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Chicken of the Sea is a popular canned tuna brand, and Americans just adore its tuna. But there are big problems associated with that little can of tuna, as a recent Greenpeace campaign highlights.

Greenpeace just launched a global campaign against Thai Union Group (TUG), the world’s largest canned company, which owns Chicken of the Sea. Greenpeace is calling on the company to eliminate labor abuse and fishing practices that cause environmental damage from its supply chains.

Earlier this year, investigations by the New York Times and Associated Press revealed that TUG is connected to environmentally destructive fishing methods, human rights abuses and even forced labor. In the AP’s year-long investigation, Burmese men were interviewed who were taken through Thailand to Indonesia and forced to fish. The fish they caught was shipped to Thailand and sold globally, ending up in grocery stores “such as Kroger, Albertsons and Safeway,” according to the AP.

The New York Times investigation found that labor abuse at sea “can be so severe that the boys and men who are its victims might as well be captives from a bygone era.” In interviews, men who survived forced fishing labor reported horrendous abuses such as “the sick cast overboard, the defiant beheaded, the insubordinate sealed for days below deck in a dark, fetid fishing hold.”

“We can no longer allow Thai Union Group and its brands around the world, including Chicken of the Sea, to sacrifice the world’s oceans and jeopardize workers at sea,” said Greenpeace USA seafood markets lead, Graham Forbes.

“Chicken of the Sea is one of the worst US canned tuna brands on both sustainability and human rights,” Greenpeace USA oceans campaigner, Kate Melges, added. “As the largest brand owned by the largest canned tuna company in the world, Thai Union Group, it’s critical that Chicken of the Sea step up as a leader to ensure its products meet the standards it claims to support. That means working urgently to change to lower-impact fishing methods and guarantee oversight and traceability at sea.”

Last Friday, Greenpeace USA contacted TUG and demanded the company create a work plan and schedule to improve fishing practices and increase oversight and transparency. The environmental group also sent an investor brief to TUG shareholders, which outlined the risks to TUG’s operations, which include:

• The fishing methods used by TUG and its suppliers have serious environmental impacts and reputational risks.


• Forced labor and human rights abuses taint the company’s seafood supply chain and lead to social impacts and reputational risks.

Greenpeace is not the only group to notice a problem in Thailand with human trafficking. The U.S. State Department ranked Thailand at the bottom tier-three level in its annual 2015 Trafficking in Person’s (TIP) report. The report ranks countries in one of three tiers based on their efforts to comply with “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.”

Clearly, it is time for TUG to fix the problems uncovered in its supply chain. Environmental damage and human rights abuses should not be associated with a little can of tuna. As a 2014 report by Fishwise put it, "The time has come for companies to take responsibility for both environmental sustainability and social aspects of their seafood supply chains." By doing so, companies not only improve their public image but make their supply chains more sustainable.

Image credit: Flickr/Mike Mozart

Are you happy at work? Are you engaged with purpose in your work?

We spend 35 percent of our waking lives working. Yet according to Gallup research, just 13 percent of employees are truly engaged in their jobs, which means “involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace.” The remaining 87 percent of employees, reports Gallup, “are either not engaged or indifferent – or even worse, actively disengaged and potentially hostile – to their organizations.”

Last week, TriplePundit received an in-depth introduction to a company that epitomizes engagement and happiness. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, G Adventures is the world’s first and largest adventure travel company, connecting people across the world through responsible group tours that strive to generate positive impact on local communities where it operates. G Adventures can be found atop nearly every recent list released by the Great Places to Work Institute, an internationally regarded global research and consulting organization that meticulously polls employees to report on the world’s best workplaces.

What does happiness look like in business? G Adventures says it all starts with love -- the first of five core values etched boldly across the wall at Basecamp, G Adventures' headquarters in Toronto, Canada. Driven by love, the remainder of the core values include leading (with service), embracing (the bizarre), creating (happiness and community), and doing (the right thing). This is also a central theme in "Looptail," the New York Times bestselling book written by G Adventures’ Founder, Bruce Poon Tip. The book explores the power of a business that prioritizes love in its relationship with employees, customers and communities across the world.

Loving employees

As a unique travel company, G Adventures benefits from an inherently powerful tool to enhance employee engagement by offering each employee one week of free G Adventure-style travel anywhere in the world.

But G Adventures’ leadership cares deeply about how its employees feel during the other 51 weeks of the year. “I want people to love coming to work each day,” Poon Tip states enthusiastically. “[I want to] create a place where people don’t just come to work, but where they feel that they are contributing to something greater. Do that and their work, no matter what it is they do, becomes a calling.” This is especially challenging considering that G Adventures now has nearly 1,200 employees dispersed across 100 countries, representing a diverse array of cultural perspectives and preferences, about 30 percent of whom will never even meet their leader in their entire career.

