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Blog | Tuesday June 19, 2018

What the Right to Own Property Means for a Land-Based Sustainable Business

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This is the second in a series of blog posts where we and a BSR member company review how business respects individual articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 70 years after its adoption in 1948. This series has the support of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), but any views expressed here should not be attributed to OHCHR. This particular post, co-authored with Enel, explores what the right to own property and land rights mean for business.

Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

As reported by USAID, in 2016, an estimated 70 percent of land in developing countries was unregistered or perceived to be insecure. Tenure rights in particular are regulated by customary laws or informal systems that often remain undocumented, even when they are recognized as legitimate by local populations.

Land-based commercial investments, which are the basis for many businesses—such as agriculture, forestry, extractives, infrastructure, real estate, and travel and leisure—often fall within these unclear land regimes, which can leave companies facing challenges to understand who has legitimate land and resource rights. Notably, the development of extractives and infrastructure projects, including renewable energy projects (such as greenfield electricity generation assets) and the transmission and distribution infrastructures that go with them, can have a significant land impact.

Yet, respect for land rights is essential for many communities around the world, as land represents a key living factor for food production and sustainable livelihoods. Land means access to resources, an adequate standard of living, equality, inclusiveness, and social development. Ultimately, the human right to own property also protects the human rights to adequate food, freedom from hunger, and better living. However, of the threats facing local communities, in particular indigenous communities, one of the most significant, as described by UNESCO, is the risk of being driven away from land and natural resources.  

As outlined by the FAO Voluntary Guidelines, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights also includes legitimate tenure rights. Due diligence over and recognition of customary law and tenure rights should be baseline practice for companies acquiring or looking at acquiring long-term use or ownership rights for land and forests. In the development of a greenfield project, first and foremost the choice of the potential site should be driven by the minimization of all potential impacts, including land rights.

The Interlaken Group suggests that due diligence should be “focused on identifying—and where possible helping to legally secure—the tenure rights of local communities and households.” If due diligence is not performed correctly and comprehensively, the impacts of business operations on the human rights of local communities, in particular the most vulnerable, might be overlooked. For companies, this could mean facing increased costs, unforeseen delays, and potentially reputational and legal challenges related to alleged land grabs and land rights abuse.

Throughout the lifecycle of an infrastructure project, compensation for the loss of land and property is often a pivotal issue. For instance, in the case of resettlement, most countries have land acquisition laws that require prompt and adequate monetary compensation; however, monetary compensation may not be considered sufficient, adequate, or culturally appropriate. According to Cultural Survival, “Cash compensation disproportionately benefits some interest groups (for example landlords) and not so much poor and small-scale farmers, the landless, and women.” Depending on the local laws and culture, companies could apply other models, such as adopting a land-for-land strategy that provides new land that is ideally better or at least equivalent to the lost site in terms of productivity, availability of water, and location.

An effective consultation process backed by appropriate assessments can also help businesses define and set up initiatives that effectively respond to the local development needs and enhance the social and economic benefits for local communities. Free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) should be a cornerstone of engagement and consultation with local communities, in particular for investments involving land acquisition. Duly engaging through FPIC can help a company identify and address women’s rights to land and forests.

While the recognition of land rights is primarily a state responsibility, clear land rights and their respect are not only beneficial for landowners and local communities’ livelihoods, but also essential to an inclusive land-based sustainable business. Respecting human rights of local communities, including land rights, can help a company effectively engage with stakeholders, establish trustworthy relationships, reduce the risk of social conflicts, and ultimately secure the social license to operate infrastructure projects.

Enel recognizes the importance of engagement with local communities and, for this reason, has included in its sustainability plan a specific pillar dedicated to this issue; you can also read more about Enel’s approach to project development through creating shared value in its 2017 Sustainability Report. Enel’s approach is notable for its structured methodology of local stakeholder engagement and consultation, which is applied widely with particular attention to identifying and protecting ancestral communities and engaging in dialogue and consultation throughout the phases of project planning and development of new assets.

Blog | Friday June 15, 2018

The Digital Payments Opportunity: A Conversation

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We recently sat down with UN-based Better Than Cash Alliance's Private Sector Digital Innovation Lead Marjolaine Chaintreau and BSR's HERproject Associate Director Chhavi Ghuliani to discuss the new report, The Future of Supply Chains: Why Companies Are Digitizing Payments, which features a case study on BSR’s HERfinance work in Bangladesh.

Jorgette Mariñez: Why are cash transactions a problem for companies?

Marjolaine Chaintreau: Cash is expensive to store, transport or insure—and it is also inefficient. For example, many consumer goods companies operating in cash-based countries need to hire security guards to accompany drivers delivering products to shops, as distributors are often targeted for robbery. Cash payments are also more easily subject to fraud and leakages.

