Reports | Tuesday September 25, 2018

Climate and Women

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Climate change affects every human around the globe, with profound implications for social justice and human rights. Health-related stresses, competition for natural resources, and the impacts on livelihoods, hunger, and migration warrant immediate global action.

This paper explores a relatively new and developing topic for business: the intersection between climate change and women’s empowerment. It uses compelling data, a clear business case, and company case studies to strengthen corporate understanding of the connection between women’s empowerment and resilience to climate change impacts and to drive corporate action to put women at the center of climate-resilience solutions. Ultimately, this paper aims to help companies prepare for the consequences of climate change and address material business risks, while simultaneously embracing opportunities that benefit business, women, and communities.

This report is part of a series of six climate nexus reports that cover human rights, inclusive economy, women’s empowerment, supply chain, just transition, and health.

Climate Nexus Report Series

Blog | Monday September 24, 2018

Are You Ready to Incorporate Gender into Your Supply Chain Due Diligence?

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In June 2019, the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs) Working Group will present its report to the Human Rights Council on how to integrate gender more prominently into companies’ due diligence process so that the business impacts of human rights abuses specifically related to women are better identified and addressed.

The systems currently used by brands and suppliers to verify that basic rights and working conditions are upheld in their supply chains rarely integrate a gender dimension. This is arguably evidence that companies have not paid sufficient attention to gender-specific human rights abuses and the broader spectrum of workplace practices harmful to women in their supply chains, where women constitute a majority of workers, especially for consumer products. In particular, women’s rights and workplace-specific challenges are often not reflected in supplier codes of conduct and are addressed in very limited ways, if at all, in the auditing methodologies used to verify compliance with such codes.

To help companies address this issue and prepare to meet the increased expectations associated with the UNGPs, BSR—with support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs—is pleased to launch guidance that identifies the main improvements required for gender-sensitive social auditing and provides recommendations, practical advice, and relevant examples on how to effectively integrate gender considerations into audits. This new Gender Equality in Social Auditing Guidance is based on and complements the Gender Equality in Codes of Conduct Guidance published in 2017.  

Social auditing is defined as the thorough formal examination of the labor practices of a workplace or company, based on corroborated evidence. It is appealing to companies as it provides a clear, easy-to-digest, quantitative picture that can be used as a basis for quick sourcing and business decision-making. However, it is still often considered a narrow “snapshot” exercise, predominantly using document checks to surface issues linked to workers’ employment relationships. The voices of workers do not figure prominently. As such, social auditing lacks the ability to uncover more complex, less visible social issues, such as freedom of association, discrimination, and sexual harassment.

Moreover, social audits focus on verifying elements within distinct categories, such as working hours or health and safety. This siloed approach makes it difficult for social auditors to analyze interlinkages between seemingly unrelated issues—a particularly important activity when considering gender-sensitive issues.

If social auditing is to remain relevant and to become better at capturing the underlying root causes of gendered issues and discrimination, providing meaningful corrective action plans to tackle them, and measuring progress toward better conditions for women workers, there is an urgent need to transform its objectives and methodology.

To understand the underlying root causes of gendered issues and discrimination, tackle them, and measure meaningful progress toward better conditions for women workers, there is an urgent need to transform social auditing systems.

BSR’s new guidance is designed to provide all actors involved in these audits with opportunities for individual and collective action to make social audits more gender-sensitive. The guidance will help companies and actors in the auditing ecosystem to:

• Understand and proactively address the structural constraints that prevent social audits from being more gender-sensitive, from the composition of auditing teams and their knowledge to the complexity of reporting gender-sensitive issues and capturing gender-disaggregated data.
• Integrate specific gender-sensitive verification measures across codes of conduct principles, verifying not just governance and policy structures, but also how these are embedded in operations and how they impact workers.
• Analyze the particularities of interviewing workers and apply a gender lens to (for example) sampling and interview techniques. 
• Explore how to more effectively gather insights on women workers’ issues and needs through methodologies and techniques that are currently not part of traditional social auditing. The guidance shows how worker-driven feedback loops can capture risks and impacts in a way that traditional auditing mechanisms may not.

