Sustainable clothing roadmap & studies
Posted: October 20, 2010 Filed under: Funding, Government, Studies | Tags: Case studies, DFID, Funding, Impact assessment, LCA, Sustainable clothing, UK Leave a comment »
The British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has been piloting “sustainable product roadmaps” since 2007. The Sustainable Clothing Roadmap is a voluntary clothing industry initiative co-ordinated by Defra to improve the environmental and ethical performance of clothing. The aim is to work with industry stakeholders to fast track best practice through: (1) Establishing sound evidence on key impacts (in the LCA of clothing) and where action will be most effective – it also examined consumption trends; (2) Agreeing on actions (short to long term) in priority areas (individual organisations and industry wide); (3) Providing a platform to disseminate industry best practice as case studies to catalyse change throughout the sector.
I just came across the website and found that the various studies (although a bit older) conducted during the project might be worth while to look at.
In addition, the website refers to a DIFD-fund called “RAGS”: Responsible Clothing and Garment Fund. Here, NGOs working on various sustainability issues in low income countries can apply for grants between 25.000 and 250.000 Pounds.
Rethink your supply chain!
Posted: October 4, 2010 Filed under: Journal | Tags: Case studies, Cooperation, CSR, NGOs, Transparency Leave a comment »As I mentioned earlier, the October 2010 issue of the Harvard Business Review has a spotlight on supply chain sustainability. Most of the content is not really new, but interesting is that most authors argue that companies should take a holistic approach to sustainability in their supply chains.
Hau L. Lee from Stanford Business School gives some recommendations from his extensive research on supply chain sustainability of various large companies (e.g. Esquel (the author is in the board), Mattel, Starbucks, Posco, H&M). Companies should not take a “piecemeal” approaches to supply chain sustainability (e.g. swapping one location for another), because such an approach can generate unanticipated consequences and can thus get your company into trouble. Instead, companies “should take a holistic approach to sustainability and pursue broader structural changes” … “much earlier than most currently do” (p.64f). He illustrates his recommendations with examples from his research. Here are some of his central conclusions/recommendations:
- “Sustainability is no longer a secondary issue. It has become a competitive concern and should be handled accordingly.” Treat sustainability as an integral to operations!
- “Connect the dots between your own operations”. Understand better your (extended) supply chain and identify where social and environmental problems could occur. Regard your suppliers as partners.
- “Work with your suppliers’ suppliers” and your customers’ customers. Tell them why transparency is needed and how the information will be used – and also support them.
- “Reinvent your manufacturing process”. Think bigger and different and try to innovate processes or structures.
- “Look beyond your enterprise’s networks”. Collaborate with your competitors – and also NGOs – on sustainability issues. You do not make your company sustainable without them, particularly, if you cannot achieve scale on your own.
The article is followed by an interview with Peter Senge from MIT. He argues that three challenges must be overcome to make a business more holistic from end to end: (1) To understand the larger system they’re in. (2) To learn to work with people you haven’t worked with before (e.g. NGOs). (3) Regard sustainability as a more ambitious vision and not only as being less bad.
