clean energy finance.

In 2015, the Paris Agreement established a universal framework for climate regulation, through which national governments are setting ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and working toward a global goal of net-zero impact in the second half of this century. For the first time, there is a clear policy signal for investors across all asset classes to make low-carbon investments, whether through financing projects or investing in new technologies. Investors are already responding: To date, more than 180 investors controlling more than US$20 trillion in assets have pledged to align their investments with climate-compatible growth through the We Mean Business coalition.

Today, investors have the opportunity to seize the extraordinary market shift to renewable energy supply. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that global investment from national climate plans will reach US$3.9 trillion by 2030, including US$1.3 trillion in wind, US$1.1 trillion in solar, and US$0.9 trillion in hydro.

Our research revealed that by collaborating within and beyond their industry, the financial services industry—including asset owners, asset managers, and commercial and investment banks—can address at least three market barriers to mobilizing funding at scale:

• Collaborate to assess and manage risk: According to Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, climate risk in the oil and gas industry is likely to result in stranded assets for up to one third of the world’s reserves, and current industry standards do not sufficiently support bank clients in addressing climate-related risks.
• Increase climate expertise to guide investments: The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), chaired by businessman, philanthropist, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg finds that companies need to develop organizational skills and capabilities for understanding and integrating climate-related risks and opportunities into investment decision-making.
• Develop common metrics and methods to identify climate-related investments: Economists predict massive structural changes in the next 10 to 15 years, especially for industries such as power generation, the built environment, and transportation, and banks do not yet have adequate metrics and methods to translate long-term climate trends into short-term investment opportunities.

To help the financial services sector capitalize on the unprecedented opportunities presented by the low-carbon economy, BSR plans to convene financial services industry players and others later this year to explore ways to collaborate and scale clean energy finance. In particular, we plan to examine how to develop common frameworks on risk-mitigation requirements, how to enable stakeholder engagement at the industry level, and how financial institutions and companies can collaborate to fund compelling clean energy projects.

BSR is collaborating with banks, corporations, and others to scale clean energy finance solutions. To learn more, contact Emilie Prattico and Ran Tao.

Blog | Sunday May 7, 2017

How Myanmar is Building a Labor Dispute Resolution System

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As Myanmar works to find its niche in global supply chains, helping workers and employers resolve their differences through conciliation and arbitration will be an important component of effective industrial relations. With much of the country’s basic physical, legal, and governmental infrastructure still in the rebuilding phase, how can a robust and transparent conciliation and arbitration process help to protect and enforce the rights and obligations of workers and employers?

With support from the C&A Foundation, BSR’s new report, “Labor Disputes in Myanmar: From the Workplace to the Arbitration Council,” looks at how Myanmar’s dispute resolution process is working five years after its adoption. Our report also presents different perspectives on how it can be strengthened. 

As global business becomes increasingly connected with Myanmar suppliers and markets, support for a consistently effective dispute resolution process is an important way to reduce risk and uncertainty, while upholding the rights and obligations of both workers and employers. Understanding and bolstering the evolving labor dispute process are important means for companies to work toward these ends.

Below are the four steps Myanmar is following to build a labor dispute resolution process:

Step 1: Look for Examples

Myanmar’s dispute resolution process is grounded in its 2012 Settlement of Labor Disputes Law, with a national-level Arbitration Council modeled in part after the one set up in Cambodia in 2003. Cambodia’s Arbitration Council has broken ground in its efforts to create a fair and independent arbitration body that supports industrial dialogue in a context where rule of law remains challenging.

Step 2: Create Opportunities for Resolution

If disputes arise, the resolution process begins with employer and worker representatives discussing and negotiating issues in the workplace coordinating committee (WCC). If unsuccessful, the dispute goes to a township conciliation body (TCB), where a tripartite panel of government, employer, and worker representatives attempts to help conciliate an agreement. If that is unsuccessful, they go on to a state or regional arbitration body (AB) for a hearing by a tripartite body. If either side is unsatisfied, the case can be brought to the national arbitration council (AC).

Step 3: Build in Transparency

Decisions at the AB and AC level are published online, creating an opportunity for labor organizations and other stakeholders to understand how the process works and what outcomes will likely occur, which can inform their own research and training. Although more can be done to help improve accessibility and understanding, current transparency efforts are contributing to accountability. For example, unions can use the case information to notify international buyers about issues with their suppliers.

