For CEMEX, responsible sourcing means act in an ethical manner, establish and operate procedures that ensure compliance, protect human rights, conserve and create ecological habitats before, during and after our operations and adopt policies that provide a framework to ensure that our impact on the environment is considered in all our operations. Communicate as appropriate with local communities and responsible conservation groups for them to enhance their knowledge of our activities and for us to be informed of their views.
We closely cooperate with our supply chain to foster our continuous innovation and implement the most sustainable techniques in our day-to-day operations. Consequently, we look to create a culture of responsible business that reflects the best relationship with our suppliers, while working towards our companyâs objectives.to support our five priority SDGs (8, 9, 11, 13, 15)
Great to see consideration of both the social and environmental issues within supply chain but would be good to continually strive for increased accountability and traceability
Hi Darrell - could you say a little more about the business benefits of responsible sourcing in cocoa? Iâm not expert in this area, but picked up from previous work that many cocoa farmers and their families are leaving the land, because other livelihood options are more viable for them and investing in increasing cocoa productivity can be difficult with risks for the farmer. Can responsible sourcing contribute to solving this challenge?
agree about going beyond harm reduction. weâre faced with some sticky problems which need a lot of work to tackle, such as child labour, trying to tackle the causes
The question is how far this responsibility can and should go. Businesses often operate in an ecosystem that is very fragile - and which could benefit from strategic engagement by corporates and other stakeholders to strengthen it.
Yes weâre faced with all kinds of problems in cocoa. itâs a difficult crop to cultivate, often with low yields and trees which are attacked by pests and diseases. farmers leave cocoa to grow other crops. I think it does go beyond plain responsible sourcing to tackle these, itâs necessary to genuinely work with farmers to improve production on their farms
Hi - Iâm Liz - Communications Manager at Liberation Foods and the NGO Twin. I completely agree with this. Itâs important to pay attention to detail and consider the people working at every single stage of the supply chain.
Yes! And adding on to why it makes sense from a business and social impact perspective⌠This approach makes sense from a business perspective because it enables a long-term view on sourcing the inputs and materials needed to sustain businesses, economies, and ecosystems. Sourcing in ways that actively support people and the environment can give businesses a focus and mission that drives performance, attracts talent, and assures a long term model of value creation. More importantly, it allows businesses to live up to the values they espouse and live up to their potential to be value-creators and positive forces in society.
It makes sense from a social impact perspective because responsible sourcing puts people and the environment at the center of the picture, with business decisions made around that central orbit. True social impact means lasting change. New business models and new ways of sourcing that change power structures are needed to achieve truly responsible sourcing. At Acumen, we see these models emerging across the globe, and invest in many of them through our pioneer and growth stage portfolios. Though it is not easy for these models to compete in an environment that is still fundamentally exploitative, we believe many will achieve scale and sustainability, and demonstrate new approaches that others can adopt. We also are finding more and more large companies that are prepared to invest in social enterprises and partner with them directly - opening tremendous new opportunities for inclusive business and ethical sourcing.
very pertinent question, and we keep redefining the boundaries. for instance at first we decided gender issues werenât in scope, then later we were convinced to add womenâs empowerment in our programme
I love hearing that Darrell. CARE has pivoted toward gender equity in all of itâs work (100 countries, 100M persons, 1000 projects) because weâve found that poverty (and most of the SDGâs) simple donât get achieved if we donât put gender equity at the center of what we do.
Henning - Yes, I like this framing in relation to taking account the long-term effects of your actions on the business. Another dimension of this is the potential of companies, through both operations and responsible sourcing, to contribute towards positive shifts in the societies and economies in which they operate. These positive shifts can, over the long term, return benefits to the company - such as improvements in education and skills across the workforce, even creation of new markets - all in addition to the reputational benefits to the company and management of negative impacts.
Thank you for your question. I would like to share one of our flaship projects that combines quarry reclamation in a very social innovation way: Lintar Olive Oil that is produce in one of our quarries with the work of a social entreprise of war veterans in Split, Croatia.
