Issue 10: Spring 2016
Being Human
How Can Individuals
Flourish in Business?
Guest Editorial
A
ll of us have the capacity to be compassionate and passionate, inspired and
inspiring, and talented and creative. After all, these are just some of the qualities
behind what it means to ‘be human’. Yet we are operating within an economic construct
composed of organisations in which people spend perhaps a third of their lives
seemingly unable to fully express this humanity.
Moreover, these human qualities are being challenged by the rapid evolution of technology,
increasingly efficient, systemised yet remote organisations and the changing nature of
personal relationships.
At SustainAbility, our purpose is to help business to lead the transition to a sustainable economy.
As George Monbiot points out, there are many reasons for the unsustainable mess in which
we find ourselves. But perhaps at the root of it all has been a disconnect between our economy
and its components with these intrinsic human qualities. Perhaps only when we figure out what
it means to be human in an increasingly systems-driven world – will we find the way forward
towards a sustainable and prosperous future for all.
Many people are thinking about what it means to create a more people-centric economy.
Personally speaking, I have lived with the question of how to bring the fullness of our humanity
to work for some 30 years, and I still don’t know if there is an answer. But I do think it is
increasingly important to explore this concern. That’s why I am delighted to introduce this issue
of Radar on ‘Being Human’ – I hope you enjoy reading it and that it sparks some conversation.
Please get in touch via Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook to let us know your thoughts.
Rob Cameron
@rob_cameron_
SustainAbility CEO working for
just & sustainable future for all
and fairness in trade (when not
rowing, cycling or skiing).
Contents:
Spring 2016
Sustainability’s
The 24th Largest Country:
Less Bias, More Bucks:
New Frontier:
Being Human
The Business Response to
Displacement & Migration
Spotlight on Arabesque
Partners
This is What I Have Learnt:
Cultivating Purpose:
Giving Workers a Voice:
Inge Wallage
Sustainability Innovation
and Employee Engagement
Well-Being in
Supply Chains
Individuals in Business:
Radar Roundtable
Sustainability’s New Frontier:
Being Human
T
he global economy seems to be on a collision course with some of our most
essential human qualities. Is it a problem, and how do we get from a sense of
unease to thinking about a practical response?
The most visible force in our 21st century world is the global economy. In the West and the
wider world that emulates the West, it is both an economy and a society dominated by global
corporations, including the brands by which they are identified and the systems upon which they
depend. Whether as employers of labour and talent, deliverers of goods and services, or beacons
of aspiration, or as the media and communications carriers of human ideas and conversations,
global corporations are now not only seen as the primary definers of material opportunity but
also the providers of the places and events within which human beings express themselves. And
whether as employees or the self-employed, as Facebook friends or shoppers, as buyers or sellers,
as creators, readers, or observers, it is a rare Western or would-be Western human being who
does not find his or her engagement with the world defined, influenced or mediated in some way
by the global corporation.
The Western vortex of the global economy
“
is, in many ways, an astonishing, almost
or her engagement with the world defined,
magnetically drawn. To those living in its
influenced or mediated in some way by the
vortex, however, there is a sense that the
global corporation.
race for economic scale and efficiency may
It is a rare Western or would-be
technologically magical, place: a place
Western human being who does not find his
to which those on the periphery are
”
have triggered a threat to the very art of
being human. As employees, behaviours are
standardised through a training that is
essential to securing and keeping a job; as consumers, conduct is governed by standard terms
and conditions so black and white that negotiation is a technical impossibility and the only truth
is what can be proven online. As more and more human-to-human engagement moves through
the corporation and online, personal identity has become a matter of online registration, privacy
has become a tyranny of lost passwords that lock out their owners, and the myriad messy acts
of day-to-day human encounter are increasingly being replaced by ‘service providers’. (Even the
daily used English language has come to embrace technical corporate terms).
The goals of the global economy are efficiency, scale, an expanded material wealth and
even justice – a ‘better’ global order. The costs, however, have come to include an increasing
suspension of some of the most powerful heart and mind qualities of human beings: of the
humble curiosity which has delivered our greatest knowledge (far wider than the professionally
acknowledged ‘useful’ knowledge); of the empathetic putting of ourselves in another’s shoes
required for true insight and judgement; and of the shame required for moderation and integrity
upon which all human peace and security depends.
Unquantifiable and non-standard, human
empathy is seen as a dangerous failing in
the objective professionality upon which
“
Unquantifiable and non-standard, human
competitive corporate success depends.
empathy is seen as a dangerous failing in the
Inefficient at the scale of the bottom, the
objective professionality upon which competitive
curiosity and innovation of ordinary people
corporate success depends.