His first step in this mission was to eliminate the company’s HR department in 2011. The death of HR, commemorated with an ad-hoc funeral at Basecamp, gave rise to two new entities – the Talent Agency, which handles recruiting, and the G Force, whose self-dubbed “Karma Chameleons” organize company events and promote company values through newsletters and broadcasts.

Don’t believe me? Ask the Mayor of G Adventures. That’s right, the company elected a mayor, whose job description, as the face of the G Force, is to spread happiness through the company and around the world. Mayor Dave Holmes explained the philosophy behind his role: “Happy employees are more likely to innovate and breath life into the company … and less likely to burn out. Life is too short not to be happy. We spend so much time in the workplace. Why not be as happy as possible in the workplace?”

Mayor Dave’s love and enthusiasm radiated contagiously through the building as he guided us along a tour that felt more like a theme park than the headquarters of a thriving global company – the same tour he hosts to indulge a variety of companies including the reputed masters of employee engagement at Google. After offering popcorn and ice cream, and challenging me to an arcade game battle of Street Fighter II, he introduced us to a series of conference rooms, each themed according to inspiring figures who have changed the world. We posed with a life-sized cardboard figure of Captain Kirk in the Star Trek room, lounged in cushy airplane seats in the Wright Brothers room, and donned striped hats and goofy wigs in the Dr. Seuss room. Unfortunately the light sabers eluded our grasp, held up securely in the Star Wars room, which was occupied for a meeting with National Geographic Society president and CEO, Gary E. Knell.

Then came our introduction to the Talent Agency, who was busy interviewing a new job candidate in the ball pit. As I reminisced on childhood birthdays spent diving into similar arrangements at Chuck E. Cheese's, the candidate spun a large Crown and Anchor wheel on the wall, which clicked ominously to a landing upon her next interview question: "How much of the theme song from 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' can you remember? Prove it." We watched in awe as she proceeded to do so without skipping a beat … in Spanish. The idea is to make sure the recruit is a good fit to contribute to company culture.

As we walked through the office, we were greeted warmly by members of each team, who graciously set their work aside and gushed about their respective roles in the company. It was not surprising to learn that staff turnover at G Adventures is a mere 5 percent annually, compared with the travel industry average of 35 percent.

Their happiness, we learned, is derived from a code that ensures four conditions which should be applied to both work and life: Freedom, the ability to grow, being connected and being part of something bigger than themselves. Poon Tip details his theory on management in "Looptail":

“I believe that if businesses what to want to be both sustainable and successful, they have to infuse their organizations with passion and purpose, as a way to engage the people inside the business, which will in turn engage people outside of it.”

Loving customers

Customer satisfaction ratings at G Adventures consistently register around 99 percent. Keep in mind that these numbers are based on a 50-percent customer response rate from more than 110,000 travelers per year.

Inspired by Disney, Poon Tip aspires to create a similar kind of magic by providing an immersive, transformational experience for his customers. “We lead people out of their comfort zones and into a place that is so different from anything they’ve ever experienced. For that moment, they are free and open to anything – whether it’s food, culture, music, or the outdoors. They become receptive to having a life-changing experience.”

The product in itself is transformative, however Poon Tip refers to G Adventures’ ongoing relationship with its customers as the transcendence of the business. “We pride ourselves on our ability to have a full ongoing dialog with our customers without even talking about the product.” One recent example was the outpouring of donations from customers and fans of more than $200,000 raised for relief efforts in the days following Nepal’s devastating earthquake.

The Incite Team, G Adventures’ in-house group of customer advocates, is tasked with understanding customers and collecting stories to improve connection with travelers. They are also the givers of ‘Random Acts of G,’ which empower every customer-facing employee with executive authority to shower customers with gifts and provide for customers’ needs. Tales of abound of special gifts given to loyal customers, including emergency packages mailed to sick customers. These customer service champions operate under mottos like “people will always remember how you made them feel," “we’re only as good as our next unsatisfied customer” and “if we don’t love and take care of our customers, someone else will.”

"Looptail" captures the company’s principles perfectly: “Happiness is about creating a movement, one that revolves around finding your happiness through the happiness of other people. This is a very powerful thing, to bring a group of people together and to motivate them to truly believe that their individual well-being revolves around what they can do for others.” In the case of G Adventures, “other people” live in communities dispersed across the world, to far corners often overlooked by multinational business and most of humanity.

Loving communities across the world

Out of every $100 spent on vacation by a tourist from a developed country, only $5 stays in the destinations economy. For 25 years, G Adventures has led a movement to transform the travel industry’s historically destructive effects on local communities, with a model that supports local businesses and seeks to maximize positive impact on the people who call these places home. In addition to carefully constructing responsible trips, G Adventures launched a nonprofit called Planeterra, which is funded by a mix of company profits and donations from customers with the mission to improve people’s lives by creating and supporting social enterprises that bring underserved communities into the tourism value chain.