We hope that this guidance will serve as a significant first step in the transformation of social audits used in global supply chains. However, we recognize that this transformation is not straightforward: It will require proactive measures from key actors, including companies, standards bodies, certification schemes, supply chain initiatives, auditing companies, and auditors’ associations. BSR will convene a meeting on November 9 in New York to stimulate collaborative action amongst these various actors, and we would love for you to join us.  

Further, we call on all actors to proactively review their systems and processes to enhance their ability to unearth gendered risks and positively impact women workers in global supply chains. Companies who integrate a gender lens into their auditing practices will be well equipped to respond to part of the UNGP Working Group’s increased gender expectations.

If you would like further assistance or guidance on improving your codes of conduct and auditing processes, please contact our team of women’s empowerment experts.

Reports | Monday September 24, 2018

Gender Equality in Social Auditing Guidance

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The resilience of supply chains is intrinsically linked to the status and wellbeing of women: When women’s health and access to opportunities are compromised, their productivity and efficiency suffers. Yet the systems currently used by brands and suppliers to verify that basic rights and working conditions are upheld in their supply chains do not integrate a gender dimension. In particular, women’s rights and workplace-specific challenges are often not reflected in supplier codes of conduct and are addressed in very limited ways, if at all, in the auditing methodologies used to verify compliance with such codes.

To help companies address this issue, BSR—with support from the Dutch Ministry of aForeign Affairs—is pleased to launch guidance that identifies the main improvements required for gender-sensitive social auditing and provides recommendations, practical advice, and relevant examples on how to effectively integrate gender considerations into audits. This new Gender Equality in Social Auditing Guidance is based on and complements the Gender Equality in Codes of Conduct Guidance published in 2017. 

The Guidance:

• Considers the systemic barriers that prevent current social audits from being more gender-sensitive and provides recommendations for overcoming such barriers.
• Explores how best to integrate gender considerations within existing auditing verification measures and across the different principles in supplier codes of conduct.
• Highlights the vital process of worker interviews and considers how to maximize their effectiveness in picking up gender-sensitive issues.
• Evaluates methodologies, such as worker engagement approaches, that are not traditionally related to social auditing but that may enhance the ability of companies to identify gendered issues and effectively design remediation plans to improve workplace conditions for women.
• Assesses the broader range of strategies that companies should consider for monitoring their suppliers and whether such strategies may complement or partly replace social audits.

Download the Summary

Download the Summary (Chinese) 

Blog | Thursday September 20, 2018

How Businesses Are Collaborating for the Sustainable Development Goals

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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide both a stimulus and a framework for corporate sustainability efforts: This is reflected in the 2018 BSR/Globescan State of Sustainable Business Survey, where more than 70 percent of business leaders surveyed said that they are using the SDGs as their strategic north star in setting sustainability targets.

However, it has become increasingly obvious that to tackle systemic challenges like climate change, rising inequality, and exploitation of non-renewable resources, companies and other stakeholders need to work together. Businesses are increasingly creating and joining collaborative and multi-stakeholder initiatives to do this—which is aligned with SDG 17, to revitalize global partnership for sustainable development.

The trend toward private-sector led collaboration is encouraging—but it must accelerate, deepen, and broaden. For meaningful progress toward the SDGs, we need actors across entire value chains to pull together quickly and take collective action on the issues that threaten business growth and social development.

In our recent report on Private-Sector Collaboration for Sustainable Development, BSR investigated what motivates companies to join collaborations and what makes them successful. We found that collaborations are most effective at engaging and retaining corporate participants when they resolve an issue that is seen as critical to business continuity. In other words, we found that private-sector partnerships are most impactful when they are both good for society and good for business.

We also learned through the BSR/GlobeScan survey which specific SDGs companies are focusing on in their sustainability efforts. Climate action (SDG 13), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), and gender equality (SDG 5) topped the list.

In anticipation of Global Goals Week next week, we are sharing five examples of how private-sector collaborative initiatives are contributing to three of these four most-referenced SDGs—while simultaneously helping their participants create more resilient businesses.