Step 4: Learn and Evolve

Since 2012, there have been additional revisions and consultations with labor organizations, and employers need to understand how the labor dispute law can be improved. Many challenges remain, including the need for clear legal boundaries and scope, consistent and professional decision-making, fair selection of arbiters, effective enforcement, and more transparency efforts. Our report details all of these challenges, along with recommendations from diverse stakeholders on how to help. Addressing these challenges will not only strengthen Myanmar’s labor dispute system but can help enhance the rule of law more generally.

To learn more about Myanmar’s approach to dispute resolution, read our new report. 

Blog | Monday May 1, 2017

The Future Looks Clean: New Sustainable Fuel Buyers’ Principles

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When it comes to predicting the future, even the best forecasters rarely provide the crisp detail most of us need to make confident decisions in the present. Nowhere is this more true than in sustainable fuels used in road freight.

We know we’re headed toward a low-emission future where different fuels—compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, biofuels, renewable diesel, and electricity—will be needed to serve different purposes, depending on unique fleet requirements. We also have a picture of the potential technological options.

Despite this directional clarity, buyers and suppliers still lack the certainty they need to make investments at scale. Buyers can’t make decisions because the technology isn’t far enough along, and it’s hard to weigh different fuel options based on sustainability because the social and environmental impacts are not always clear. Moreover, suppliers can’t make decisions because they don’t have a clear sense of the scale and shape of buyer demand.

When it comes to low-emission fuels—especially low-carbon fuels—it’s time for a new crystal ball. Enter the Sustainable Fuel Buyers’ Principles, which launch today at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Long Beach, California.

The inaugural signatories—including HP Inc.; IKEA Group; PepsiCo, Inc.; United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS); and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.—are committed to accelerating the transition to sustainable, low-carbon fuel and related technologies. These companies represent many of the country’s largest fleets and freight buyers.

Created by the members of BSR’s Future of Fuels and vetted through our network of 600 expert and industry stakeholders, these principles are intended to achieve three main goals: build the market for low-carbon fuels, ensure progress toward a sustainable set of fuel options, and create opportunities for partnership and collaboration.

The principles will do this by:

• Signaling the magnitude of business demand for more sustainable, low-carbon fuels for freight: Signatories join a growing group of companies that want more sustainable fuels, and BSR is planning to measure their demand annually starting this year.
• Clearly articulating criteria to increase buyers’ use of low-carbon fuels: For suppliers, these principles will clearly define what “sustainability” means to buyers. And the buyers—fleet owners and shippers—can use the Principles as a basis to develop custom criteria that fit their needs.
• Encouraging value chain engagement to boost collaboration and pilots of new fuel investments: The Principles promote pilots and partnerships focused on testing and scaling up low-carbon fuels.

While we can’t predict the precise mix of fuels and technologies, we know for sure that the future of fuels will include many different low-carbon options. And BSR’s Future of Fuels group is working to sharpen the focus by engaging partners across the value chain, sending stronger demand signals, and creating clear criteria needed for success.

We invite fuel purchasers and shippers to sign on to these principles. There is no cost to join, but we ask for companies to offer a sincere commitment to use these principles to proactively engage with their value chains around sustainable, low-carbon fuels. View the full list of signatories and the Principles themselves here.

Blog | Thursday April 27, 2017

How Newmont Ghana Empowers Women in the Workforce, Workplace, and Community

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If women are to succeed and advance economically, businesses need to think beyond providing employment opportunities. Companies can support women in a variety of ways: by helping them gain the skills and resources they need to compete, helping them get fair and equal access to economic institutions, and helping them achieve the power and agency to benefit from these opportunities. Only then can women have the chance to control their own destiny.

With the support of a Hewlett Foundation grant, BSR recently completed a yearlong research project on how business—including the mining sector—can support women’s economic empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa. As part of this research, we developed 25 recommendations for mining companies to advance women’s economic empowerment based on BSR’s “Act, Enable, Influence” framework. This approach organizes company activities based on how they can act directly to support their employees, and what they can do indirectly to enable key stakeholders and influence the wider environment.