(whether as consumers, users or employees)
is being redirected by proprietary software
”
systems that guide the human mind to fit
within the parameters of programmers. And given the importance of uniformity and scalability
to efficiency, human shame has been replaced by the ever-expanding regulations of States that
now follow in the global economy’s wake.
Indeed, the global economy seems to be incubating a new model human: a techno sapiens who
fits him or herself within the greater organising systems of corporations. Even as curiosity,
empathy and integrity appear as pillars of corporate values and branding, on the ground and
incompatible with the harmonies of scale, their practical expression is being narrowed by the
operating system.
While some embrace the brave new world
Title: All Under Heaven: China’s
Dreams of Order
with enthusiasm (seeing the restriction of
Date Published: October, 2015
glitches or as a welcome improvement in
these human qualities either as temporary
efficiency), others sense that the world of
operating systems is not quite what it ought
FIND OUT MORE
to be, even as they note that there doesn’t
seem to be a space to ask any questions (at
least not one with any hope of receiving
anything other than a rather robotic answer).
On the surviving streets, human anger is rising, rage is exploding and, whether on the street or
online, trust is biting the dust.
Racing to keep up with the global competition and the relentless demand for growth, global
corporations are aware that something is not quite right but lack the time and resources even to
frame the question, let alone pursue the answers. While key human rights are clearly addressed
within the sustainable development goals, the art of being human (defying boxes by its nature)
has not found a place in the corporate sustainability order.
Some corporate leaders see artificial
intelligence as a possible solution, offering a
brave new world in which economic growth
“
While key human rights are clearly
can be combined with the submission of
addressed within the sustainable development
technology and its robots to the service of
goals, the art of being human (defying boxes by
man, providing the time and space required
its nature) has not found a place in the corporate
for the human qualities to find their feet
sustainability order.
again. Others privately wonder whether the
human qualities will survive that long and
”
whether, rather, there isn’t an even greater
risk that in the global economy’s accelerated pursuit of an internet of everything, the human
qualities will simply disappear before they can be saved: victims of standardised customer
interfaces, professional goals and corporate training that pride themselves on their objectivity,
and thus on the taming of the inconveniently subjective human questions.
Seen through this perspective, there is strong argument that being human is the next frontier in
the battle for a sustainable world. If this is correct, it will be the most challenging yet. For this is
a challenge that will require the deployment of the very qualities that are under threat – the
curiosity, the empathy and the integrity
that make us human. Equally challenging,
it will require at least a moderation of the
“
There is strong argument that being
absolute values of economic efficiency and
human is the next frontier in the battle for
professional objectivity upon which the
a sustainable world.
global economy has been built. As with
”
climate change, the first step of the challenge
will require the definition of the challenge
itself. Unlike climate change, however,
the usual scientific tools will not be fit for purpose. The description and mapping of the challenge
will require a new language and new tools: words that capture human meaning rather than
professional standards, means of communication that rely far more on subjective stories than on
measurable metrics.
Nearly 2,500 years ago, one of China’s greatest hearts and minds ventured to observe that,
“While all men know of the use of the useful, nobody knows the use of the useless.”1
As we look at the rising chaos of our natural world, we can now easily see the wisdom of his
words. How long will we wait before we understand that what is true of nature is true of being
human too?
Jeanne-Marie Gescher
@tianxiaq
Jeanne-Marie Gescher, OBE is a long-standing
observer of China, a strategist, an advisor and
a deep believer in the importance of being
human for the success of everything, including
the global economy.
1
Zhuang Zhou, in The Zhuangzi, 4th century BCE.
The 24th Largest Country:
The Business Response to
Displacement & Migration
M
ore than a million refugees crossed into Europe in 2015 alone, part of the 50
million refugees worldwide. According to the World Economic Forum, if a country
was created from all the displaced people it would be the 24th largest in the world.
Migration is not new, but the scale in Europe in contemporary times is. It is not the first
refugee crisis – consider Europe after World War II, and situations in the Middle East,
Africa, Latin America and Asia since – only in a higher concentration (largely
by Europe’s own doing) and closer to home.
Only true optimists would say it is the last. Lest we forget, the oldest refugee camp (since 1991)
is a long way from Europe in Dadaab, Kenya, hosting more than 300,000 refugees. While it’s
the latest chapter in a long history of displacement, the ‘choices’ migrants have are still abysmal:
refugee camps, urban poverty and/or dangerous, usually illegal journeys to safety.
The business and moral case for caring about and acting on the ‘crisis’ of refugees and migrants*
in Europe is here and now – and frankly, has been for some time – and will be with us for a
while to come.