CEMEX restored quarry surface in 2005 planting Mediterranean foliage, rehabilitating over 200,000 square meters of space. That includes 35,000 square meters of new olive grove, with 20,000 square meters under indigenous olive varieties. In 2009, the grove was given to the voluntary care of the Homeland War Veteransâ Association, whose members are mainly CEMEX employees. Joint efforts resulted in Lintar olive oil, named after an ancient name for KaĹĄtela Bay where the company and quarry are situated. In March 2010, the oil was for the first time presented at NoÄnjak, traditional olive oil manufacturersâ fair, where Lintar received a certificate for high quality. Additionally, the olive oil bottle design also received critical acclaim from major domestic and international designers, thus further spreading the word on the project.
A big challenge is that, whilst it is easy to quantify the cost of responsible sourcing, it is more difficult to put a number on the upside. How do you express in Dollars the worth of happy, committed employees? How do you quantify the absence of strikes and organized resistance against your company operating in the region? I am currently involved in a challenge with Business Fights Poverty that looks at ways in which companies can cooperate with SMEs through an ecosystems lens. We know that businesses, particularly in emerging markets, are struggling because the ecosystem they operate in is failing. They cannot access services, there are few supporting industries, banks and insurers do not engage with them, and regulations are not business-friendly. We believe there is a role to play for large businesses in working towards stronger business ecosystems, which facilitate SME growth. This in turn will help large business operate more successfully in these markets, as they will be able to source better products at better price. This will entail a calculation that goes beyond a simple business case. It will also take a long time to create a return on investment. However, we need this kind of innovative thinking in order to create long-term, sustainable sourcing and thriving businesses, and through initiatives like the Business Fights Poverty challenge on corporate/SME ecosystems partnerships we are creating the groundwork for this.
This is also at the core of how Twin works. We work with coffee, nut and cocoa producers and find that addressing gender justice helps to improve business management and sustainable agricultural practices.
Basic challenge is many of these issues relate to fundamental issues in our society and business alone cannot solve them. We need a blend of doing things in our supply chain in a fast and agile manner, and working together with others in a more slower paced wider holistic perspective.
For example the root cause of child labour is low level of development of entire countries. We canât solve that, what we can try to do is tackle the symptoms and help particular cases or communities
Weâre working with Jacobs Foundation to improve access to and quality of education in Cote dâIvoire. So far weâve built and run about 70 bridge schools, which are one classroom units built in the remotest communities to help gets kids into the schooling system or back into school by teaching the basic skills of numeracy and literacy
There are a number of challenges, but I will mention two where I see significant opportunities for Corporate-NGO partnerships. The first is the challenge of addressing pre-competitive issues. In almost every major sector, issue exist that could be addressed in a pre-competitive manor that would both improve profits for companies and lead to positive social or environmental outcomes. For partnerships, I would encourage Corporations to be more aggressive in leveraging NGOs to help them design, facilitate and manage these pre-competitive partnership and collaborations. Internally, coming from the corporate side, they are a lot of work and often arenât the core competency of a CSR or sustainability team. On the flip side, I would encourage NGOs to continue to make it easier for Corporations to find you and leverage you to do this work. There are several NGOs that are very good at organizing and managing pre-competitive collaborations.
The second challenge is building NGO-Corporate partners that leverage each other for what the NGO does well in a subsized capacity and for what the Corporation does well in a non subsized capacity. Now having been in an NGO, I can see several places where as a business unit or CSR leader, I could have leverage NGOs as partner to help build for example community capacity to produce goods, in a time that wasnât profitable yet, but could be eventually. On the flip side, I can now see several places where NGOs could benefit the communities they work with greatly, but getting work to a place where itâs almost profitable and then putting it into the hands of a corporation to be able to make it profitable so it can be scaled. There are parts of the above that can be scary for both parties, the business unit leader who needs to deliver sales and profit goals, and the NGO leader who makes to make sure the communities they are working with continue to advance. But thatâs ideally what a great partnership can come together to overcome.