Last week, G Adventures unveiled its ’50 in 5 Campaign’ -- a five-year plan to integrate 50 new social enterprise projects into its trips by 2020. This commitment will add to the 25 already existing projects to ensure that by the end of 2020, over 90 percent of G Adventures travelers will have the option to visit one or more of these projects on their tours.

In an exclusive interview, Planeterra Foundation president and VP of sustainability at G Adventures, Jamie Sweeting, touched on the recent success of such projects and their potential for future impact. Sweeting described projects ranging from support of locally-owned restaurants with training and investment to building and expanding carefully selected, high-impact organizations.

One of the most successful projects is what Sweeting called a “tourismification” and expansion of an already established and effective nonprofit in New Delhi, India, called Women on Wheels. Planeterra has invested significant resources in training and vehicles to expand an organization that empowers disadvantaged women to become drivers in the travel industry, while providing safe transport for female travelers.

Sweeting also shed light on Planeterra’s leadership in measuring the impact of travel on local communities, not only for G Adventures tours, but the industry more broadly. “Within our project with the Inter-American Development Bank, we developed a brand new way of monitoring and evaluating the impact of tourism enterprises. We’re also working with Sustainable Travel International to pilot the impact monitoring calculator and ground truth their methodology so that they can roll out for companies like Hilton and Royal Caribbean to use.” G Adventures' investment in Planeterra means that it's impact on communities is limited only by the company's potential to scale.

Last week, G Adventures celebrated its 25th anniversary with an announcement that will enable the company to expand its reach and spread its happiness exponentially across the world -- a partnership with one of the world's most iconic brands -- National Geographic. Beginning Dec. 15, National Geographic and G Adventures will release an initial lineup of 70 trips in a joint effort to make global travel more accessible, authentic, meaningful and sustainable, creating a happier and more interconnected world.

Poon Tip’s book, and the G Adventures' logo, was named for the belief that good karma “looptails” back to its source. It is a fitting image for a company founded by a 22-year-old who survived for three years by eating falafel and Doritos and maxing out multiple credit cards with a dream to change the world through travel. Twenty-five years later, that same company has grown to over $320 million in revenue, all in its mission to spread happiness around the world. Only karma will tell how happiness will looptail back to G Adventures in the 25 years to come.

Image credits: G Adventures, used with permission

More companies are aggressively pursuing what they describe as more attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR) for a bevy of reasons. More evidence suggests that a bolder CSR agenda can improve a company’s brand reputation and even boost its stock price. There is also the awareness that consumers are more discerning about the companies from which they buy goods and services. The result, of course, is that more companies, often guided by their external public relations consultants, are also more aggressive in building a perception than actually delivering on performance.

Therefore, a recent report on CSR rankings, recently released by the Reputation Institute, offers some compelling insights and plenty of room for debate. Like many rankings — all of which are open to interpretation — this report should spark discussion of who is on it as much as who is omitted or ranked toward the bottom 100. The top 10 is full of surprises, starting with the No. 1 company, Amazon.

Amazon’s position at the top of this listing will certainly raise eyebrows considering the company’s longstanding reputation as an opaque carbon emitter and this summer’s New York Times’ article on its alleged “bruising” work environment. But the online retail giant, which also has a sterling reputation for developing its (non-warehouse) employees, is now dabbling in clean energy. And let’s face it: The company has an ingenious business model that no one else out there has been able to come close to replicating.

So, it is important to keep in mind that this particular report is based on questions asked to the general public: 55,000 ratings during the first quarter of this year, according to Reputation Institute. The questions were centered on “trust, admiration and respect, good feeling, and overall esteem.” If a consumer knows his or her Amazon package consistently arrives with minimal hassle, those emotions toward the company will naturally rank high. Those scores remained high, in fact, even after the fallout that resulted from the Times article.

Meanwhile, Subway’s CSR reputation, according to the survey, took a nosedive due to the public relations hit it took after its spokesperson, Jared Fogle, was arrested on child pornography and prostitution charges. Lurid as those details were, that episode should hardly reflect on the company’s performance, whether one’s feelings about that company hovered in positive or negative territory.

So overall, the volume of questions asked is impressive and is a data mine for marketers. But when it comes to substance, this report is wanting, as in the assessment of Subway. After all, one or two bad, even hideous, sub-human apples at Subway has no bearing on how the company treats and pays its employees, sources its ingredients or works with its franchisees to improve its social performance.

And that is what makes Reputation Institute’s data stand out, as well as raise questions about the direction in which corporate social responsibility wants to go. Is this a movement that is truly about helping companies clean up their act when it comes to people in the planet, or one more concerned with good storytelling?

