Very interesting, Maria. what would these changes mean for the company bottom line?
Now,
what does good look like?
Working along with the nature in order to eliminate destruction
Integration of the whole nature system (biodiversity, ecosystem services) in business practices from: planning, operation, monitoring and evaluation. This will increase efficiency and reduce risks.
Active engagement and collaboration with stakeholders: governments, business, NGOs, local communities. In order to share responsibilities and to better tackle and address expectations and priorities to enhance the spectrum of present and future projects.
A1: The UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) is conducting research on the linkages between business, climate change and child rights and looking at what businesses are doing in this. At the moment we have not found many examples of how businesses are integrating child rights considerations into their climate action. We would welcome any thoughts and examples if anyone wants to contribute. However, within the limitation of this research, we have found some examples of businesses that are starting to consider a more people-centred approach to climate change. For example, SSE has published a just transition strategy where it commits to protect workers and communities in the transition towards net zero and also to provide meaningful work experience and opportunities to young people in the creation of green and decent jobs. AVIVA identified in its Responsible Investment annual review three sustainable outcomes to deliver a more sustainable future: people, earth and climate and recognised that the three biggest sustainability challenges (social inequality, biodiversity and climate change) are complex and interlinked.
Do the participants know of examples of how businesses have integrated childrenās rights considerations in their climate actions?
What indicators should we use to determine sustainable outcomes?
Develop an analysis of the dependencies of the natural capital by the company and the supply chain, in order to enhance ecosystems services. As well as an analysis of the impact of operations on the natural capital.
Commitment, engagement, coherence, and circularity in business models are more than ever needed to be implemented as stated by the UNEP:
āStrengthening corporate commitment at the highest level is therefore essential. From a design perspective, incentives to develop green and sustainable chemistry solutions are needed. Responsible production should be encouraged, and consumer information related to chemicals should be clear, transparent and reliable. As an important contribution to a sustainable future, chemistry and its products must be adapted to a circular economy ā a system aimed at eliminating waste, circulating and recycling products, and saving resources and the environmentā From: United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Adapt to Survive: Business transformation in a time ofuncertainty. UNEP, Nairobi.
A1: We will have a fair and sustainable future when businesses will look at their climate action and put children and young people as one key stakeholder to distinctively consider when they assess their impacts and their actions. It is important to ensure that action to tackle climate change is taken, but also that this does not lead to unintended consequences on people and that the effects of climate change on those who are affected the most are addressed.
Others are talking about the importance of nature alongside climate for business. Weāve done some initial work on how biodiversity community can learn from Paris and how business can engage (Lessons from Paris: global biodiversity framework must engage business, grow finance | International Institute for Environment and Development)
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Totally agree, as bussiness we have to recognize the importance of acting responsibly to take care of the environment and improve the peopleās life quality and wellness. This is an opportunity to reinvent the way of doing business and not only to meet the ambicious goals but to find ways to go further.
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As Iām representing an NGO it is easier for me to also say that doing this well also needs to make commercial sense - the impacts needs to be economic, social and environmental
Maria Pia, excellent point regarding child rights and corporate engagement. I do not have at this moment any exemple of any business developing a strategy about that. This sujet is highly relevant and important in order to eliminate modern slavery. So, I am interested to know more about the work you are doing in that respect.
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Second question fro everyone:
Transparent supply chains, a more equal distribution of value among supply chain actors and observing Human Rights Due Diligence are crucial factors for fundamentally bolstering the climate resilience of smallholder farmers. Moreover, better remuneration, technical support and better access to finance are needed to allow them to make vital investments into climate mitigation and adaptation measures.
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Open Resource Example: Coffee Farmerās Guide to Battling Climate Change. Fairtrade Africa has developed a Climate Academy Guide for coffee farmers in Eastern and Central Africa, to enable them to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change for sustainable production. Drawing from the experiences of 8,500 coffee farmers from eight smallholder producer organisations in Kenya, the Climate Academy Guide provides practical information to equip farmers with the skills and insights to conduct environmental risk and opportunity assessments on their farms, identify the extent to which they are exposed to the effects of climate change, and determine the most effective approaches to reduce its harmful effects. This guide is an open-source document that shares learning and trainings for all coffee farmers worldwide. We hope that through wide-spread sharing of the learnings from this project, all coffee farmers will be able to benefit, improve their businesses and adapt to the changing climate
Government needs to set a strong enabling framework that gives food businesses an incentive to invest at farm level, and which makes it easier for responsible businesses to tackle poverty, environmental and sustainability issues on the ground. The government must also make sure that businesses who do take action arenāt left exposed against competitors with weaker commitments to sustainability. In this regard the introduction of a law to tackle deforestation in company supply chains as part of the Environment Bill is a welcome step forward. The Government must ensure that any due diligence legislation is robust, producer focused, ensures smallholder farmers and workers do not lose out, and is effective in ensuring compliance with meaningful impact. In particular, environmental due diligence legislation must include human and environmental rights, must ensure that companies are held to account in line with roust international laws and guidelines, as opposed to weak or ill-enforced national laws, and must cover all forms of deforestation.
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Collaboration with communities and stakeholders is essential. And it is important that children and young people are one of these stakeholders being involved. Children and young people have demonstrated they can be powerful agents for change and it is important that they are part of the solution, given the effects that climate change will have on future generations.
