The Sustainability Learning Forum

Lead by Example

Jeffrey Revels, TMS Group
TMS Group

The purpose of the venture between TMS and its key customers is to provide a working strategy to implement the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI). The key is a partnership in respecting human dignity, managing risk, and maximizing the opportunities in the supply chain by taking a proactive and ethical approach. more[...]

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FIT5 - Factory Improvement Training in China

Dagny Buehler-Thierfelder, TÜV Rheinland Holding
Sherin Lin, TÜV Rheinland Holding
TÜV Rheinland Holding

TÜV Rheinland Group in Shenzhen and CSR Asia, in collaboration with the German not-for-profit organization InWEnt gGmbH (Capacity Building International, Germany), have developed this multi-supplier training program linking productivity, quality management, CSR and the essential basic rights with respect to selected ILO standards, Chinese labor law and workplace conditions. more[...] login_required

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FIT5 - Factory Improvement Training in China

Sherin Lin, TÜV Rheinland Holding
TÜV Rheinland Holding
Dagny Buehler-Thierfelder, TÜV Rheinland Holding

TÜV Rheinland Group in Shenzhen and CSR Asia, in collaboration with the German not-for-profit organization InWEnt gGmbH (Capacity Building International, Germany), have developed this multi-supplier training program linking productivity, quality management, CSR and the essential basic rights with respect to selected ILO standards, Chinese labor law and workplace conditions. more[...]

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Self-assessment Regarding Respect for Human Rights

Christian Coutin, SEB Groupe
Marianne Tisserand, SEB Groupe
SEB Groupe

As world economies become globalized, the new challenge is to ensure that multinational corporations can be held accountable not only for the impact of their activities on human beings but also for their respect of Human Rights. To date, there is no supranational legal institution with the appropriate means to enforce human rights in a mandatory way. Companies that agree to assume responsibility do so voluntarily. But for an international firm, ensuring that Human Rights are respected can be quite difficult. The standards developed to protect people’s rights were originally drafted for states, so additional practical steps are required to apply those standards to companies and to develop concrete ways to implement and track them within a corporate environment. more[...] login_required

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Silvopastoral Dairy Farming in Southern Colombia

Daniel Suarez, Nestle

Nestlé believes that for a business to be successful in the long term, it must create value not only for its shareholders but also for society, including farmers who play a vital role in local communities across the world. Nestlé calls this Creating Shared Value and focuses efforts in three key areas: nutrition, water, and rural development. more[...]

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Good Agricultural Social Practice for Fruit and Vegetable Farming

Emma Arvidsson, Coop

Corporate social responsibility has become an emerging issue in global food supply chains. Partners involved in the food sector are challenged to find innovative and meaningful approaches to ensure that their agricultural products are produced in line with internationally agreed labor requirements such as the UN Global Compact Principles. more[...] login_required

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Our Commitment Against Child Labour in India

Andreas Streubig, Otto Group
Otto Group

Around the globe, some 300 million children aged between five and fourteen work. In India, 59 million children do not have the chance to go to school. Instead, most of them have to herd goats, crush rocks, collect rubbish, sew sequins onto textile articles, clean the houses of rich families, or do other menial jobs to survive. more[...] login_required

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A Self-Assessment Tool to Accompany Our Suppliers in Their Sustainable Development Approach

Editorial Team

Since more than 15 years, Carrefour has shown its leadership through its commitments (1st French company to build a partnership with WWF to work on environmental issues in 1998, providing its own brand products suppliers with a sustainability self-assessment tool) and its product innovation (1st French retailer to propose a green energy offer at competitive price in 2009, organic healthcare range of own brand products in 2008). more[...] login_required

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A Self-Assessment Tool to Accompany Our Suppliers in Their Sustainable Development Approach

Hélène Jessua
Carrefour Group

Within the framework of its sustainable development approach and its commitment to the respect for the Global Compact Principles regarding the environment (Principles 7, 8, and 9), Carrefour has created a sustainable development self-assessment tool to encourage its suppliers to implement a sustainability approach. Adapted to SMEs, this tool covers all the areas of a company at the social and environmental levels. more[...]

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“1+3”: Building a responsible value chain

Lucy Li Jin Xiu, BASF
BASF SE

In China, there are over 32,000 chemical enterprises and many more if we consider the entire supply chain. Over 90% of the related companies are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which contribute strongly to the overall economic activities of the country but often find it hard to mobilise enough resources to effectively practise sustainable development. Thus, BASF in 2006 initiated a program called “1+3”, which mobilises and supports its partners and suppliers in China to improve their corporate social responsibility (CSR). more[...]

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Carrefour Commits Itself

Hélène Jessua
Carrefour Group

Since 2001, Carrefour Colombia has adhered to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) program for the voluntary, gradual eradication of illicit plantations. In another project, in Bangladesh, the focus is on the workers of controlled products suppliers. Training helps them learn more about their labour and Human Rights. more[...] login_required

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For You, for Us – Carrefour Commits Itself

Hélène Jessua
Carrefour Group

Since 2001, Carrefour Colombia has adhered to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) program for the voluntary, gradual eradication of illicit plantations. In another project, in Bangladesh, the focus is on the workers of controlled products suppliers. Training helps them learn more about their labour and Human Rights. more[...]

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Action In the Supply Chain

Dr. Alexandra Hildebrandt
Arcandor AG

Since the nineties, retailers have been paying more and more attention to social Responsibility in the Supply Chain. As there was extensive agreement on establishing common criteria of their individual procurement guidelines, it was only logical for them to pursue a cooperative effort. Originally under the umbrella of the Foreign Trade Association of the German Retail Trade (AVE), these efforts developed at the European level into the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI). more[...] login_required

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Indigenously Produced Organic Fruit

Gerd Pfitzenmeier

“Without the cooperation with the indigenous people,” Xavier Richard knows, “our company would never have been able to thrive as it has.” Since its establishment in 1987, Amazon Caribbean Ltd. (Amcar) has relied on the efforts of thousands of indigenous people from the Arawack, Warrau and Carib tribes in Guyana. In the jungle of the Barima-Waini Basin, they collect the raw materials for Amcar’s products: hearts of palm and pineapple. “Our mission,” the company states accordingly, “is to generate, in partnership with the people in Guyana, economic value added from naturally growing products.” more[...]

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Conflict Minerals, Rebels and Child Soldiers in Congo

Warlords, soldiers, and child laborers all toil over a mineral you've never even heard of. Coltan is a conflict mineral in nearly every cell phone, laptop, and electronic device. It's also tied to the deaths of over 5 million people in Congo since 1990. more[...]

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