The value in Reputation Institute’s survey, however, is where perception and reality align. For example, many CSR advocates would agree with the high rankings of Levi Strauss and Panera Bread. UPS, Harley-Davidson, Campbell Soup Company and FedEx, firms that are also frequency mentioned in the CSR and sustainability space,  also appear in the top 25 of this listing. Yet other companies that have long been actively engaged in social and environmental responsibility, but are not necessarily well known by the public, rank relatively low. SAP and Unilever (which is less well-known here in the U.S. than abroad) are a couple companies that come to mind when combing through this report.

Reputation Institute is correct in stating that “reputation is an emotional bond” that engenders consumer loyalty and respect. Nevertheless, a track record is also important, and that is where this report could use more heft. Would these scores have been the same if survey participants had known about some of the well-documented actions of some of these highly ranked companies? While it is important to know what is important to consumers as they decide what comprises a responsible company, it is also important to hold companies accountable. Surveys such as those completed by Reputation Institute risk coming across as little more than popularity contests—and give companies more cover to engage in actions most of us would characterize as far from responsible.

Image credit: Reputation Institute

Editor's Note: This post originally appeared on Business Fights Poverty's Community blog.

By Zahid Torres-Rahman

There was a tangible excitement in the air last month as the international community gathered in New York to usher in the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the ambitious new vision for ending poverty and protecting our planet.

Beyond the audacious scope of the goals, something else is happening that is perhaps even more significant: a disruption in the model for how they will be delivered. Rather than being the preserve of governments and the traditional development community, everyone is being invited to take responsibility for their success. The sheer scale of what is needed means that each one of us – whether in government, civil society or business – must play a role.

To be effective, we must each play to our strengths. For business, that means looking to our core business models, products and services and unleashing a new wave of innovation and creativity. As Peter Drucker has famously said: “Every single social and global issue of our day is a business opportunity in disguise.”

And here’s the exciting part – more and more businesses and entrepreneurs are turning their sights to helping solve some of the world's greatest challenges – whether that’s access to clean energy, affordable irrigation or financial services.

One sign that a revolution is coming is the rapid growth in the number of Certified B Corporations (also known as B Corps) – a new type of company that explicitly uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. Already close to 1,500 companies from 130 industries in over 40 countries have met the rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.

This week B Corp certification is being launched in the UK, and I’m very proud to say that Inspiris – the for-purpose company behind Business Fights Poverty – will be one of the founding B Corps. As a Certified B Corp, Inspiris joins the prestigious ranks of companies like Ben and Jerry’s, Patagonia and ClimateCare.

Social purpose has been at the heart of Inspiris ever since we set it up nearly 10 years ago. Over the years we have focused on building networks and partnerships at the interface of business and development – starting with Business Action for Africa, and more recently creating Business Fights Poverty as the focus for our efforts to strengthen the ecosystem for all those working to harness business for social impact.

The success of the SDGs will rely in very large part on bold, purpose-driven innovators around the world, whether within large companies or small start-ups, who will see the world’s remaining social challenges as the world’s biggest business opportunities, and take massive action to solve them.

At Inspiris, we ultimately want to help build a global movement of these individuals who are using business as a force for good. Becoming a Certified B Corp is a special moment for us in our own journey. Not only does it help us transparently communicate our social mission and core values, but it will help accelerate our own efforts to scale the creative revolution that is already underway.

Graphic credit: Inspiris
Zahid Torres-Rahman is founder of Business Fights Poverty and co-founder of Inspiris.

 

By Graham Sinclair

Just in time for Matt Damon's new blockbuster, "The Martian," this week NASA announced there's liquid water on Mars. But not a lot. In sustainable investment, US$6.2 trillion is a tsunami of money, but it's not enough. Today trillions of dollars are being managed with 'sustainability inside,' based on self-reported, unverified, voluntary disclosures by investors globally. For many in the investment industry, it's both inspiring and a little bewildering. The number keeps growing, but what’s in the number is not exactly clear.

Sustainable investment can be defined as “an approach to investment in any asset class where environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are proactively integrated at any stage of the investment lifecycle” (@SinCoESG 2014). In the last decade of making the investment case for sustainability, the quality and quantity of ESG in investment practice has increased. How big? There’s a few ways to describe it.

In the USA alone, the industry trade group U.S. SIF Foundation research with Croatan Institute, Report on US Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing Trends 2014, counted “sustainable, responsible and impact (SRI)” investment at US$6.2 trillion in U.S.-domiciled assets at Dec. 31, 2013 by 480 institutional investors, 308 money managers and 880 community investment institutions, making up about 18 percent of US$36.8 trillion professionally managed assets tracked by Cerulli Associates, a data aggregator.