To understand what a successful approach looks like in practice, we sat down with a team from Newmont Mining. Beatrice Opoku-Asare, Newmont’s global director of inclusion and diversity, Adiki Ayitevie, senior director of communications and external relations in Ghana, and Boakyewaa Glover, senior manager of site human resources and operations in Ghana talked to us about how to combine corporate strategy, direct action, and a culture of inclusion to deliver tangible benefits that reach women who work at Newmont, as well as women in the supply chain and the communities around Newmont’s Ghanaian operations.

Opoku-Asare explained that the first step for any company should be a conscious strategy from head office that builds a culture of inclusion. This culture helps employees feel comfortable bringing their full self and unique skills to work, increasing motivation and driving business success. This focus on inclusion is also critical to engaging the whole organization, not just female employees. “We want to make sure that we get to a point where inclusion does not become a stand-alone item, but really is integrated into all of the work we are doing from a supply chain perspective, from a safety perspective, and just woven into the organization as a whole,” Opoku-Asare said.

Glover and Ayitevie added that this focus on inclusion can happen very deliberately at the local level. Newmont Ghana formed the Ahafo Women’s Consultative Committee (WCC) to enhance women’s participation in community decision-making. This strategy relates directly to the “Act” pillar of BSR’s framework. “Building inclusion and diversity does not happen by accident,” Glover explained. “It must be deliberate and proactive. Our formal strategy in the region is set in three-year blocks so we can be concise and concrete about what we want to achieve.”

Creating this supportive culture and strategy has encouraged ongoing dialogue about challenges and solutions at Newmont, and the company has used these discussions to focus on programs organized according to three pillars: workforce, workplace, and community.

For the workforce pillar, Newmont focuses on goals and metrics that include gender targets as well as targets for hiring Ghanaian nationals and “local-local” women—women from the communities close to its mining sites. The company has found that its three-year targets help set direction and give the company a better understanding of progress. Since 2013, board diversity has improved, as has national representation on the leadership teams in both Ghana and Peru.

When it began to focus on inclusion and diversity, Newmont leaders quickly understood that setting goals and metrics in a vacuum would not create success over the longer term. “You can have a diverse team, but if you don’t leverage your team appropriately, or if team members don’t feel enabled and supported, you are not really getting what you need to get, so the effort is to create a more inclusive culture,” Glover explained.

To address culture change, Newmont’s workplace pillar focuses on employee engagement and programs to train leaders to understand and address unconscious biases. Newmont also created Women and Allies Business Resource Groups, which work to empower women and advocate for more inclusive workplaces. These efforts have resulted in a number of initiatives that bring direct, visible benefits to women. For example, Newmont has established breastfeeding facilities at its Ahafo mine site in Ghana, and the company has plans to provide similar facilities at other sites.

Newmont’s community pillar focuses on women in the wider community. For instance, Newmont works with the Ghana Institute of Engineers to mentor girls in the Ashanti region, and the company supports a career-development program with the University of Mines and Technology for female engineering students. Newmont’s Ghanaian team also volunteers to teach reading in local schools.

Newmont’s work shows that a successful women’s empowerment strategy for business requires a meaningful commitment from the top, clear goals and metrics, and direct action that delivers substantive benefits to women. Taking a holistic approach requires thought, planning, and integration across the organization, but each effort reinforces the other and generates momentum over time, ultimately resulting in transformative culture change.

To begin a conversation in your company about inclusion and women’s empowerment, read our Mining Industry Brief on how this sector can support women’s economic empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa.

Blog | Wednesday April 26, 2017

New BSR Guidance Integrates Gender Equality into Supply Chain Codes of Conduct

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With women holding 60 to 90 percent of jobs in the labor-intensive stages of the apparel and fresh produce global supply chains, it would make sense for companies in those industries to consider women’s specific challenges when focusing on ethical supply chain management. However, until now, women have rarely been a focus of such strategies, with businesses either unaware of the issues women face or unsure how to address them—or both.