Few things we learnt from the BP4GG experience with āsense checking if we made any differenceā- without creating huge time and financial burdens on our partners or beneficiaries:
- Use ālight touch lean dataā ā donāt burden partners with onerous data requirements. We partnered with 60Decibels, a tech led customer-focused impact measurement firm, and took advantage of new technologies for remote data collection; data from over 3,000 beneficiaries have been collected using remote, standardised surveys via phone, SMS, IVR.
- Take different perspectives: It is important to,listen to those which needed most [workers and farmers], but also to suppliers [factories and farms], or retailers and brands] to understand if we made any difference and design solutions.
- The importance of āduringā: monitor and measure when you can still change course. We gathered data mid way [as well as @endline]. This approach provided us and our partners with genuine benchmarks of performance āand allowed enough time to take action.
- Avoid duplicating data that others are already gathering - find the ānicheā in data collection to add value to what partners already have or are doing.
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A2. As a company, we are aware that our financial statements only partly reflect how our activities affect society; there are both positive and negative impacts that are not valued in the capital markets and, therefore, do not appear in our traditional profit and loss calculation.
- We quantify these so-called externalities in monetary terms and validate our methodology to estimate the Net Value to Society with the corresponding True Value methodology from KPMG. In 2020, the net value we created for society resulted in US$3.7 billion, 2.3 times the benefit we retained in the same period.
- CEMEXās materiality assessment brings together financial and non-financial topics that matter most to our business and our stakeholders. Aligned with the GRIās framework and materiality principles, this analysis helps identify topics to be addressed in our strategic planning and integrated reporting.
- Additionally, our Social Impact Strategy has its own 6 step process which allows us to keep track and generate shared value in the cities and communities where we are present.
Some other interesting approaches that we are also analyzing are Hybrid Metrics that could help by combining businesses social and environmental impact with standard measures of financial performance.
For more info about materiality assessment (p.12): https://www.cemex.com/documents/20143/52528892/IntegratedReport2020.pdf/d7d4abda-2ddd-0809-8902-b09af5114bba
Ways to measure these intersections is to measure:
-Direct and indirect Greenhouse Gas emissions (scope 1, 2, 3)*
- Environmental Impact Assessments to assess the impact activities of business have on the environment and climate. Examples of Environmental Impact Assessments are NEAT+, CEDRIG and the Enironmental Stewardship Tool, but there are various others*
- Track businessesā contribution to climate finance and measure whether the most marginalized and vulnerable have to access this finance (specifically pay attention to the different power dimensions at play, such as gender inequality)*
-Track businessā development/production of adaptation and mitigation technologies and measure whether the most marginalized have access to and use these technologies*
-Engage in Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments (CVCA see Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis Handbook (CVCA) - CARE Climate Change) to gain insight in the community-level vulnerabilities to and capacities for climate change and how the activities of businesses interact with their vulnerabilities and capacities. Based on this analysis business can identify ways in which they can support communities in strengthening their capacities.*
For example, when a company is setting up a new factory, you can use CVCAs to gain insight in the current vulnerabilities and capacities. And use scenario planning to foresee how the new factory is influencing the vulnerabilities and capacities. Together with the company they can consider future scenarios.
Hopefully there are decent M&E baselines in place to build from in the 1st instanceā¦
However as far as I am aware, there is not one unified platform or standard as yet for measuring and reporting on net zero/nature positive commitments (let alone to also include social impact too). The common approach, which many businesses seems to have adopted, is currently a combination of various target setting platforms for climate & GHG emissions (SBTi, PACTA, PCAF), then the forthcoming framework from the Science-based Target Network for nature.
The following guidance that WWF worked on with BCG, includes further practical detail on tackling this: https://wwfint.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/beyond_science_based_targets___a_blueprint_for_corporate_action_on_climate_and_nature.pdf
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To develop my idea, I will start with a quotation: āThe current uncertainty favors companies with a start-up mindset, which allows them to embrace change, flexibility, innovation, and purpose. This attitude leads to questioning accepted wisdom, obsessing over cash, driving a test learn- adapt way of operating, and a bias toward action over research. This resilient spirit can propel a company into the recovery and the next normal with more innovative, agile thinking across new business models centered on analytics, platforms, and changing customer needs.ā (Mckensy, 2020).
In order to advance towards this transformation, I think it is important to:
- Establish clear indicators and specific targets that will indicate the degree of impact on environment and society.
- establish a clear diagnostic about the objectives, the timeframe, what needs to be included and excluded
- Develop a strategy of reporting and evaluation about those indicators
- Economic performance, social and environmental performance should be established at the same level of interest for the company.
When it comes to reducing the burden of measurement & proof of impact I see two primary opportunities.
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Invest in intermediaries to do this on behalf of community led organizations. Not every organization should necessarily have to have the skills and human capital to do rigorous evaluation work. There are certainly opportunities for shared resourcing.
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The data that we need to prove (and improve) our work should be captured while doing our work. Treating impact data as a secondary activity that is somehow apart from the act of doing the work leads to it being under-invested in. We must capture the data we need to prove and improve our impact while delivering our work.
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