In early September 2015, over 1,000  investors and their advisors met in London for #PRIinPerson 2015. The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) counts 286 asset owners (like pension funds, family offices, foundations and endowments) and 905 investment managers (from majors like Blackrock to boutiques like Futuregrowth) with US$59 trillion assets under management (AuM). At the PRI launch in 2006 at the NYSE the original cohort included $4 trillion AuM. An alternative view, using just the lens of carbon footprinting, US$95 trillion AuM by 822 investors in aggregate is signed on to CDP investor support letters.

Other measures of sustainability in investment may be gauged with alternative initiatives and market sizing: Bloomberg ESG reported customers using ESG data increased 76 percent in 2014. The number of portfolios and the size of assets being managed has increased.  But it is also fair to say some of this reported growth is market re-sizing attributable to improved measurement of the self-reporting market participants. Not every cent of every dollar reported to PRI or CDP or US SIF by money managers has sustainability inside. As Volkswagen so dramatically chose to remind us in #DieselGate, anything self-reported or self-regulated may be fraudulent. Let’s keep an asterisk at the end of these big numbers (US$6.2* trillion), to remind us of the self-reported, unverified, voluntary, mixed methods reporting. Greenwashing (false environmental claims like “green SUV” or “clean coal”) and bluewashing (ditto while wrapped within UN-type initiatives like the UN Global Compact) is real and happens.

In fact as ESG demand growth from individuals and institutions may encourage more firms to "put lipstick on the pig and get it out the door", inflating their sustainability credentials. It is a sober reminder we need in the week after the promises of the Sustainable Development Goals lightened up the news cycle, The Late Show and the UN Manhattan headquarters. Trillions of dollars are today invested in the sustainable investment theme. As the regular culling of PRI signatories attests, investment firms are not above signing up then failing to show up. The ESG strategies, technologies, intentions and impacts differ. Most are making best efforts, but others are faking it. Or “Doing a VWdiesel” (too soon?!). Trust but verify.

The trillion dollar numbers in sustainable investment are new, and impressive. But like filming celebrities at a movie launch instead of taking it all in, it was not always so. For the general investing public in the largest investment market, the first available collective investment scheme was the mutual fund Pax World Fund, launched in the U.S. on August 10, 1971 with $101,000 in assets. Today, while the big number is the market of self-reported ESG integration, a niche of investment portfolios put “sustainability” on their labels.

Increased demand and reduced costs of investment data has seen growth in branded sustainability investments, for example Pax Global Women Global Index Fund or RobecoSAM Water Fund. The increased product supply means financial planners and asset allocators needed third party guidance on funds, dodging the pain of their own detailed due diligence. In 2015 the investment portfolio monitoring firm Morningstar rolled out fund-level ESG ratings using data by Sustainalytics, one of the global majors in ESG ratings, headquartered in The Netherlands. Former UBS brand Julius Baer, now a standalone private bank, will be the first client to license the ESG scores for its own funds research. At the end of September, France announced it has rolled out a SRI label.

I have my doubts about how to interpret the sustainability footprint when a multitude of ESG factors is distilled into one rating: many issues in each company rolls up into many issues in a portfolio. Like all investment decisions, it wraps into one rating or score. The tyranny of decisions lies in simplification. Make no mistake, the appeal of the simplification is undeniable. But is the ESG of your portfolio like the color you’re left with when your toddler mixes all the colors of PlayDoh into one big ball? It is unclear how Morningstar will cover these internal dynamics and portfolio mechanics.

Sustainable investment is an evolving field, with innovations being added like social impact bonds (SIBs) since 2008 or labelled “green bonds” since 2007 (see TriplePundit, Sept. 29). Our experience shows that even the best investment firms, while having good key investment disciplines and departments, struggle to integrate ESG factors and develop sustainability factors where the culture and resources are misaligned.

The growth in sustainable investment is significant. But as Marketplace's Kai Rysdal would say, let's not cue up the "happy music". The growth in sustainable investment is substantive, yes, but it overstates matters to say this advanced form of investment is the “new normal”. In general, most investors or businesses or governments do not talk and act as if the low-carbon economy is inevitable, irreversible, and irresistible. For a useful recap, watch the 2 Degrees Investing Initiative carbon metrics day from May 2015 in Paris. The reality is that investors continue to invest as if 2 degrees Celsius will have no effect. In reality we should expect 6 degrees Celsius.

We have more information flowing, but are firms on track? CDP reported “[s]eventy-eight per cent of the largest 500 publicly listed companies now report their carbon emissions" in 2015. Investors are starting to make their portfolio companies count their externalities. But none of these are being mapped to the goal of zero emissions. Mark Carney, the Bank of England leader described how climate change can affect financial stability in a watershed speech at Lloyds of London on 29 September 2015. Bottom line: “A framework for firms to publish information about their climate change footprint, and how they manage their risks and prepare (or not) for a 2 degree world, could encourage a virtuous circle of analyst demand and greater use by investors in their decision making." How long until all investors (and all their portfolio companies) invest every cent toward a 2 degree horizon?