But it’s political, many say. This is true – to a point.
Governments and the European Union have been wrangling with what to do, culminating in
an uncertain ‘one in, one out’ deal with Turkey that may endanger migrants. Even the bright
spot in Europe where refugees were most welcome, Germany, has dimmed after challenges with
crime against women that, for some, highlights the tall order of integrating refugees socially
and culturally. Others worry that a warm welcome in Europe incentivises more people to move,
enriching smugglers. Given that many migrants are middle class and collected enough money to
pay high smugglers’ fees, it is a real concern but also testament that migrants are “asking not for
handouts, but for the chance to earn a living.”
Companies are Responding
The repercussions of inaction (i.e. a more unequal, unstable society) are too great for business.
Understanding the dynamics and where business can contribute through its core activities and
strategies, as well as respond effectively in philanthropic ways, will make business more resilient.
Isolating people from mainstream economies and societies cannot be good for business.
I spoke with two companies, IKEA and MasterCard, to get their first-hand views of what the
refugee crisis means for business and what can be done.
“We experienced people literally walking through Serbia,” I heard from Irena Dobosz,
Sustainability, Customer Relations and Communication Manager, IKEA South East Europe, “I’m
very proud that IKEA mobilised very quickly in all affected countries,” she added, explaining
that IKEA everywhere has projects supporting local communities as part of delivering on the
company’s vision of ‘a better everyday life’ for people, regardless of where they are.
In the unanticipated circumstances, management’s support was crucial. “All long-term projects
had been budgeted well in advance. This was new and unexpected, but we still got the additional
support and it’s on-going.”
In collaboration with the UN Refugee
“
Agency (UNHCR) and other local
back in their homes, in peace. I am hopeful for
donations in-kind, providing all kinds
them that they can return one day. For those who
of household items and furniture – from
do not or cannot, I hope that they have a real
beds, mattresses and bed linen to baby
option for integration.
items and interactive toys for child-friendly
I believe that refugees most want to be
”
Irena Dobosz, IKEA
organisations, IKEA Retail focused on
areas in refugee camps organised by Unicef
and others. In some countries, consumer
donations are matched (or multiplied) by
IKEA. In many countries, IKEA co-workers
are actively involved. For instance, in Germany, IKEA co-workers are engaged to support
refugees and IKEA donates home goods products, to the point of experiencing a shortage of beds
at one point.
Not only is IKEA’s follow through impressive, but IKEA Foundation has a relatively long history
of action in this area. Since 2010, the company has financially contributed to the UNHCR – €76
million in years recent alone, making IKEA its largest corporate donor – and also supported
Médecins Sans Frontières in Syria and other affected areas. Since 2014, UNCHR and IKEA
Foundation have also partnered to run the Brighter Lives for Refugees cause-related marketing
campaign to raise funds. For every LED light bulb (and later lamps as well) sold during the
campaign period, the IKEA Foundation donated €1, which summed up to €30.8 million, to bring
light and renewable energy to refugee camps across Africa, Asia and Middle East. A uniquely
IKEA contribution as ‘masters of flat pack’ is loaning their know-how and design expertise
to housing, developing the social enterprise, Better Shelter (aka ‘IKEA shelter’), to provide
innovative and more effective temporary home solutions.
In combination, the work via IKEA Foundation and the company itself, is powerful. The
company’s response is also evolving to develop pilot internships and work experience
opportunities to more fundamentally support refugees longer term. As Dobosz sees it, “I believe
that refugees most want to be back in their homes, in peace. I am hopeful for them that they
can return one day. For those who do not or cannot, I hope that they have a real option for
integration.” IKEA also recognises the power of collecting and communicating the stories of its
employees, internally and externally, to shift public opinion.
Speaking to Paul Musser of MasterCard, it
was evident that the company’s actions in a
“
There is shared value in being engaged
crisis like this one are deeply rooted in the
”
before, during and after a humanitarian crisis.
Shared Value model the company adopted
several years ago. “There is shared value in
Paul Musser, MasterCard
being engaged before, during and after a
humanitarian crisis,” Musser explained. With
the support of the CEO and Vice Chairman,
MasterCard’s International Development Team works to provide solutions based on the
company’s analytics, technology and consulting tools to create systems and processes to advance
financial inclusion. In providing these tools, from digital food vouchers to pre-paid cards, in
response to social and humanitarian challenges, MasterCard sees strategic, long-term value – the
intersection of doing good and doing well.