1. HERproject (SDG 5) unites over 50 brands—along with their suppliers, local NGOs, and international partners—to empower women in global supply chains with knowledge and skills related to health, financial inclusion, and gender equality. Over the past decade, HERproject has reached more than 800,000 women in 14 countries, with outcomes including increased use of family planning products and better financial practices. These outcomes in turn ensure a more productive and resilient workforce, leading to positive business outcomes for factories and farms around the world.
2. The Global Impact Sourcing Coalition (GISC) (SDG 8) is a collaboration between leading companies to build more inclusive global supply chains through advancing wide-scale adoption of Impact Sourcing—a business practice where a company prioritizes suppliers that intentionally hire and provide career development opportunities to people who otherwise have limited prospects for formal employment. In 2018, GISC launched an Impact Sourcing Challenge, calling on its members to hire 100,000 impact workers by the end of 2020. Thirteen companies have already taken up the challenge: These inclusive employers benefit from the skills and talents of a more diverse set of employees and from building stronger relationships with clients, employees, and the communities in which they operate.
3. The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) (SDG 8) is a global business network of over 100 companies working toward the vision of a maritime industry free of corruption. In 2014, MACN members used the anonymous MACN reporting system to highlight a systemic issue with demands for payment for unclean grain holds in some Argentine ports. This included cases of extortion, where officials would not provide clearance to ships in good condition without a “facilitation payment”. After building a coalition of local and global stakeholders, MACN pursued a collective action in Argentina, which resulted last year in the successful adoption of a new regulatory framework for dry bulk shipping. The new framework increases the integrity and transparency of dry-bulk vessel inspections to the benefit of frontline crew, shipping companies, and the Argentine economy.
4. Clean Cargo (SDGs 8, 13) brings together major brands, cargo carriers, and freight forwarders to reduce the environmental impacts of global goods transportation and promote responsible shipping. The Clean Cargo Methodology for carbon dioxide emissions calculations and benchmarking has become the global standard in the ocean container shipping sector, collecting data from 85 percent of container shipping. The data show that since 2009, Clean Cargo members have cut their carbon dioxide emissions by 35 percent per TEU-km. Clean Cargo is stepping up its collective efforts to innovate and drive change, aligning with the new target of the International Maritime Organization to halve shipping emissions by 2050.
5. The Future of Internet Power (SDG 13) aims to increase the use of renewable energy to power the internet through collaboration with companies, power providers, developers, utilities, and policymakers. The group currently focuses on data centers, which account for more than two percent of total energy use in the United States. Together, members developed and launched the Corporate Colocation and Cloud Buyers’ Principles, six criteria that customers expect their data center service providers to meet. The Principles’ 18 signatories also commit to prioritizing providers who meet their criteria, thereby incentivizing increased investment in renewable energy solutions.

As these examples demonstrate, when business leverages its collective reach, expertise, and power, it can have impact beyond what one company could accomplish alone. What’s more, working together toward the SDGs contributes to an environment in which business can continue to thrive.

For more information on BSR’s wide range of collaborative initiatives and how to get involved, please contact us.

Blog | Tuesday September 18, 2018

The State—and Future—of Sustainable Business in 2018

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The past 10 years have seen incredible progress in sustainable business. There are global multi-stakeholder commitments on climate action and the SDGs, collaborations driving systemic change across value chains, and tremendous improvements in corporate and investor practices towards a more sustainable world. The BSR and GlobeScan State of Sustainable Business 2018 Survey is a great testament to the progress of corporate action and provides insight into how companies are preparing for the next 10 years as they respond to a rapidly changing world.

The survey, released today, includes responses from business leaders representing 152 global companies—more than 60 percent of BSR’s global membership network. This is the perspective of the people who do sustainability and corporate social responsibility work every day, inside some of the largest and most influential companies in the world.

In recognition of our 10th year and the fact that BSR sees a changing global agenda, we updated the list of corporate sustainability priorities that we track. Interestingly, ethics/integrity and diversity/inclusion were on the list for the first time and jumped straight to the top two priorities for sustainability efforts over the next 12 months. While these are of course longstanding corporate issues, they are now increasingly viewed as part of the sustainability agenda—perhaps a reflection of global attention on these topics.