Chhavi Ghuliani: In a country like Bangladesh, for example, where we are partnering with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to digitize garment worker wages, cash has to be transported to factories in armored vehicles, then sorted, counted, and distributed to thousands of people. This is a risky and time-consuming process that can span several days in a larger factory. In addition, for global companies sourcing from these factories, cash means less transparency and traceability of wage payments to workers in their supply chains.

Mariñez: What are digital payments, and what are the business benefits they can bring?

Chaintreau: Digital payments are transfers of value made through any kind of digital channel. They include payments made with traditional electronic bank transfers, mobile money accounts (i.e. using phones), and payment cards (credit, debit, or prepaid cards).

Companies that have shifted to responsible digital payments have experienced business benefits, including increased revenues and stronger relationships with supply chain partners. In Kenya, small retailers that are a part of Unilever’s Jaza Duka (“fill up your store”) program were able to access digital working capital loans based on retailers’ purchasing history with Unilever. These shops expanded product inventory and variety, increasing foot traffic to stores and growing sales by 20 percent within the first six months of implementation.

Ghuliani: Our analysis from Bangladesh shows a 53 percent reduction in admin time and effort spent on payroll when a factory switches from cash to digital payments. Additionally, we estimate that a factory can save about 25 minutes of production time per worker by switching to digital wages because workers do not need to be taken off the production line to collect cash. Many of the global companies we partner with also benefit, because they see digitization as a way to support the financial inclusion of women in their supply chains while also ensuring workers are getting paid correctly and on time. The greater transparency that digital wages provide is critically important.

Mariñez: Why is this so valuable for the workers in the supply chain?

Chaintreau: Workers that are paid in cash are often excluded from the formal financial sector; being paid digitally can be the first step toward opening an account. This can provide the ability to save money, which can potentially increase workers’ formal participation in the economy and access to other financial services, such as credit and insurance. Digital payments can also help workers save time, and they can reduce personal security risks, as workers do not need to travel with pockets full of cash.

Ghuliani: The majority of workers in global supply chains, particularly in light manufacturing and agriculture, are women, for whom the benefits of digitizing wages are even greater. Their financial inclusion is linked with greater control and decision-making over financial matters and can reduce the risk they disproportionately face from transporting large amounts of cash. After having their wages digitized, the percentage of women in Bangladesh who reported they were handing their salaries over to their spouses on a monthly basis dropped from 43 percent to 25 percent.

Mariñez: What industries or markets have the most compelling case for considering digital payments?

Chaintreau: In this report, we focused on three main sectors—agribusiness, fast-moving consumer goods, and the apparel industry—to show the breadth and diversity of opportunities that digital payments can bring to workers, smallholder farmers, and small businesses/shops. However, companies of all sizes and sectors can benefit from implementing the necessary building blocks of digitizing payments in their supply chains.

Ghuliani: Any industry that still relies on cash for salary payments can benefit from digitizing. We chose to focus on the garment industry in Bangladesh in our HERfinance work because it still relies on cash, it employs mostly women, and it is a consolidated industry. This meant we could reach tens of thousands of low-income, underbanked women by focusing on a small number of garment clusters in the country.

Mariñez: What are the biggest challenges to digitizing payments? 

Chaintreau: It takes time to build trust and drive usage of digital payments. For companies, the main challenge is ensuring that all actors in the supply chain see a positive value proposition to move away from cash into digital payments. This means having appropriate accounts and financial products addressing the needs and capabilities of workers or farmers, especially women. It is also critical to build incentives beyond payments, like access to savings, remittances, or working capital.

Mariñez: For those companies that are interested in doing this, what is the first step?

Chaintreau: Ask the question! How are payments made in our supply chain, and what are our costs associated with using cash? In our experience, the key to successful digital payments solutions is having buy-in from senior leadership and alignment across the departments that will be affected, such as sales, procurement, distribution, and finance.

Ghuliani: My recommendation is for companies that are thinking about this issue, particularly in the supply chain context, to collaborate. To maximize the benefits of digitization to workers, we must shift entire industries away from cash and also build a supporting ecosystem so workers can not only be paid digitally, but also spend digitally. This can only happen when we reach significant scale. Our HERfinance Digital Wages program has reached more than 160,000 low-income workers so far, and while that is significant, there are still millions of workers in Bangladesh still paid in cash. More action and commitment from buyers and their suppliers is needed.

Chaintreau: I agree! Collaboration will be required to successfully make this transition. While some leading companies, financial institutions, and governments are already working together to build inclusive and responsible digital payments ecosystems, there is an opportunity for more companies to join this movement and realize the full benefits of digitization for their business and stakeholders.