US$6.2 trillion is not enough -- especially if every one of TriplePundit’s loyal readers cannot in this moment be sure their money is investing as if the future matters. Sustainable investment needs your voice as a client. Have you asked your investment advisor where your money is invested, and what process is used to get there? Every cent needs to be invested on the 2C vector. "Send the right signals" was the consistent refrain in keynote speeches at the PRI event from both HRH Prince Charles (Princess Diana’s ex-husband) and the CEO of Pimco, one of the largest fixed income investment managers. Having investors back an initiative can have real results. From a small base, sustainable investment continues to grow. And grow. We need more.

Image credit: NASA

Graham Sinclair is Principal at SinCo LLC – Sustainable Investment Consulting LLC. Connect with him @ESGarchitect orLinkedIn.com/GrahamSinclair.

It is better known as the $33 billion company selling assemble-it-yourself furniture, but Ikea also runs a lucrative food business. Anyone in a major metropolitan area who has shopped at an Ikea has returned home with not only DIY shelving that was missing a bolt or screw, but also a jar of its lingonberry jam — along with that toothpaste tube of salmon spread that occupies a forgotten corner of the fridge. Although food comprises only 5 percent of Ikea’s sales annually, we are still talking about a copious amount of crispbread, pasta and seafood that the retailer sells throughout the 47 nations in which it conducts business.

And it is seafood where Ikea has made a move that should nudge other retailers to follow. The company recently announced that all of the 23 species of seafood sold in its stores now only come from sources certified by the Marine Stewardship Council or Aquaculture Stewardship Council. So, whether you are dining in the cobalt blue and canary yellow Ikea café or are taking home some frozen salmon fillets, Ikea is promising products that are not only more environmentally responsible, but are produced and packaged in decent working conditions as well.

Ikea claims this shift offers a change for what it says are its 600 million customers across the world. That impressive number may be a stretch — after all, many of its customers want to hurry out of an Ikea after spending a chaotic day mired within its showrooms. Nevertheless, Ikea’s new seafood policy could send a positive message to customers in emerging markets such as Turkey, Thailand and the Middle East Gulf States, where food certification of any sort is still a novelty.

This news follows other announcements that Ikea has made this year as it has striven to become a more sustainable operation. Ikea’s Billy bookcases are only surpassed in the number of fans by its Swedish meatballs (after all, the latter are often the only reason why some people even enter an Ikea), but now vegan meatballs are available at many of the chain's cafeterias. Organic coffee is also on the company’s menu. And when it comes to Ikea’s lucrative linens business, the company says it is working to mitigate its environmental impact through its partnership with the Better Cotton Initiative. Finally, the company has evolved on lighting. Once responsible for making CFLs more affordable and accepted by the public, Ikea has phased out those light bulbs and currently sells only LEDs.

With the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimating that 90 percent of the world’s fish stocks either fully- or over-exploited, retailers have a crucial role in educating customers that they need to do their part and make more responsible food choices. Ikea’s shift proves that being sustainable can also be profitable without compromising on quality, while enhancing its overall brand reputation.

Image credit: Ikea

By Chuck Cohn

The typical workplace no longer contains a sea of cubicles and conference rooms. Instead, workplace communication software, such as Slack and Basecamp, allows the modern workplace to be an airport, a coffee shop, a home office, or any other location with an Internet connection. From 2005 to 2012, the number of people who worked remotely rose by nearly 80 percent.

This doesn’t mean workplace productivity has decreased. In fact, it’s done nearly the opposite. The explosive growth of cloud software, productivity apps, and mobile devices enables team members to communicate with one another 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from almost anywhere in the world. With this increase in accessibility comes an increased responsibility for leaders to provide a supportive, nurturing, and challenging work environment.

Ultimately, leaders must find ways to provide a sense of autonomy and responsibility for their staff members while still guiding team operations. Paradoxically, the ability to properly strike this balance cannot rely solely on the tool we all frequently turn to for assistance: technology.

Technology alone can’t manage people

Technology has undoubtedly played a role in creating a more efficient workplace, but leading a team requires a human touch. There are several reasons technology must be used with care:

1. Typed conversations lack some depth. Management technologies often rely on the written word, but it can be subject to broad interpretation, which may cause communication issues. It’s impossible to read tone or body language through text alone, and without these indicators, individuals can easily misconstrue messages.

If your team is constantly traveling, try investing in a phone system like Grasshopper. While it might take longer to hold a phone conference than shoot a quick email, you won’t leave your words up for interpretation. Your inflections will be crystal-clear, and you can clear up confusion in real time.