MasterCard has built a financial infrastructure that enables digital payments for millions
of people to obtain essentials like food or money with organisations like the World Food
Programme in Turkey, Lebanon and beyond. MasterCard views these efforts as a longterm business investment where the products and services offered to the humanitarian and
development community create a foundation for future growth. MasterCard is creating
a sustainable business that NGOs and governments can trust and build into their long-term
practices.
One the greatest benefits that MasterCard contributes to refugees and migrants through digital
payments technology is the social integration it can help enable. With Mercy Corps in Serbia,
pre-paid cards that refugees can use to buy food, healthcare or transportation look no different
from other cards. By not differentiating them, you empower them. Removing the stigma has the
potential to integrate refugees and migrants into our social fabric. At play is both a commitment
to quality products and respect for people. By enabling vulnerable populations to build stronger
communities and begin the path to financial inclusion, MasterCard is also creating potential
users of its mainstream services in the future. In its international development work, MasterCard
asks itself, “How do we meet the market’s needs while also aligning with our vision?”
What Should Business Do?
In addition to learning from the examples highlighted above, how else can business act? Here
is a summary of how we believe companies should be thinking about migrants in Europe or
elsewhere.
•
Act where it is material. Consider how the issue has become material for the fashion
industry. Turkey currently hosts the most refugees in the region and is the third largest
textile exporter to the EU. Combined with estimates of 250-400,000 Syrian refugees
working illegally in Turkey, as reported by the Business and Human Rights Resource
Center, it should come as no surprise that global fashion retailers including H&M, Next,
C&A and Primark are identifying and reporting Syrian refugees working informally
there. The protection of refugee and migrant workers, the majority and most vulnerable
among them women and girls, is paramount. Companies should exert the full power of
their supply chain policies and procedures, appetite to partner, and ability to influence
government as needed to protect vulnerable people from exploitation and abuse – from
trafficking to forced labour to child labour – in supply chains.
•
Use business’ voice and influence. Chobani’s owner, founder, chairman and CEO Hamdi
Ulukaya has been an inspiration on this point and we hope more companies – especially
large, global ones – will follow suit. Corporate forces have the ability through their voice,
as well as their actions, to help recast the political and social debate. This could entail
actual political and policy advocacy (e.g. advocating for migrants to have the right to work,
which they lack in some countries) or apolitical communication of the company’s point
of view and actions to the wider public to try to shift public opinion. Where are signals of
an emergent chorus of voices to join that of Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Mercedes, who
said, “Most refugees are young, well-educated and highly motivated – they are exactly the
people we need...They could, like the guest workers from decades ago, help us preserve
and improve our prosperity. For Germany cannot anymore fill the jobs available only with
Germans.”
•
Hire refugees. Take the opportunity to bring needed
competencies to labour markets. Migrant flows create
opportunities for business and labour where there is
Find out more
not enough of it. They are, “similar to ourselves, they
have aspirations for university, for careers,” says Paul
Donohoe of the International Rescue Committee.
Corporate operations and their supply chains can
benefit from corporate hiring commitments, and
rewarding suppliers doing their bit to hire and support
• Listen to Alexander Betts’ recent
TED talk on potential policy
solutions to the refugee crisis:
Our refugee system is failing.
Here’s how we can fix it.
refugees. Chobani has hired as many refugees as it
can in its yoghurt plants, currently 30% of the total
workforce. IKEA is looking at internship possibilities
and and Uniqlo’s parent company has committed to hire
• Take the UN Global Compact’s
Business Action Pledge in
response to the refugee crisis.
100 refugees, a relatively small number, but a start.
• Read more on refugees, migrants
•
Respond in ways aligned with your core business.
Some sectors can obviously respond to the known
needs of these situations – IKEA and home goods,
and human rights from the
Business & Human Rights
Resource Center.
for example, or Pearson’s partnership with Save the
Children, Every Child Learning, to provide education.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has also drawn attention
to the fact that refugees are amongst the four billion
people without reliable internet access, promising to help the UN bring internet connectivity
to refugee camps throughout the Middle East. While some criticise the effort for angling for
new users, most agree that internet access will enable reconnection amongst the displaced,
open opportunities for e-learning, and allow skills and capabilities to be shared with the
rest of the world.
•
Think laterally. The solutions you can offer may be less obvious. Are there parts of
the business or tools at your disposal that might be effectively adapted? Some will be
surprised by MasterCard’s role in enabling the provision of aid. In another example,
the pharmaceutical company Novartis, which had a traditional donations-based role
in humanitarian crises, went beyond by unexpectedly partnering Novartis Access with
the International Committee of the Red Cross to improve care and treatment for Syrian
refugees populations in Lebanon who suffer from chronic diseases, such as high blood
pressure and diabetes, which account for more than 50% of deaths in Lebanon annually.