Blog | Tuesday June 12, 2018

The US$660 Billion Sustainable Supply Chain Finance Opportunity

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Today, businesses have an opportunity to shift how they are implementing their sustainability commitments in their supply chains. Global buyers—major international companies—are increasingly looking for ways to not just to enforce compliance and punish poor performers, but to reward and incentivize their suppliers to adopt sustainable and responsible behaviors.

Our new report, Win-Win-Win: The Sustainable Supply Chain Finance Opportunity, shows how supply chain and trade finance mechanisms can be leveraged to create tangible cash incentives for suppliers, drive sustainable behaviors, and transform global supply chains. This is a significant opportunity for buyers, suppliers, and financial service providers.

There are currently only a handful of public examples of global buyers and finance providers that have implemented sustainable supply chain finance programs; see the description of efforts by Puma and Levi Strauss & Co. in our report to learn more about these. Our research and interviews, however, demonstrate that there is a strong will to do more and show that some key trends, such as the digitalization of trade and the growing availability of supplier sustainability performance data, are converging to create an environment where sustainable supply chain finance can thrive.

We invite leading companies across sectors to explore this untapped opportunity to scale and advance successful models. In particular, we have identified three promising mechanisms to do so:

• Through a sustainable payables finance program, buyers can provide fair payment terms to suppliers while rewarding and providing tangible benefits, such as better discount rates, to suppliers who demonstrate strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance or commit to improve.
• Sustainable trade loans can be used to support and incentivize the trade of goods that have clear environmental and social benefits, for example Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade certified crops.
• Applying smart contract solutions, based on blockchain technology, can make transactions traceable, transparent, and irreversible—key tenets of a sustainable supply chain.

With US$2 trillion in financeable highly secure payables globally, supply chain finance is a US$20 billion revenue opportunity for banks according to McKinsey, offering an unrealized opportunity to improve supply chains while also achieving sustainability goals. Specifically, incorporating sustainability into supply chain finance can provide both business and sustainability benefits to buyers, suppliers, and banks.

• For buyers, sustainable supply chain finance offers a unique solution to achieve sustainable sourcing goals, increase security of supply, and improve relationships with suppliers by rewarding and incentivizing sustainable behaviors in the supply chain, at reasonable direct cost to the company, if any.
• For suppliers, sustainable supply chain finance can provide access to working capital, stronger relationships with customers, and the ability to quantify the value of sustainability efforts.
• For banks, BSR estimates that, in time, the sustainable supply finance market will reach one third of the market, or US$660 billion, representing a US$6 billion revenue opportunity for financial service providers.

At BSR, we want companies and their finance partners to leverage supply chain finance in support of responsible and sustainable supply chains, and we’re excited to launch a conversation and action in this direction.

Join us on June 21 in New York City at our report launch event, where we will demystify supply chain finance mechanisms, explore sustainable supply chain finance solutions, and catalyze action together with global buyers, trade finance providers, and other relevant actors.

The report Win-Win-Win: The Sustainable Supply Chain Finance Opportunity was funded by Humanity United.

Reports | Tuesday June 12, 2018

Win-Win-Win: The Sustainable Supply Chain Finance Opportunity

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Why Read This?

Leveraging supply chain finance mechanisms to incentivize sustainable behaviors in global supply chains is an opportunity for businesses and for sustainability. Embedding sustainability factors into the widespread and growing practice of supply chain finance assigns value to supply chain sustainability programs, provides tangible incentives to suppliers and their buyers, and has the potential to open new markets to banks and transform supply chains.

Companies around the world have recognized that the sustainability challenges within their supply chains are a risk and an opportunity to be managed. As such, it has become normal practice for companies to have programs in place to manage the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks in their supply chains. Most reputable global companies have supply chain sustainability programs in place to assess and manage the human rights, labor, governance, environmental, and other risks of their suppliers. These programs are largely based on risk management activities such as supplier assessments and audits.

However, after more than 25 years of corporate supply chain sustainability programs in action, environmental, human rights, and governance issues are still pervasive in global supply chains. There is an opportunity to do more to drive better performance among suppliers, not only at the first tier, but also at tiers deeper in the supply chain.

Why Now?

Sustainable supply chain finance is defined as supply chain finance practices and techniques that support trade transactions, in a manner that minimizes negative impacts and creates environmental, social, and economic benefits for all stakeholders involved in bringing products and services to markets.