2. Poor use of technology can waste time. We spend a lot of time with our noses in our inboxes. On average, executives spend 1.5 hours a day writing emails. Multiply this figure across an entire company, and you may be losing hundreds of hours in productivity.

Cut email time by using task management software. If you’re emailing reminders to your team all day, why not set up recurring tasks? Try software such as Flow, which allows you to create tasks that relay due dates, project details, and more. Nothing beats in-person communication, but task management apps are much better than emailing tasks all day.

3. Mentorship can’t only happen on-screen. Face-to-face mentorship is still a crucial component of workplace success. People who were tutored on a one-on-one basis performed two standard deviations higher than those taught in a traditional classroom setting. Similarly, managers who personalize their mentorship to each staff member will help the company more than if they just assign tasks through a professional development platform.

If someone you’re mentoring is in a different city or country, it might be worth meeting him or her in person. Plane tickets aren’t cheap, but the results from spending a little time together in person will be well worth the effort and money. As one of the most important things you do, mentorship shouldn’t be relegated to Skype or email alone.

4. Technology is only as good as the person piloting it. It’s absolutely essential that you expend the time and energy training your staff on how to use any new technology your business implements. If those on the front lines of your company are fumbling over technology in front of customers, you may lose out on sales.

Jill Mizrachy, a senior director at national consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, knew that both training and communication were key to the rollout of the company’s new cloud-based computer system. First, Mizrachy worked with a communications specialist to develop the right message for her staff, explaining exactly how the new system would ease their workload. Mizrachy also selected senior team members to lend a human touch and any necessary assistance while staff became comfortable with the new software.

Once the software went live, Mizrachy ensured the team had a host of training options, including live demonstrations, online tutorials, and an interactive social media tool. Each staff member could choose the option that worked best for his or her learning style. Mizrachy’s strategy worked because she incorporated a human touch at every milestone on the path to the final goal.

Above all, avoid implementing new technology for technology’s sake alone. The right apps, devices, and software should help you achieve your company’s mission and vision rather than complicate that pursuit. With the right technology in hand, you can ensure all your team members receive the tools and human interaction they need to succeed and help you grow your business.

Image credit: Pixabay

Chuck Cohn is the CEO and founder of Varsity Tutors, the leading curated marketplace for private tutors. The company also builds mobile learning apps, online tutoring environments, and other tutoring and test prep-focused technologies.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has launched a new project in Africa as part of its global CSR programme.

In its ambition to reduce the environmental impact of its vehicles and operations, the motoring giant's global approach was launched in 2013 as part of its ‘Environmental Innovation’ strategy. The programme invests in education, technology, health, wellbeing and environmental projects which will positively impact 12 million people’s lives by 2020. 

Working with partners ClimateCare and Vestergaard, JLR is investing in a new smart water filtration technology project called LifeStraw that will provide over 300,000 pupils in 375 schools across Bungoma County with safe water. The project will run for the next five years, helping improve students’ health, education and employment prospects.

Teams of LifeStraw staff will visit the schools each term to see that they are used correctly and to carry out further education, as part of a robust monitoring process. During the launch week, a team of seven Jaguar Land Rover employees from the UK and South Africa participated in the distribution as part of the company's employee volunteering programme, visiting schools across the region to gain a deep insight into the LifeStraw safe water for schools programme.

Nigel Clarke, operations director of Jaguar Land Rover Sub-Saharan Africa said: “Africa is a key growth market for us. By supporting the provision of appropriate and effective water purifier technology we are creating opportunities for over 300,000 schoolchildren in western Kenya – giving them the opportunity for a better education and greater opportunity to learn and excel. By 2020, we will create opportunities for three million people in Africa, which will reaffirm our commitment to grow our global business sustainably and responsibly."

Adidas is kicking off a new research project to develop a new type of sporting goods that will never be thrown away.

Through Sport Infinity, a European Commission funded research project led by the German sports goods giant, designers and football fans will be able to constantly reimagine and recycle their dream products using an inexhaustible 3-D super-material, says Adidas.

The research project brings together a variety of industry and academic experts, and combines broken-down sports products with excess materials from other industries.

As a result, the football boots of the future could contain everything from carbon used in aircraft manufacturing to fibres of the boots that scored during the World Cup, maintains the company.

Indeed, every gram of sportswear, including the boots of Lionel Messi, will be broken down to be remoulded again in a waste-free, adhesive-free process that gives consumers more scope for personalisation than ever before.

Four-time FIFA Ballon d’Or winner Messi said: “I am proud that Adidas is working to make sure that all of their boots, including mine, are being made in a way that protects the environment. For me, this is the future of football.”

