With respect to transformational partnerships: there has been a longstanding focus on businesses reimagining their role in tackling climate change and, while still far from perfect, there is a growing awareness of what credible climate action plans look like.
Inequality is a newer space for companies, and my own personal sense, having worked on corporate climate commitments for nearly twenty years, is that, when it comes to inequality, the private sector is still where it was in the early years of climate action. I would like to see more collaboration on real, credible frameworks for addressing inequality, that measurably lift incomes and wages, that strengthen human rights and that are co-created with the communities that have been most impacted. I think it is important to have more, credible approaches that address such core issues as living wage and living income, human rights due diligence and other approaches. I would love to see a Human Rights Due Diligence regime that is co-created between companies and impacted communities, and agreed by both in an equal power sharing arrangement.
How about businesses step up and see themselves as the market shapers for good? We must make markets work for people and planet. When it comes to food and nutrition, markets are not doing well. Yes, we have enough food to go around but itâs not equally distributed, itâs often not nutritious and some 30% of emissions come from the food system. So firstly, businesses must be ready to step aside and not lobby against evidence-based public measures to regulate their products and services. Second, and more compelling, businesses can establish and run precompetitive platforms which share and disseminate innovations and good practice highlighting how the power and reach of the private sector has been used to tackle poverty, inequality and climate change. Why donât we see more of these industry-led precompetitive platforms? I would like to see businesses step up for nutrition and be part of the solution and improve their food portfolios to make them healthier and better on the environment and share their good practice among their competitors. ATNI is looking to help progress this discussion and we want to help convene such a precompetitive platform in the future between food businesses**
I also find the debate about businesses role as an advocate very interesting - and it has proâs and cons. Alison Taylor writes about this alot. See her article âCorporate Advocacy in a time of social outrageâ Corporate Advocacy in a Time of Social Outrage
Committing to longer term sourcing contracts with farmers and workers is vitally important. This means that those producers who look after the land to grow the crops we need are better able to plan for the future and make long term investments required. For example, long term commitments mean coffee farmers are able to invest in planting the shade trees that will eventually provide the protection for their crops to cope in increasingly higher and less regular temperatures. Or to buy a more expensive, but greener, water irrigation system, knowing that they have the long-term income over time to afford the financial outlay. This is why we â at the Fairtrade Foundation - have come up with a new initiative called Shared ImPact.
As we work on womenâs health and empowerment in supply chains, I have long felt that the way business looks at occupational health and safety is incredibly narrow. And focuses on compliance. This is due to the historically important ILO OSH standards, which are meant to be a floor, not a ceiling. But I donât see many companies even on their tippy toes around worker health (beyond OSH which is really about safety) â as material risk and major opportunity (to use CS DDD language).
The evidence is overwhelming that worker health â and womenâs health â is hugely important to the lives (personal and professional) of workers. And have major business value â in the long term. So I want companies to reimagine worker health beyond OSH. This is particularly urgent because we know that climate change is doing major harm to workers and disproportionately harms women. It is causing more internal and external migration with relate health risks, sexual violence, loss of employmentâŚ.
In manufacturing and agribusiness, any formal company of any size has health staff. The question is what they do and how they can provide health services and education as well as ensure worker access to services. Health, lack of water and other climate impacts requires companies to invest in climate resilience. And to partner with NGOs and governments to build on existing structures to address these issues. But this requires an understanding of health and womenâs health that is not bounded by an OSH compliance perspective (which is not to suggest safety is not critical). We actually consider worker and womenâs health a curb cut â because companies that do that well will find other soft and hard benefits from better communication, trust, less absenteeism, turnover⌠PSA Initiative â UAP
In an evolving world, where it is difficult to source consistently and fairly, and where addressing consumer expectations and regulatory pressures are a major challenge, Shared ImPact promises to be transformational for businesses, consumers and producers alike. Shared ImPact means businesses operating at the same level in the supply chains can take collective action to enhancing sustainability and resilience in supply chains. They will do this in partnership with the Fairtrade farmers who are placed at the sharp end of major global economic challenges and the climate crisis.
Businesses should reimagine their role as drivers of innovation and purpose-driven models that underpin our global economy. Driving the transition to circular economy models, for instance, is one way in which the business world can demonstrate leadership. They need not wait for pressure groups or governments to force them to. I think more leadership and accountability in general about how businesses are rethinking their operations, integrating new ways of doing things that in the long term meet broader goals is needed.
Q3 Businesses should aim to create inclusive growth throughout its whole business model - the key is âbusiness modelâ. A business cannot offset the negative impact it is having in one area by implementing community and environmental projects to mitigate this. The business needs to identify how it is contributing to social and environmental risks and what changes it can make to transition to more inclusive and equitable impact to create inclusive growth.
We want to see more businesses being honest and transparent about the impact they create - both negative and positive impact and how this sits in the wider context of their business model.
This includes thinking about how and where social, environmental and financial value is created and distributed throughout the business and its supply chain. This would mean reimagining who a companyâs âshareholdersâ are and considering supply chain workers and communities, employees, and the environment as part of this group as well as investors.