There are five main reasons why sustainable supply chain finance is a strong opportunity today:

1. Supply chain finance is a fast-growing market, with about 20 percent expansion annually.
2. Supply chain finance is becoming digital; moving away from a traditionally paper-based process offers potential for innovation.
3. Companies need working capital, and cash optimization is a tangible incentive for both buyers and suppliers.
4. While supplier sustainability performance data is still not perfect, it is getting more and more quantifiable and readily available.
5. Financial service providers offer solutions that can integrate sustainability data.

The Opportunity

Most companies are not yet putting in place sustainable supply chain finance programs, and banks are not yet readily offering these services. However, buying companies, supplying companies, and financial services can explore and maximize this opportunity in different ways.

Blog | Monday June 11, 2018

A New Tool to Assess the Impact of Your Healthy Business Journey

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What do flu vaccination rates, greenhouse gas emissions, and crime and homicide statistics have in common? These are but a few examples of the metrics that companies are monitoring to assess the health of their employees, their customers, and the communities where they live.

The Healthy Business Coalition is a collaborative initiative among BSR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and leading companies that are dedicated to realizing the promise of the private sector’s ability to improve population health. The Coalition was founded on the principle that health is not just for healthcare companies; all companies, regardless of industry, have the potential to become healthy businesses. Today, we are excited to announce that we have created a new addition to our suite of tools to help companies transform their organizations into healthy businesses: the Healthy Business Metrics Guide.

For us, a “healthy business” is one with a management approach that seeks to create value and optimize performance by improving the health of consumers, employees, and communities. Our current set of tools helps companies chart the path for their healthy business journeys. Specifically, these tools help business leaders:

• Make the business case for establishing healthy business programs and initiatives;
• Prioritize the health issues that their companies should address;
• Design innovative solutions, including products and services, that support health outcomes; and
• Engage internal and external stakeholders who may be able to positively influence and enhance the success of their companies’ healthy business missions.

In the immortal words of Peter Drucker, “What gets measured gets managed.” Our new addition to the Healthy Business Toolkit is designed to help companies measure the impact of their healthy business programs. Our Healthy Business Metrics Guide can be leveraged by business leaders to pick and choose relevant outcome and impact metrics (and associated key performance indicators) that will help them assess how effectively their company is executing on its healthy business strategy.

When it comes to healthy business programs, trying to measure both business-related and public-health-related outcomes can be a challenge. We sought to harmonize prominent public health measurement frameworks, sustainability reporting frameworks, and other corporate reporting frameworks.

After reviewing 14 frameworks and more than 850 metrics and engaging several business and public health experts, we have developed a user-friendly measurement framework that seeks to help corporate practitioners monitor not only the direct health impacts of healthy business initiatives, but also the upstream social determinants of health that have indirect impacts on employees, customers, and communities. The framework takes a broad and holistic approach to health, while also attempting to focus on a core set of metrics that are relevant to the widest swath of industries and geographies in the U.S.

This is only the beginning. As a coalition of business leaders, we understand the power of iterative innovation and collaboration. We invite you to join us on the next BSR Sustainability Matters webinar on June 13, where we will present the Guide and facilitate a discussion on how it can be used and implemented within a company.

We would also love for you to join us in the Healthy Business Coalition, where we grapple with these issues as a group of practitioners and internal champions who endeavor to make our companies healthier and more sustainable. Thanks to the generosity of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, membership to the Coalition is free of charge, as is access to the downloadable toolkit.

Once you download the tool, please reach out to us to tell us about your experience and share your thoughts about how it can be enhanced. It is our sincere hope that this expanded toolkit will be your map, compass, and pedometer on your way to achieving your healthy business vision.

We are excited to hear from you and join you on your healthy business journey.

Blog | Thursday June 7, 2018

The Global Climate Action Summit: How Business Can Turn Up Climate Ambition

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The Global Climate Action Summit is taking place September 12-14, 2018, in San Francisco, California. The theme? "Taking Ambition to the Next Level." This will be a moment to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of states, regions, cities, companies, investors, and citizens with respect to climate action and to ensure that we don’t stop here, but instead commit to continued effort and ambition in this space.

To keep warming well below 2 degrees C, and ideally below 1.5 degrees C—temperatures that could lead to catastrophic consequences—worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must start trending down by 2020. The Summit will showcase climate action around the world, along with bold new commitments, to give world leaders confidence they can go even further by 2020 in support of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Our President and CEO Aron Cramer serves on the Summit Advisory Committee and is working closely with the We Mean Business coalition to galvanize new climate commitments from business and highlight the most ambitious of announcements on a plenary stage that will reach an in-person audience of 4,500. We are working closely with our partners to support Summit program development around five headline challenges: 1) Healthy Energy Systems; 2) Inclusive Economic Growth; 3) Sustainable Communities; 4) Land and Ocean Stewardship; and 5) Transformative Climate Investments.