Moreover, supply chain management tools rarely account for gender dynamics. While codes of conduct are the most widespread tools companies use to drive sustainability and human rights expectations throughout the supply chain, they don’t yet effectively frame and address the specific risks facing women. These codes could, for instance, be used as an entry point for companies to translate their commitment to the Women’s Empowerment Principles and the Sustainable Development Goals within their supply chains.

BSR has launched the Gender Equality in Codes of Conduct Guidance to help companies and standards-setting bodies integrate gender equality considerations across nine traditional code of conduct principles, with a specific focus on developing and emerging market-based supply chains. BSR developed this guidance with the support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and with the technical health-related expertise of the Evidence Project/Meridian Group International, Inc.

Our focus on “integration” is important: In an era marked by code of conduct proliferation, it is crucial that we do not reinvent the wheel. To make gender equality mainstream, these considerations need to be integrated into existing codes.   

For each of the nine principles our guidance covers—discrimination, wages and benefits, forced labor, working hours, harassment and abuse, health and safety, freedom of association and bargaining, employment relationship, and management systems—we provide examples of traditional code language, followed by an analysis of related gender issues, and recommendations for gender-sensitive language. Our guidance pushes the boundaries of some principles, encouraging companies to move beyond traditional compliance. Our analysis also pushes companies to think about how gendered issues could directly affect their bottom line and the resilience of their supply chains.

Here are some examples this new guidance provides, highlighting how women are particularly affected by different principles:

• Working hours: Involuntary overtime may add stress to women in balancing their jobs with their caregiving and home duties. Overtime also raises security issues for women because traveling to and from work very early in the day or late in the evening may put them at risk of abuse and violence outside of the workplace.
• Freedom of association and collective bargaining: Women may not know their rights, or they may not be recruited by trade union representatives, who often discriminate against non-permanent workers, who are usually women. Trade unions or committees may also fail to include women at meetings. Finally, women may face gender-based retaliation for participating, or may self-censor due to prevailing social norms.
• Forced labor: Women and girls represent the greatest share of the 21 million people in forced labor globally. Of that number, 14.2 million are victims of forced labor exploitation in economic activities, such as agriculture, construction, domestic work, mining, or manufacturing. Women are often concentrated in informal labor sectors, without legal protections, and are therefore more exposed to forced labor.

Beyond integrating gender-sensitive language into codes of conduct, companies should consider broader programs to ensure meaningful improvements for women. For instance, companies can ensure that workplace assessment methodologies are gender sensitive and that suppliers have the capacity and knowledge they need to integrate gender equality into their management systems.

While compliance can help mainstream gender equality into supply chains, changing norms and values within workplaces and communities is also essential. Meaningful change is possible only when workplaces become truly enabling environments that allow women to achieve their full potential. This starts with gender-sensitive codes of conduct—but it does not end there. 

Blog | Tuesday April 25, 2017

Redefining Sustainable Business to Meet the Moment

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In 2017, the year of BSR’s 25th anniversary, I have been reflecting on the confluence of three crucial trends that are redefining business: clarity about the goals for sustainable business, widespread disruption in business, and political volatility. In this context, sustainability provides a North Star that can be essential in creating resilient, innovative, forward-looking businesses.

To make this happen, it is time to redefine sustainable business with a new agenda, a new approach, and a new voice.

A New Agenda

Calling for a new agenda may seem odd when the world has embraced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the path forward. In fact, there is no inconsistency, because to meet the objectives of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement, we must apply them in a new set of circumstances. In other words, the sustainability agenda has to change because the economic, business, and political situation is changing.

What does this mean in practice?

First, basic economic fairness should get more attention on the sustainability agenda. Our era’s widespread political volatility and lack of trust in business is the direct result of feelings of economic vulnerability among wide swaths of the population in the mature economies of the United States, Europe, and Japan. Business needs to provide an answer, which can come from more attention to quality jobs in an era of automation, and taking on chronic concerns about executive pay. Without that, support for business and global trade will wither even further.

Second, it is also time to address head on new questions raised by new technologies. Our lives today are shaped by algorithms and more and more information stored in the cloud, which means that every company—not just the tech sector—should have policies on privacy and the fair application of big data.