Reports | Tuesday September 18, 2018

State of Sustainable Business 2018

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Blog | Monday September 17, 2018

Climate and the Economy: The Relationship between Inclusion, Equality, Business, and the Planet

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As the aftermath of extreme weather events around the globe has made clear, climate and the economy are intimately linked. For example, in 2017, the U.S. experienced Hurricanes Irma, Harvey, and Maria—three of the top five costliest hurricanes in U.S. history.

Furthermore, an economy characterized by layers of exclusion and structural discrimination amplifies climate risk by exacerbating the social, economic, cultural, and political vulnerability of marginalized individuals and communities. In other words, the poorest are most likely to be hit the hardest by the impacts of climate change, and this will be particularly pronounced both within less inclusive societies and in less affluent communities around the globe.

Conversely, an inclusive economy with improved employment practices, job quality, and job access; increased affordability and access to critical products and services; and enhanced community and government engagement can boost our capacity to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or recover from the effects of climate change. In essence, when a company learns to work at the “nexus,” or intersection, between climate and inclusion, it becomes more climate-resilient and ready to respond to climate impacts. That is one reason why today we are excited to publish Climate and Inclusive Economy: The Business Case for Action—the latest in our climate nexus report series that explores the intersection between climate resilience and key sustainability issues.

As we begin to experience the reality of our already-changing climate, there remains a critical need for business to support society in adapting to climate risk and to do so in a way that addresses inequality and structural inclusion.

The business case for undertaking this effort now is clear: While business has been working to address climate change for years now, much of the work done thus far has consisted of steps to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. However, as we begin to experience the reality of our already-changing climate, there remains a critical need for business to support society in adapting to climate risk and to do so in a way that addresses inequality and structural inclusion.

What exactly does this look like? We applied our “Act, Enable, Influence Framework” to consider how companies are working across their value chains, collaboratively with partners, and to influence governments and policies to advance more inclusive economies that build climate resilience.

• Act: Businesses should improve enterprise risk management systems by investing in human, social, natural, physical, political, and financial assets, which provides a more holistic approach to climate risk, looking further than infrastructure and operations to consider how climate affects people. For example, businesses can build resilience by enhancing employment practices.
  • Noting a decrease in crop yield and quality from farm suppliers, Woolworths developed  an  initiative aimed at providing additional assistance to farmers challenged by increasingly difficult growing conditions. The initiative provides guidance to producers on agricultural best practices, with a heightened focus on water conservation for South African producers. It also helps organize farm partners toward collective action and engagement with the broader ecosystems of partners needed to preserve the function of their community water resources.
• Enable: Businesses can enable greater resilience in part by increasing the affordability of and access to products and services.
  • Sompo Holdings took a significant leadership role in the insurance industry by launching its Weather Index Insurance product that helps farmers cover the revenue losses caused by extreme weather events.
• Influence: Businesses can seek to create an enabling environment for inclusion and resilience through stronger community and government engagements.
  • Allianz Re became a founding partner of a multi-stakeholder partnership aiming to provide governments and NGOs with improved agronomic data on rice production. This partnership intends to support new climate and food security policies in Southeast Asia, as well as support enhanced crop insurance programs.

It’s clear that companies can play a critical role in building corporate and community resilience through inclusivity. Considering inclusivity in everyday business practices and new programs, products, and services can both benefit climate resilience and create a more inclusive economy. 

Addressing the underlying vulnerabilities that marginalized communities and populations face will help to build a more resilient society—one in which businesses can thrive. To learn about the “nexus” between climate and inclusive economy, read our new report, Climate and Inclusive Economy: The Business Case for Action.

BSR’s climate and inclusive economy nexus report is the third in our series, which also includes reports on the intersection between climate and both supply chains and health. Stay tuned for more on the connections between climate resilience and women’s empowerment, human rights, and a just transition to the low-carbon economy in the months to come.  