The private sector has a significant role to play in ratcheting up ambition, which can lead directly to reduced risk of climate disruption, as well as more resilient enterprises. In addition, this sends a powerful signal to peers and national governments that emissions reductions can be achieved with innovative and replicable solutions, and that policy frameworks can create the right incentives for action.

So how can your company get involved, contributing to the both the Summit this fall and the greater goal of preserving our earth and a promoting a thriving economy?

Here are the main ways businesses can engage:

1. Announce a public commitment

All companies can contribute to demonstrating the private sector’s combined impact by making a commitment to any of the following campaigns:

• Commit to set a science-based target to reduce your GHG emissions in line with limiting the global temperature increase to below 2 degrees C.
• Commit to source 100 percent renewable power for your operations through RE100.
• Commit to build zero emissions vehicle fleets to promote electric transport through EV100.
• Commit to achieve greater energy productivity through EP100.
• Commit to own, manage, rent, or develop buildings that are net-zero carbon in operation through the Towards Zero Emissions Building Initiative.
• Commit to establish a climate-resilient supply chain.
• Commit to mobilize funds for climate action.
• Commit to support a just transition to a clean energy economy that protects human rights.
• Commit to disclose climate performance on an annual basis.

Do you have a commitment that goes beyond any of these existing campaigns? Let us know!

2. Speak at the Summit

The formal Summit program will feature plenaries and a range of high-level sessions focusing on the five challenges and complementary themes, such as gender and equity. Speaker invitations will be issued by the Summit Co-Chairs, and CEOs of companies making high-ambition climate action commitments may be invited to speak.

3. Organize or join a side event

Beyond the formal Summit program, hundreds of affiliated events will take place during the week of September 10 throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Organized by a range of companies, NGOs, and governments, these events create additional arenas for exploring climate challenges and solutions that complement Summit activities.

4. Spread the word

Help spread the word about the Summit, the need for increased climate ambition, and your commitment to address climate change. Follow the Summit @GCAS2018 on Twitter and promote climate action and solutions using the #GCAS2018 and #StepUp2018 hashtags.

5. Sponsor the Summit

Sponsorship opportunities offer a range of benefits, including the opportunity to lift up sustainability commitments and to attend invitation-only Summit and affinity events.

BSR is working closely with the Summit team, and we will be conveying invitations to our members this month. We hope you join us in San Francisco this September, as our collective efforts must lead to a turning point by 2020 in order to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

For more information on the Summit, visit the Frequently Asked Questions page. If you have any questions about how to work with BSR to make sure your climate commitments are included in the business contribution to climate action, please contact us.

Blog | Wednesday June 6, 2018

Two Ways Responsible Investors Can Promote Inclusive Growth

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A 2015 survey of millennials around the world found that growing economic and social inequalities were their top concern. And it isn’t only millennials: The JUST Capital Roadmap for Corporate America has found for three years in a row that the number one public concern of corporate behavior of persons of all ages, income levels, and political parties is worker treatment, including fair wages and non-discrimination.

Rising social and economic inequalities have consistently been ranked among the top systemic global risks in the annual WEF Global Risk Index. In fact, growing inequalities have been linked to social issues from higher rates of cancer to higher rates of joining terrorist groups.

Inclusive growth is growth that reduces, rather than exacerbates, these inequalities. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines it as, “economic growth that creates opportunity for all segments of the population and distributes the dividends of increased prosperity, both in monetary and non-monetary terms, fairly across society.” The degree to which growth is inclusive has direct effects on a business, including by increasing the purchasing power of its consumers, increasing its potential employee base, and providing a stable operating environment for its operations.

Deloitte found in a recent survey that a majority of business leaders are supportive of changing their corporate practices to foster more inclusive growth. They believe this can feed innovation, strengthen resilience, and contribute overall to their competitiveness. However, the largest barrier business leaders say they face is a perceived lack of support from investors.

The investment community is interested in being part of the solution. We’ll be discussing what this can look like at the RI Europe 2018 conference in London this week.

How can responsible investors help foster inclusive growth?

1. Create and Collect Metrics on Inequality 

One of the most challenging aspects of this for investors is a lack of clear definitions and metrics on which business actions contribute to inclusive growth. To date, responsible investors have focused on rising inequalities by measuring CEO-average worker pay ratios. While they are an important indicator, they are only one aspect of this multidimensional problem.

The Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, together with BSR, developed a comprehensive framework to map business actions that drive inclusive growth. In our research, we found that nearly every department inside a company makes choices that can impact inclusive growth. These include decisions in human resources like whether internships are paid; whether or not to pay contingent workers living wages with benefits, job security, and paid training; and how to remove bias in hiring and promotion algorithms. Yet how companies price their products and how companies engage more broadly with society through advertising, tax practices, and lobbying efforts on issues like the minimum wage, paid leave, tax, and immigration are also a part of the picture that needs to be assessed.