Finally, action on climate needs to focus not only on staying well below 2°C of warming, but also in addressing the social and economic climate impacts we are experiencing today. Meeting the climate challenge means reductions in emissions, yes. But it also means fully embracing resilience strategies; understanding the intersection of climate and women’s empowerment; and unleashing new products, business models, and technologies that not only shift the world toward a low-carbon economy, but also create new jobs, new businesses, and lasting solutions to poverty reduction.

There are more ways the sustainability agenda can and should change, but these three areas deserve attention as we look ahead. If we don’t get jobs, the social impact of technology, and climate resilience right, the rest won’t matter.

A New Approach

Let’s face it, some elements of the sustainability playbook have grown stale. It’s time for companies to take a fresh look at how they report, engage with stakeholders, and manage supply chains. It has been inspiring to see many such efforts emerge, and at BSR we are excited about driving new thinking and new ways of working on those and other topics.

Chief Sustainability Officers have a golden opportunity to reimagine how to approach sustainability management. Many people like to say that the CSO’s goal should be to work herself out of a job. I disagree. Companies will continue to need a leader who understands the evolving intersection of business and society. And given the massive changes in culture, technology, and economics—coupled with the disruptions affecting every business—the CSO role is invaluable.

In 2025, the CSO will need to be an innovator, a futurist, a connector, and a revenue generator. Yes, the CSO will continue to look after stakeholder relations, rankings, and sustainability reports, but let’s recommit to the notion that those responsibilities are the means to an end, not the end in itself.

Achieving the ambitions expressed in the 2025 sustainability goals adopted by many companies requires strong leadership from within and beyond the sustainability function. The next 10 years, then, will need to see a strengthening of both the inside and the outside game of the sustainability function. We are already seeing signs that this is happening.

A New Voice

Our turbulent times also show how important it is for companies to act on the foundation of their values and principles. At a time when so many are advocating for walls between peoples, and questioning global trade and the free movement of people, it is essential that companies use their voice to reinforce the importance of the principles underlying their commitment to sustainability.

Companies that are taking decisive action on climate do so because they believe in climate science. Businesses that are applying the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights do so because they believe that all people, regardless of gender, race, nationality, or other characteristics deserve equal treatment and equal opportunity. Companies that are committing to the SDGs do so because they believe that poverty is both an economic and a moral challenge for us all. These principles—which are fundamental to social cohesion and stability—create a rules-based environment, which is central to business. They also enable global trade to function smoothly.

In the past year, we have also seen multiple examples of companies using their voice to promote and protect equality for the LGBTQI+ community, as well as support for immigrants and refugees, basic science, and, in some cases, transparency. This is promising. There is a lot of evidence that employees want to see the leaders of their companies express their values on these issues. And in a world in which the core values of open societies and fair, respectful treatment of people is under attack in locations across the globe, it is increasingly important.

Business has unique assets to bring to crucial public debates. Business also continues to face a trust deficit that can be addressed through statesmanship at a time when that is often in short supply in the public sector. Furthermore, business has a keen appreciation that big global goals are achieved through partnership, and during polarizing times, reinforcing the importance of collaboration is something that can resonate far beyond company walls.

Building a Better Future

The very concept of sustainability is based on a foundational belief that we are here to build a better future. In our era of immense change, that belief provides a sense of direction that will serve us well. And by embracing a new agenda, a new approach, and a new voice, sustainability will not only deliver a brighter future, it will give business a path forward in our fast-changing present.

We will discuss the concept of redefining sustainability more at the BSR Conference 2017—stay tuned for registration launch in May and join our mailing list to be the first to receive Conference news and updates.

Blog | Thursday April 20, 2017

How Global Value Chains Push and Pull U.S. Companies on Climate Action

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In the United States, companies are engaging in climate action as a result of different domestic business drivers: Investing in renewables, innovating to create climate-compatible products, and attracting new talent through environmental values are most often driven by local or regional imperatives.

But for most companies operating within global value chains, the pull and push of climate action also comes from abroad, and many U.S. companies now understand the potential to demonstrate global leadership through climate action.

The pull factor: Multinational corporations are engaging their suppliers on climate like never before.

Addressing supply chain climate impacts is a necessary step for companies with ambitious climate strategies and commitments. That’s because, compared with direct emissions in a company’s own operations, the average ratio of indirect emissions in the supply chain is 4 to 1. Despite this, the scale of such action is challenging: Only 34 percent of suppliers who report to the CDP supply chain report are able to decrease their operational emissions every year. A further 36 percent of suppliers say they have insufficient data to track progress.