Under Shared ImPact - which is the first initiative of its kind in the UK to go through the Competition and Markets Authorityâs (CMAâs) new open door policy for green agreements between businesses - participating businesses would source additional Fairtrade volumes from Fairtrade producer groups, under a new, focused sourcing approach.
With respect to Partnerships for Innovation that effectively tackle poverty, inequality and climate change, we would like to see more companies step up on humanitarian anticipatory action, forecast-based finance and direct disbursement of funds to people.
We have seen an increasing interest on the part of business to engage in the humanitarian space, based in part on lessons learned during the pandemic and because of the disruptive nature of humanitarian crises. Anticipatory action helps reduce the need for humanitarian response post-disaster. Combining state-of-the-art scientific forecasting with local community and indigenous knowledge allows for pre-emptive cash delivery that increases resiliency and recovery times. The speed of the pre-emptive cash delivery matters.
The B-READY program is an example of the power of public/private partnerships in helping the world tackle climate change. We aim to scale it in such a way as to also be available to other disaster relief funders, including governments. We see other potential applications, from insurance to healthcare to ability to drive resilience in agricultural supply chains.
Shared ImPact asks businesses to come together and commit to paying farmers the Fairtrade Minimum Price and Fairtrade Premium under longer term contracts. For producers, this is expected to lead to closer relationships with businesses, better incomes, a greater share of power in supply chains, and more resources to invest in a greener, more sustainable future. Meanwhile, the businesses who sign up to Shared ImPact will be given the means to report on key impact outcomes, measure progress on sustainability commitments, have better access to authentic story-telling, and share the responsibility of supply chain risk management. Pooling sourcing means businesses can share the costs of tackling wide-reaching industry challenges.
In our work across health verticals, weâve seen businesses (some of them) being extremely proactive in working for a social cause. This also stems from the fact that the social cause they want to pursue if often a secondary source of business. I believe that if we provide businesses with confidence in terms of demand, access and cooperation from the government, plenty more will step up and work towards addressing many of our social and health concerns. Often, just the mere knowledge of how they can reduce their carbon footprint has helped businesses seek innovative solutions.
Weâre really excited about Shared ImPact. If youâre interested, or know of anyone who is, then we would love to talk. Please just let me know or you can email us at commercial@fairtrade.org.uk. We are currently in the pilot phase, focusing on sourcing commitments for bananas, coffee and cocoa, with lots of interested UK businesses.
I totally agree with this concept!! And, I used to work with Michael Porter on developing the the Social Progress Index, which tries to promote the same reasoning
Systemic Solutions: Go beyond one-off initiatives and focus on systemic change. Partner with NGOs, governments, and local communities to address root causes
Focus on Stakeholders, Not Just Shareholders:
Inclusive Growth:** Develop products and services that benefit low-income communities. Look for business models that can create shared prosperity [1].
Fair Labor Practices:** Ensure fair wages, safe working conditions, and opportunities for advancement throughout the supply chain.
Sustainability as Core Business:
Environmental Responsibility:** Reduce carbon footprint, adopt renewable energy sources, and minimize waste across operations.
Circular Economy:** Design products for longevity, repairability, and recyclability to reduce environmental impact.
Collaboration is Key:
Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships:** Businesses canât solve these issues alone. Partner with governments, NGOs, and social enterprises to leverage expertise and reach .
Measuring Success Beyond Profits:
Impact Metrics:** Develop metrics to track progress on social and environmental goals alongside traditional financial measures.
Transparency and Accountability:** Regularly report on their social and environmental impact to build trust with stakeholders.
By embracing these approaches, businesses can move from being part of the problem to becoming a driving force for a more equitable and sustainable future.
Beyond economic empowerment, the UN SDGs tackle climate change, resource management, gender inequality, youth unemployment, and the creation of decent jobs. These are all areas that are directly impacted by business activity. Identifying relevant SDGs and measuring the business impact on these areas over time is an effective way for businesses to become key drivers of positive change in their societies.
A key space where climate and inequality come together, is in the rapid emergence of Net Zero Commitments. With respect to such commitments, I think it is important to see action plans that are grounded in corporate accountability to reduce their own emissions; and that finance for carbon removals follows stronger protocols around social impacts in addition to climate impacts. This means they:
⢠Lead to real carbon removal from the atmosphere by being additional, verifiable and store carbon in the medium to long term
⢠Respect human rights, per the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (i.e: Do not cause, contribute or be directly linked to human rights violations such as land-grabs)
⢠Are grounded in meaningful rights holder participation and derive real income and/or benefits for people.
⢠Adopt a âfood-firstâ approach, while protecting biodiversity.
⢠Not being used as offsets by companies that have not adopted a science-based climate target.
We are interested in partnering with companies that want to act as first movers in this space.
We can be enablers to true change and impact in society but we canât do it all. It is imperative that we are involved, not just from a funding point of view but by leveraging the skills, experience, networks and the power of business as a force for good. All stakeholders need to have an open discussion on priorities and be more focused on what is not working and why.
A contribution to Q2 " I know of a forestry company that used to spend a lot of money on fighting fires, until it started to apply the Poverty Stoplight methodology with its neighbors from the communities around the plantations. As soon as the villagers started to bury their garbage instead of burning it, it reduced enormously the forest hazards and the company today spends a lot less money on fighting fires in the countryside."