Reports | Monday September 17, 2018

Climate and Inclusive Economy

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Climate change affects each and every human around the globe, with profound and potentially lasting implications for an inclusive economy. This paper uses data and case studies to highlight the impacts of climate change on an inclusive economy and help companies across sectors understand the resulting consequences for business.

It demonstrates why and how business can act, including how companies can establish a deeper understanding of the nexus of an inclusive economy and climate resilience throughout their businesses; how to articulate the risks and opportunities for companies across various sectors; how to secure buy-in from senior leadership; and how to identify, assess, prevent, mitigate, and remedy the adverse effects of climate change.

This report is part of a series of six climate nexus reports that cover human rights, inclusive economy, women’s empowerment, supply chain, just transition, and health.

Climate Nexus Report Series

Reports | Friday September 14, 2018

In Search of Justice: Pathways to Remedy at the Porgera Gold Mine

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BSR’s report, In Search of Justice: Pathways to Remedy at the Porgera Gold Mine, explores how to provide remedy for persons harmed at or around the Porgera Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea. It describes existing remedy mechanisms, identifies barriers to access, and issues recommendations for improving access to remedy. The overall purpose of this report is to help rightsholders in Porgera receive effective remedy for harms they have endured in relation to the mine’s operations. 

While this report and recommendations were commissioned by Barrick Gold Corp. (Barrick) and its partially owned subsidiary, Barrick (Niugini) Limited (BNL), BSR has maintained full, independent control over the research and conclusions. The recommendations were developed as part of a year-long process of research and engagement with local, national, and international stakeholders. 

We hope that the recommendations this report provides can serve as the basis for constructive dialogue among communities, Papua New Guinea’s government, other interested stakeholders, and the mine owners and operator. The recommendations outlined in this report and the issues raised and discussed draw upon international human rights principles and are grounded in a human rights-based approach.

The next and most important step will be for the mine to engage in dialogue with the community and work toward an agreeable and viable action plan. With these recommendations, BSR is providing general guidance. This document is intended as a road map for the difficult and necessary work that remains. The path forward should entail a collaborative process that involves the mine and the community—and, where appropriate, the PNG government. The report’s recommendations are designed to serve as the basis for a new dynamic in Porgera, one in which the benefits of the mine are more equitably distributed and human rights are promoted and enhanced, not undermined.

10 Key Recommendations

Kisim tok pisin liklik ripot hia

Address Current Harms

	Reform the Company Operational Grievance Mechanism in line with the UN Guiding Principles and with direct community consultation.
	Enter into a dialogue with the 119 women who underwent the Porgera Remedy Mechanism to ascertain and address their remaining needs to achieve full restoration.

Strengthen Existing Remedy Mechanisms

	Establish a free Victim Advocates’ Office to serve as an entry point for victims, providing information and helping them access appropriate pathways to remedy.
	Build the capacity of victims’ representative organizations in Porgera to raise awareness of human rights and to genuinely represent the needs of victims.
	Address barriers to existing remedy pathways in Porgera, focusing on those pathways that are most vital and utilized by victims of the mine’s operations.
	Expand the mandate for Barrick’s Independent Observer to cover all human rights harms and institutionalize the position so its formal powers will extend past the current officeholder.
	Support the creation of a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) or the extension of the Human Rights Ombudsman mandate to address private sector-related impacts on human rights.

Prevent Future Violations

	Address gender-specific impacts and make direct investments in the women affected by the mine’s operations, recognizing that there is a severe gender imbalance in the costs/benefits of mining in Porgera.
	Redesign community engagement and investment, and strengthen the human rights capacity at the mine by assessing current efforts, engaging with the community, and employing internationally recognized best practices.

Next Steps

	Create a company action plan, in dialogue with the community, to establish immediate, intermediate, and long-term actions designed to implement the report’s recommendations and secure access to remedy for victims in Porgera.

Blog | Wednesday September 12, 2018

The Impacts of Climate on Health: Why Business Should Care and How to Act

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Every year since 2011, the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report has identified climate-related risks as a top threat to business. In 2018, failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation was ranked within the top 10 global risks, alongside extreme weather events and natural disasters. Climate-related risks are wide-ranging, persist throughout value chains, and can be expected to pose severe financial threats to companies worldwide.