U.S. companies aspiring to become climate leaders in the global economy have an opportunity to improve their suppliers’ action, pulling more companies along on the path toward a thriving, clean economy.

Walmart—which has set ambitious science-based targets to reduce its absolute emissions by 18 percent by 2025 from 2015 levels—represents an example of this potential. The company is working with suppliers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacture and use of products by 1 billion tons between 2015 and 2030. That’s equivalent to the emissions of 291 coal-fired power plants for one year.

While many of Walmart’s global suppliers—including Dell, Diageo, General Mills, Kellogg, and Sony—already have science-based targets, many of them do not. Through its commitment, Walmart will engage in supplier development and collaboration on sustainability programs, and the company may consider working with competitors and stakeholders to set industry standards. The company is driven to transform product offerings and business models to engineer out downstream climate impacts while saving costs. By the end of 2017, Walmart aims to engage more than 500 manufacturers in China in a factory-based energy-efficiency program.

With stores in 15 countries outside of the United States and 228 distribution centers that support its overseas operations, restaurants, and food-processing facilities, Walmart’s climate ambition is not only a matter of what it can achieve for its own operations at the local level. It is also an avenue to demonstrate U.S. leadership with partners all over the world.

General Mills also set ambitious science-based targets to reduce absolute emissions by 28 percent across its entire value chain by 2025, with a focus on purchased goods and services (dairy, row crops, and packaging) and delivery and distribution. The company also plans to help its growers and other suppliers adapt to climate change impacts. Because of this ambition, General Mills is recognized as a leader on climate action in its industry and globally. 

The push factor: China is emerging as a new climate leader, pressuring more U.S. companies to meet its standards.

Today, China is rivaling U.S. leadership on climate action. China is now the biggest investor in renewable energy, investing US$102.9 billion in 2015, which is more than twice the investments made by any other country—including the United States, which invested US$44.1 billion that same year.

In January, China announced it would invest US$361 billion in renewable power by 2020. This growth has many benefits for China, including the creation of 3.5 million jobs in renewable energy. The government expects renewables employment to reach 13 million by 2020—the equivalent of adding more than 5,000 new jobs a day. Between 2012 and 2015, China added 1.8 million jobs in renewables, compared with only 157,000 in the United States. In addition to taking the lead in jobs, Chinese companies dominate the global renewable energy market: The world’s largest wind energy company and five of the top six solar firms are Chinese. Importantly, China has reiterated its commitment to the Paris Agreement, which has helped position the country as the new global leader on climate.

This climate activity is likely to push U.S. companies toward more ambitious action. The license for doing business in China may soon include strong environmental performance and ambitious climate action. American companies will have the choice either to align with China’s new climate leadership or, better yet, surpass it. If American companies don’t align, the United States may lose its current position as the climate leader operating through global value chains. This could, in turn, weaken key aspects of U.S. competitiveness.

Taken together, the push and pull of global value chains will build momentum for climate action and pressure U.S. companies to engage supply chain partners more deeply and keep pace with new global climate leaders. 

Blog | Wednesday April 19, 2017

Building Climate Resilience in Asia: Why Companies Should Invest in People

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At a BSR event in Hong Kong last month, we presented our new framework for private-sector climate risk and resilience to a group of company representatives and adaptation experts who shared their experience and knowledge about working in Asia. These conversations made clear that companies do not fully understand climate risk—including risks like disruptions and scarcity of raw materials that affect direct operations, infrastructure, and supply chains, and societal risks such as loss of livelihoods, jobs, homes, and health that could affect workers and the communities where these companies operate.

Parts of Asia, including the south and southeast, are extremely vulnerable to physical climate change risks such as more intense and frequent typhoons and flooding, sea-level rise, temperature rise, and disease vectors. In 2011, Thailand experienced severe flooding, with damages that reached as high as US$45 billion. Most affected companies were within the manufacturing sector, but many in the insurance industry suffered large insurance pay-outs, which has led to increased premiums, withdrawal from certain markets, and even refusal of new contracts for fear of repeat extreme weather events.