Investors can leverage this framework, and they can also advocate for more comprehensive collection of inclusive growth metrics and universal data collection approaches, such as the Social and Human Capital Protocol. They can encourage their portfolio companies to disclose their human capital activities through signing the Workforce Disclosure Initiative and supporting broader disclosure of public policy advocacy efforts.

2. Participate in Building a Global Action Agenda on Inclusive Growth

Meaningful progress on a global challenge like inclusive growth will require collaboration by stakeholders across society, including investors.

The climate change movement in the run-up to the adoption of the Paris Agreement serves as a successful model for how this coordinated action can be achieved. Specifically, the international climate consensus was possible thanks to the articulation of leaders to inspire coordinated action and commitment. Investors played a role not only in encouraging action in the run-up to the negotiations, but also in encouraging countries to continue to drive implementation since adoption.

Discussions are beginning to take place at the multilateral level on how to tackle the challenges of growing inequalities, and the investor voice will be important in these conversations. One way that investors can participate is through the OECD Business Leaders for Inclusive Growth project, which aims to align private and public sector efforts to achieve inclusive growth.

Achieving and sustaining inclusive growth is both a significant challenge and an opportunity for all of us, and investors can play a huge role in our collective solution. If you’re interested in learning more about how to collaborate with BSR on this topic, please contact us.

Blog | Friday June 1, 2018

Where BSR Will Be in June 2018

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BSR staff are on the move at sustainability-related events around the world this month. From our own “Redefining Sustainable Business” event series to Sustainable Brands, the BBB Forum, and Devex World, here are the events we’ll host, attend, and speak at this June.

What We’ll Host

• June 6: BSR will hold a members-only webinar on how artificial intelligence is delivering new insight and foresight on trends, stakeholders, and issues that can help companies enhance decision-making and build trust. Sustainability Management Managing Director Alison Taylor will speak.
• June 7: The HERproject team will host the second Brand Convening of 2018 in Hong Kong. HERproject Director Christine Svarer, Manager Cherry Lin, and Manager Marat Yu will speak.
• June 13: The Healthy Business Coalition will host a Sustainability Matters webinar on how companies can track and scale healthy business programs. Senior Vice President Laura Gitman will speak.
• June 21: BSR will host the first event of our invitation-only “Redefining Sustainable Business” series on business and the 21st-century social contract in New York. President and CEO Aron Cramer and Sustainable Futures Lab Director Jacob Park will speak.
• June 21: Managing Director Tara Norton and Manager Charlotte Bancilhon will host a half-day convening in New York about how embedding environmental, labor, and human rights considerations into supply chain finance mechanisms can help achieve business and sustainability goals.
• June 28: Information and Communications Technology Associate Director Michael Rohwer and Manager Kelly Gallo will host our San Francisco “Redefining Sustainable Business” event on the future of sustainable business in the Bay Area.