Adidas says that the new super-material will make every sports fan a product designer with a pair of boots being able to be restyled as often as the wearer wants without worrying about waste.

Gerd Manz, vice president technology innovation at Adidas, said: “This is a game-changing development for football fans. Over the next three years, Sport Infinity aims to end the days of throwing away football boots. Instead, every pair of boots is not just recycled but reimagined to the consumer’s most personal specifications.”

Glenn Bennett, executive board member global operations at the Adidas Group, added: “Sport Infinity is the next step in our commitment to innovation and sustainability.

“This project will close the sustainability loop, creating a high-performance product that can always be recycled.” 

Consortia-based partnerships between companies and NGOs are set to become more common, as organisations look for greater impact and reach, according to a report by C&E Advisory.

What’s stood out for Manny Amadi, ceo of C&E, the company behind the annual Barometer report – now in its sixth year - is how relationships between corporates and NGOs are impacting in more substantive ways. For example, collaborative partnerships are helping NGOs achieve their missions. “It’s gone beyond simple advocacy,” Amadi tells Ethical Performance.

A good example is the Boots and Macmillan partnership where prior to the partnership Macmillan was only reaching 1:3 of UK cancer sufferers. To get that much closer to 3:3, Macmillan is now on the British high street through Boots with 2,000 Boots pharmacists trained in cancer care.

NGOs are beginning to understand the true potential of partnerships and their impact, says Amadi: “They are beginning to wake up to what other assets a business can offer.”

The report reveals notable growth in the number of organisations whose partnerships portfolios fall within the £5m-£10m range (10% year on year). Corporates and NGOs continue to better understand the potential to deliver objectives in non-financial ways. Sixty percent of NGO respondents now realise the impact that partnerships can have by harnessing corporates’ competencies (up 12% on the 2014 figure). Seventy-one percent of business respondents are aware of ways in which their businesses may be more effective than through financial support alone.

Amadi believes that the message is getting through as a result of economic necessity where resources are tighter and NGOs are looking to use their resources more effectively. “Another driver is the fact that there are some pretty visible success stories out there (such as Oxfam and M&S),” he says.

Another major theme of this year’s results, emphasizes Amadi, is that more businesses – two thirds in fact – are valuing the partnerships for the NGO’s influence in helping to change its general business practices. They are seeing the material value of the relationship in helping the business’ sustainability goals. “The Oxfam/M&S relationship is another good example of this, in that not only has it helped M&S recycle over 20m garments (through its Schwopping initiative) - so you could see this as part of its waste management strategy - but it has also learned a lot on supply chain management from Oxfam through its work in emerging markets,” Amadi explains.

The third striking element of the Barometer 2015 is the growth in consortia-based partnerships such as collectively.org. This concerns multi-lateral relationships such as the Tesco, British Heart and Diabetes UK partnership. Amadi says they are growing because they have greater scale and greater reach. However, they present inherent challenges such as their complexity and they can be slow to build momentum.

“As the responsible business agenda matures, what’s clear is what makes collaborations work is that the company and the NGO are both focused and strategic,” says Amadi.

Almost two-thirds of all respondents are currently involved in multi-organisational corporate–NGO agreements, and the majority of respondents (77%) see consortia-based partnerships increasing in importance over the next three years.

When asked what factors were most likely to make consortia-based partnerships more important, more than 86% of all corporate respondents and 80% of NGOs point to ‘the greater combined scale and reach all partners can bring to address a common issue’.
Other highly rated factors included value and impact (cited by 78% of corporate and 57% of NGO respondents) along with specialist know-how and networks (stated by 69% of corporate and 61% of NGO respondents).

As part of the Barometer research, corporate and NGO practitioners were invited to vote for the partnerships and partners they most admire. Notably, a consortium-based partnership appeared in the top 3 for the first time: a new entrant on the corporate–NGO partnership scene, the Tesco/ Diabetes UK/ British Heart Foundation consortium.

This multi-lateral collaboration was launched in early 2015 and sees Tesco, Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation working together to help prevent Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Jenna Hall, Programme Director at Tesco National Charity Partnership commented: “We are delighted to hear that the National Charity Partnership has been recognised as one of the top three most admired partnerships in the industry, especially as we only launched at the beginning of 2015. The partnership will see all three partners working together to deliver targeted prevention projects across the UK to help prevent Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and aims to raise an ambitious £30 million.

“Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation are the leading charities for people with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, so by using our expertise and the reach and scale of Tesco, this collaboration gives us a unique chance to reach out to our target audiences through their touch points to highlight the importance of leading a healthy and active lifestyle.

“It’s great to see that so many well respected organisations have highlighted that our groundbreaking consortium model of working together to inspire change is a model they believe will be the future for corporate partnerships.”

The C&E Corporate–NGO Partnerships Barometer is available for download here.