BSR’s new framework helps companies assess climate risks and provides a strategy to evaluate solutions to build resilience based on six capital assets: physical, financial, social, natural, political, and human capital. In Asia, the effects of climate change on society and businesses are deeply linked, so the BSR event focused primarily on enhancing societal and corporate resilience by investing in human capital.   

Companies in Asia like Gammon Construction have already experienced climate effects such as intense storms and floods that have hit their assets, as well as heat waves and vector-borne diseases that have affected their workers. In 2016, Southeast Asia experienced its worst heat wave in more than 60 years, with temperatures soaring past 112°F in Thailand and 108°F in Cambodia. Most people can’t work in these conditions, and many of the BSR event participants agreed that this makes the human impacts of climate change one of the most important issues to consider.

Participants also considered how climate change affects vulnerable groups such as women. There is no doubt that climate change magnifies inequalities. Women are 14 times more likely to die in a disaster due to underlying social, economic, political, and cultural factors. Underlying factors such as lower levels of education, less access to finance and land, and lack of basic skills such as how to climb a tree or swim during a flood make women more vulnerable than men. Women represented nearly 90 percent of the fatalities during a 1991 Bangladesh cyclone.

This matters to business because women comprise the majority of the workforce in sectors like agriculture and apparel. By enhancing the resilience of women, many companies can build their own climate resilience.

Event participants discussed four ways to help build human resilience to climate change:  

1. Invest in prevention methods such as education and training that helps workers prepare for and respond to a climate-related hazard.
2. Create alternative work spaces and technologies to protect workers from climate-related events such as heat waves or vector-borne diseases.
3. Provide financial access to workers and those in surrounding communities to help promote resilient livelihoods.
4. Collaborate on resilience strategies with other businesses in the same industry, as well as suppliers and the community.

Although Asia is often referred to as ground zero for climate change, the region also possesses bountiful traditional knowledge that can be used to respond to climate disasters. Businesses that want to enhance their own climate resilience can build on this critical knowledge and implement strategies that reach beyond the company walls, into the supply chain and the communities that stand at the front lines of global warming.

To collaborate and learn about how to implement BSR’s private-sector climate risk and resilience framework, consider joining BSR’s Resilience and Adaptation Initiative.

Blog | Tuesday April 18, 2017

BSR at 25: Meeting the Moment

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This year marks BSR’s 25th anniversary. While such milestones often prompt a look back (and we are doing a bit of that), this juncture in history is a time to stay firmly focused on the future.

We are living in a time of extraordinary change. Virtually every dimension of business is changing. As I have been reflecting on what these changes mean for the future of all companies, I have zeroed in on three big changes that are flowing together: One of the changes is positive, one is neither inherently good nor bad, and one is problematic.

The first change is that we now have a clear roadmap for sustainable business. The arrival of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement have defined a powerful global agenda for the next decade and beyond. Combined with other significant efforts like the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Women’s Empowerment Principles, we have universally agreed reference points on the core elements of the sustainability agenda. The question today is not where to go, but how to get there.

Second, every business is experiencing disruptions that are presenting existential questions about the future: What business are we in? Who are our customers and competitors? How do we deliver value? How do we secure the natural resources we need? How do we communicate effectively in an era of hyper-transparency? These questions about the future arise even as competitive pressures in the present are unrelenting.

Third, we are experiencing a time of great political uncertainty. The twin shocks of the Brexit and Trump votes in the U.K. and United States last year are still playing out. Whatever happens, there are some clear lessons for business. First, public policy frameworks supportive of sustainability cannot be assumed, especially when governments have a hard time demonstrating the value of open societies and the global economy amid public anxiety over change. The political earthquakes of 2016 also remind us that the sustainability agenda should focus more on basic economic fairness and demonstrate how attention to climate can deliver innovation, competitiveness, and prosperity that reaches throughout society.

As we look ahead from our 25th year, it is good to see clarity about sustainability objectives, even if the business and political environments are far less certain. I am optimistic: We have a golden opportunity to reorient business around the sustainability agenda—an opportunity to use new technologies, new business models, and new ways of delivering value to achieve the vision of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. Business can use its voice to demonstrate values-based leadership at a time when many of our elected officials have turned away from open societies, collaboration, and a principles-based approach to governing.