Where We’ll Be

• June 1: Managing Director Elisa Niemtzow will attend the 1.618 Sustainable Luxury Biennale in Paris.
• June 4: Rohwer, Manager Nate Springer, and Manager Berkley Rothmeier will attend Sustainable Brands 2018 in Vancouver. Springer will speak in the session "Science-Based Targets: Lessons from Retailers for Retailers."
• June 4-5: Cramer will attend the BSR board meeting in Paris.
• June 5: Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) Program Director Cecilia Müller Torbrand will present a paper on maritime corruption to the International Maritime Organisation in London.
• June 5-6: Taylor will attend RI Europe 2018 in London.  
• June 6: Associate Director Giulio Berruti will attend the launch event of the RE-Source platform and IRENA's Global Reference Index for Corporate Sourcing of Renewable Energy in Brussels.
• June 7: Manager Margaux Yost will moderate the panel “Gender and Workplace Safety in the Supply Chain” at IDH4Gender in Nairobi.
• June 11: Norton will be the keynote speaker at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs discussion forum, “Digitization and Responsibility in Global Supply Chains” in Vienna.
• June 12: Gitman will moderate a panel of sustainability leaders at the BBB Forum on Corporate Responsibility in New York.
• June 12: Director Angie Farrag-Thibault will facilitate an Airlines, Shippers, and Forwarders meeting organized by BSR in Düsseldorf. Berruti, Springer, and Associate Gareth Scheerder will participate in the event.
• June 12: Associate Director Cecile Oger and Manager Byron Austin will host the Healthcare Working Group in-person spring meeting in our Paris office. 
• June 12-13: Associate Léa Farnier will attend the ADEME Climate meeting in Paris. 
• June 12-13: Manager Magali Barraja will speak on the panel “Bridging the Gap—Getting the Business Benefits of Gender Equality” at the amfori Unleash Opportunity annual conference in Amsterdam. Manager Cliodhnagh Conlon will attend.
• June 13: Manager Mark Williams will join as a special guest panelist in an online stakeholder forum focused on SDG 8 hosted by GlobeScan.
• June 13-15: Farrag-Thibault, Berruti, Springer, and Scheerder will facilitate the Clean Cargo Working Group (CCWG) members meeting in Bonn, Germany. 
• June 14-15: Cramer will attend a meeting of the Global Climate Action Summit Advisory Committee in New York.
• June 18-23: Director David Wei and Manager Samantha Harris will attend the Adaptation Futures Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. Harris will present BSR’s research on private-sector climate risk and resilience.
• June 19-20: Berruti will attend the event “How Business Can Measure the Impact—and ROI—of Corporate Sustainability” in London.
• June 20-21: Farrag-Thibault, Human Rights Director Peter Nestor, and Associate Michaela Lee will facilitate the Building Responsibly members meeting and stakeholder convening in London.
• June 21: Associate Director Karlyn Adams will speak on behalf of Green Freight Asia on sustainable logistics as competitive advantage at the International Smart Logistics and Supply Chain Congress in Singapore.
• June 21: Director Jeffrey Crawford will attend Devex World 2018 in Washington, D.C.
• June 25: Farrag-Thibault will participate in the Transforming Heavy Transport workshop at WBCSD in Geneva.
• June 26-27: Manager Ouida Chichester will speak on a panel on “Solutions to Women’s Employment in Extractives” at the World Bank’s Gender and Oil, Gas and Mining: New Frontiers of Progress, Challenges and Solutions conference in Washington, D.C.
• June 29: Müller Torbrand will attend the SeaTrade Awards ceremony in London; both MACN and CCWG have been nominated for the CSR award.

Blog | Thursday May 31, 2018

Scaling a Renewable Future for Internet Power

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Almost every business today—from tech to financial services and media to retail and healthcare—relies on online services and data. As more and more companies look to cloud services to support their digital needs, the internet’s energy demands will likely only continue to grow.  

This means internet use could jeopardize the planet if we do not take action. We cannot hope to create a climate-compatible internet without addressing its overall footprint, which includes data centers as well as the transmission, equipment, and code that make them work. Moreover, we cannot reach the ambitious objectives of the Paris Agreement without bringing the leading companies whose data use drives this energy demand into this conversation. That is one reason we founded the Future of Internet Power collaborative initiative in 2012—because in order to create an internet powered 100 percent by renewable energy, we need to work together.

In 2014, it was estimated that data centers consumed two to three percent of global energy use. While breakthroughs in efficiency and cloud technology have the potential to limit energy demand associated with data centers to a moderate increase by 2020, global estimates of data center demand in 2030 anticipate an increase of three to 10 times current levels, including projections that global data center electricity demand alone could reach 13 percent of global electricity consumption.

Telecommunications and wireless networks consume tremendous amounts of energy, although many of these companies have made ambitious commitments to reduce their emissions. To put the energy demand of these networks into context, the annual total reported energy use of AT&T in 2017 was more than twice that of Google.

The manufacturing of the equipment that makes the internet work, like servers, is also a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that some companies are looking to reduce. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, for example, has responded to this by committing to set science-based targets for its suppliers that will avoid 100 million tons of GHGs by 2025.

We know that code and software engineering could do much more to reduce environmental impact, too. Studies suggest that as much as 60 percent of code is written without green or energy efficiency principles in mind.

The Future of Internet Power has made great progress over the past five years:

• We have grown to include more than 20 companies in our community, which has made great strides in building common values, goals, and tools to realize those values and achieve our goals. These companies include not only ICT companies, but also data centers, financial institutions, and online retailers.
• We launched the Corporate Colocation and Cloud Buyers’ Principles, which set out six criteria that customers of data center colocation and cloud services expect of their data center service providers.
  • To put these principles into action, we created a toolkit to give companies a step-by-step guide to engaging with their cloud and colo providers on each principle.
• We have worked closely with the World Resources Institute (WRI) to produce a white paper addressing the issue of GHG emissions accounting, renewable energy procurement, and reporting in the data center sector
  • This work led to the creation of a template for customers and providers to use to guide them on the documentation that could support verification of zero carbon claims, which marks a step toward greater consistency in this sector.
• We continue work closely with our co-founders of the Renewable Energy Buyers’ Alliance (REBA): Rocky Mountain Institute’s Business Renewables Center, the World Wildlife Fund, and WRI.
  • Last year, REBA was awarded the Corporate Eco Forum’s C.K. Prahalad Award for demonstrating how collaboration is critical to widespread adoption of renewable energy.