At the same time, climate change affects each and every human around the globe, with profound and potentially lasting implications that could undermine decades of progress in public health. As climate change intensifies, so do its impacts on human health. These range from direct impacts from increases in the frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme heat and extreme weather events to impacts from changes in the distribution and burden of both vector-borne diseases, like malaria and dengue, and water-borne infectious diseases. Other implications include human undernutrition from crop failure, population displacement from sea-level rise, occupational health risks, and increases in noncommunicable diseases, like depression connected to displacement and disasters.

Furthermore, the health impacts of climate change are expected to be distributed unevenly across the globe and make preexisting health inequality worse.

After decades of progress on global health, climate change is posing a new threat—one that could be devastating for humanity.

Why should business care? These changes have direct implications for economic growth, with huge social and financial costs for civil society, government, the general public, and business. For companies, these risks can affect strategy, finance, operations, human resources, and compliance. While business has been addressing climate for years now, much of its work has focused on climate change mitigation. Today, business has an imperative to also support society in adapting to the health impacts associated with a changing climate, which is why we are excited to publish Climate and Health: The Business Case for Action, the latest in our climate nexus report series exploring the connection between climate resilience and sustainability issues.

While the healthcare sector has the single most critical role to play in addressing this intersection, all sectors should care about this issue. Here are three reasons why and suggestions for what business can do:

Reason 1: The health impacts of climate change affect companies in every sector, all over the world. For instance, pollution and other effects of climate change will contribute to worsening health outcomes and have a detrimental effect on workforce health and productivity.

What business can do

• Assess and understand your company’s footprint and the extent to which it can help mitigate and address the growing health risks associated with climate change through its business, products, and services.
• Enable greater societal resilience by increasing awareness of climate-related diseases and health impacts within the workforce and the broader ecosystem.

Reason 2: Companies operating at the intersection of health and climate have the opportunity to contribute to solutions. These include financial institutions and service providers, food, beverage, and agriculture (FBA) companies, and information and communications technology (ICT) companies.

What business can do

• Create mechanisms to respond to climate-related events more effectively, amplify positive impact on health, and enable resilience. For instance, the food industry can ensure proper food supply, the financial services sector can develop new products and services to help individuals manage the health-related effects of climate, and artificial intelligence and big data companies can develop and commercialize technologies and solutions to understand, map, and anticipate the impacts of climate change on health.
• Collaborate across industries to build effective solutions and scale impact. The ICT sector can be a source of innovation and a partner for other industries to create new models and solutions that address the rising threats posed by climate to public health.
• Collaborate and create industrywide information, positions, and potentially voluntary standards to define what climate and health mean at a sector level. In particular, the healthcare (see below), FBA, financial services, and ICT sectors can recognize their roles and responsibilities and bring more resilience to reach greater impact.

Reason 3: Healthcare companies have a critical role to play. For this sector, the notion of resilience is central, as these companies must stay in business and ensure continuity to be able to supply drugs and health solutions to patients.

What business can do

• Adapt quality-assurance systems, risk-management structures, and supply chain management practices to address climate-related risks and opportunities. For pharmaceutical companies, this should start with mapping the portfolio and identifying the products and services that are most likely to be affected by a changing climate.
• Invest in R&D to develop new drugs and/or delivery models that provide solutions to climate-related diseases. This can build climate and health resilience in tandem.

After decades of progress on global health, climate change is posing a new threat—one that could be devastating for humanity. The negative impacts of climate change on health are already palpable, and they are likely to increase drastically. Business has a clear role to play: Not only can companies mitigate climate change to prevent negative health impacts, they can leverage their assets, products, services, and innovation to provide solutions that reduce climate-related burdens on health.

There is room for companies across the ecosystem to build climate resilience and benefit health, and BSR encourages business to seize these opportunities.

BSR’s climate and health nexus report is the second in our series, which launched this week with our climate and supply chain report. Stay tuned for more on the connections between climate resilience and inclusive economy, women’s empowerment, human rights, and a just transition to the low-carbon economy in the months to come.