At a time of massive change, the question all of us face is simple: Will we meet this moment?

This is the first in a series of blogs on the occasion of BSR’s 25th anniversary that will explore how to redefine sustainable business.

We will also discuss these ideas at the BSR Conference 2017—stay tuned for registration launch in May and join our mailing list to be the first to receive Conference news and updates.

Blog | Monday April 17, 2017

How Men Can Help Empower Women through HERproject

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At a pilot factory for the BSR HERproject in Bangladesh, a male supervisor has seen for himself the benefits of our peer-to-peer, workplace-based training initiative. “I am more supportive of my workers attending trainings and more willing to give them time to go because not only do I see the impact it has on their attitudes and behavior, but I am also receiving trainings myself,” he said.

This kind of statement and engagement from a male supervisor is a good sign for women’s empowerment. From its beginning in 2007, HERproject has consistently worked to address challenges facing low-income women workers in global supply chains. As such, women have always been at the heart of HERproject. But it has become increasingly clear that for women to be able to make and act on choices they value, support from men—as coworkers, as managers, and as family members—is vital.

As we celebrate HERproject’s 10th anniversary, we are therefore reflecting on how we can continue to work with men—particularly when it comes to whether and how to integrate men into training programs, and how we can actively encourage male workers to advocate for women’s empowerment. In considering this, we have taken a step back to look at how men influence the different issues covered in our HERproject programs, including violence against women, access to health, and financial inclusion.

With the launch of HERrespect in 2016, we began tackling one area where working with both men and women is imperative: changing the gender and social norms that underpin violence against women. Through HERrespect, we’re providing training to both men and women, including workers and managers, to help them improve their communication skills and recognize how harmful gender stereotypes affect women at work and at home. Prior to formalizing male engagement in this program, men had demonstrated an interest in the trainings. Giving men the space to talk about issues related to gender norms, their relationships at home and at work, and violence against women has helped them become allies in promoting gender equality. Not only have we seen men actively engaging in the trainings themselves, but many say they are making personal changes—from how they interact with their wives to how they support their female colleagues in the workplace.

We also looked at another one of our programs, HERfinance, through which peer educators share lessons on budgeting and saving money. In that program, we identified a need to equally engage men in order to overcome some of the cultural barriers that may keep women from applying what they learn. While the HERfinance lessons can help women make a real difference in their lives and those of their families, in some countries, women are expected to hand over their salary to their husbands, or they are unable to contribute to decision-making about family finances. To address this, we offer HERfinance training to both men and women that focuses on the importance of collective decisions regarding family finances. In doing so, we ensure that men have access to critical information regarding the management of their own finances; they also receive knowledge and develop skills that augment the impact of the program on women.

Through implementation of HERhealth in Bangladesh and Kenya, we have learned that men can also play direct and indirect roles in empowering women workers to take control of their health. In Bangladesh, most of the top and middle managers are men, which makes their support and buy-in crucial to ensure work time is given for our training programs. Male managers can also be champions in improving access to health services by making sanitary napkins available in factories or developing partnerships with nearby hospitals or clinics.

In Kenya, the engagement of men in HERhealth is even more direct. We include men in the peer health educator selection process so that men and women receive the same lessons and understand that women’s health and family health is a shared responsibility. This is helping break the taboos associated with masculinity and family planning. Some women have told us that they hide their family-planning methods from their husband due to concerns that their husband would disagree with their choice and assault them. By inviting men, the traditional decision-makers, to trainings, HERhealth is slowly breaking down some of these barriers. In our trainings—which take place in a shared, inclusive space—we aim to help men understand why they should care about family-planning methods, and how engaging in these discussions with their partner can help their family make the best choices.

The issues we aim to address through HERproject are complex and often deeply rooted in gender norms. Engaging directly with men helps us maximize the impact of our program. Through the development and pilot of HERrespect and through the expansion of HERfinance, we’ve formalized male engagement as a key component of our programs. Now we are excited to build on these lessons to shape the continued contribution and engagement of men throughout HERproject. As we pursue this objective, we invite all of our partners and others to share their feedback and ideas.