While we are excited about the work we have done to equip companies to leverage renewable energy to power their data and internet use, this is a complex and complicated industry. Over the next month, we will be determining what comes next. We are excited to create a new and ambitious mission that drives us closer to a new definition of a sustainable internet. We see a real need to ratchet up our impact, enable greater transparency, and integrate climate considerations into companies’ data plans.

One thing is clear: The current group of companies tacking this problem needs your help. Almost every company will need a new blueprint to increase the climate-compatibility of its internet use. Our next step for the Future of Internet Power is to create that blueprint.

Now is the time for more of you to join us at this table—because changing how tech and data are powered not only helps individual companies in the space reach their environmental goals; it also lays a foundation for the organizations that use their products and services to be a part of the solution.

If you’d like to learn more about the Future of Internet Power and our efforts to create a more sustainable internet, I’ll be at Sustainable Brands in Vancouver next week and would love to continue the conversation.

Blog | Monday May 28, 2018

How Health Training Changed Social Norms in Himalayan Villages

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Today, May 28, is Menstrual Hygiene Day. BSR recently visited Himalayan villages in Uttarakhand, Northern India, where a community-based version of HERproject has helped women take charge of their health by addressing the social stigmas surrounding menstruation.

Menstrual Hygiene Day was first celebrated in 2014 to raise awareness of the challenges women and girls face due to menstruation. In the villages we visited in Northern India, women face a monthly struggle to stay healthy and maintain personal hygiene during menstruation, as well as to access affordable and readily available menstrual hygiene products. Amplifying that struggle, menstruation remains surrounded by strong social norms, taboos, and stigmas.

Menstrual hygiene is one of the key components of HERhealth, the health pillar of BSR’s flagship workplace program HERproject. In partnership with VillageWays Charitable Trust, and with the support of ANN INC. and later Good Earth, we adapted HERhealth to the community context to serve villages in Northern India during 2015 and 2016.

When we visited, representatives from the local NGO VillageWays Charitable Trust explained that social norm structures that consider menstruation as unclean and impure are especially strong in Himalayan mountain regions. A custom called alag hona (translated as “to separate”) is still widely practiced. Under this custom, women are separated from their communities and families during their menstruation, and they are expected to refrain from cooking and bathing in the same areas as the rest of their families. Adolescent girls must stay home from school. It common practice for women to stay in outhouses with the cows, buffalo, and other farm animals for two to three days when they are bleeding, instead of staying in the house with their families.

In addition, in many villages women do not have access to sanitary pads or other forms of modern menstrual hygiene products. Instead, they will go without any menstrual protection. These practices are socially enforced during a time when it is critical for women to stay clean, eat healthy, and be able to rest properly.

Over a period of 18 months, women from the villages were trained in nutrition, as well as personal and menstrual hygiene, as part of the health trainings. These women were in turn responsible for reaching and educating 10 families each. They walked for hours a day to teach others in the remote villages of their valleys.

The program has subsequently been scaled up to 12 villages, and it is currently being expanded to 25 villages in another neighboring valley, aiming to reach over 7,000 people total. Recently, BSR visited Supi, which is one of the villages where health training was provided—and also one of the villages where the practice of alag hona used to be an everyday reality for women.

Geeta, a peer health educator, told us, “Before the training, I had no idea that during the menstrual period, one should use a sanitary pad or take a bath. Previously I didn’t use anything and didn’t have anything to use either.”

She went on to say, “During my period, I used to stay in the outhouse with the cows for two to three days while I was bleeding.” Geeta is married and has two children, a boy and a girl. She gets shy when asked questions about the reaction of others to the information about menstrual practices. But she is determined to tell her story, and she walked up from her village to meet with us.

“After the training, there has been a lot of change. Now I use a sanitary pad, which I can buy in the store. I stay in the house with my family during my menstruation period. Girls can go to school now, during their periods. It has been a big change,” she said. Geeta’s story is reinforced by those of dozens of women that we met during our stay.

Over only a few years, the social norms around alag hona have changed, thanks to the dissemination of health knowledge, paired with close collaboration with village leaders, communities, and schools, as well as targeted activities to enhance access to menstrual hygiene products. The peer health educators we met attribute the success of the program not only to the persistent work of VillageWays Charitable Trust, but also the strength of the peer education model. When you receive health information from a woman from your own community, they told us, you know that she understands you, your family, and your daily struggles. That is why you will trust her, and you will be open to change.