Novartis Access is its new social business making it affordable to treat chronic diseases in
lower-income countries, initially only in Kenya and Ethiopia, through governments and
NGOs for $1 per treatment per month. It was only launched last year, but the company
thought laterally and flexibly about its utility in the refugee context. The partnership even
has a longer-term objective to develop a broader blueprint for diagnosis, treatment and
follow-up improvements for refugees with chronic diseases.
We know that responding in any one of
these ways is not without challenge and
“
There’s nothing inevitable about refugees
may be subject to criticism. Chobani has
being a cost. They’re human beings with skills,
not been immune, being attacked by anti-
talents, aspirations, with the ability to make
immigrant advocates in the US that the
contributions — if we let them.
company is, “just looking for cheap refugee
”
Alexander Betts, University of Oxford
labour to make sure that [its] profit margin
is good,” as reported by the Financial Times.
But companies with a robust corporate
responsibility/sustainability strategy and
certain of their approach – the benefit to migrants and the strategic value to the company – can
refute this. As Musser told me, “A company deriving value doesn’t detract from or diminish the
impact of their actions.”
We see more and different actions – where it is material for business, where it is aligned with
core activities, etc. – holding real potential to improve migrants’ lives. Not convinced that this
makes sense for business? Then look around you and consider the moral case. Inequality, top
of mind for many leaders today, is particularly stark when combined with the vulnerability of
people on the move. I’m convinced that the solutions that will help migrants most will also help
business. In the short-term and the long-term. As Alexander Betts, Refugee Scholar and Director
of the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, so powerfully puts it: “There’s nothing
inevitable about refugees being a cost. They’re human beings with skills, talents, aspirations, with
the ability to make contributions — if we let them.”
Denise Delaney
@delaneydenise
A Manager in London leading projects
spanning a variety of sectors and tracking
international development. She has an MSc
in Forced Migration from University of
Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre.
*We use the terms “migrant,” “refugee” and “people on the move” to refer to the BBC’s
definition of “migrant” as “all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process
of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are
likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who
governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.”
You might also like...
Sustainable Development Goals: What to Expect from Business
In the Autumn 2015 issue of Radar we took a closer look at the launch of the
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
READ MORE
Less Bias, More Bucks:
Spotlight on Arabesque
Partners
The ESG investing movement – which promotes
the factoring in of relevant non-financial data into
investment decisions – is gathering momentum,
led by a small but growing number of asset
managers. Arabesque Partners is one such company
looking to lead the way to a sustainable economy
through an innovative rules-based, technologyenabled approach to integrating ESG into investing.
Michael Harvey recently caught up with Andreas Feiner,
Head of ESG Research and Advisory, to talk about ESG
investing, human values, bias and robots.
Arabesque Partners was born out of a client-driven initiative at Barclays Bank that sought to find
a way to combine ‘finance with a purpose’ into investment strategies without sacrificing returns
or incurring higher risk. The result was the creation of the first ESG Quant asset manager.
Arabesque’s unique approach leverages ESG data, exploits behavioural biases and capitalises on
technology to execute its strategies.
At Arabesque the investment process
begins with the definition of an investment
“
We believe that a company that is good at
universe, made up of stocks that have passed
the management of environmental, social and
through a combination of liquidity, forensic
governance risks should be a better company to
accounting, UNGC, ESG and balance sheet
invest in and work for.
screens. Investors can choose from two
”
investment strategies; one based on a subset
of stocks from the investment universe
selected by Arabesque’s rules-based
fundamental analysis. The other is a subset of stocks from the investment universe, but this time
selected by Arabesque’s quantitative stock selection and portfolio optimisation technology.
I was interested to find out more about the benefits of such an approach. According to Andreas,
“The purpose of using ESG is to make money for the investor. We believe that a company that
is good at the management of environmental, social and governance risks should be a better
company to invest in and work for. This is our major thesis and we proved that on average our
sustainability process brings a 1.5% additional return per annum.”
Arabesque places significant emphasis on technology to
both conduct analysis and execute the investment strategy.
Decisions to trade, and in which companies to trade in, are
made by automated programs. Andreas sees the main benefit
of this approach as the overcoming of human psychology.
“If you look into behavioural psychology the one big enemy
in finance and investing is emotion. You should have a
strategy and a plan for what you do depending on the market
environment. Most people have a strategy, but executing it is
Andreas is a founding Partner of Arabesque
quite difficult. If you have a computer it helps you to keep the
and is responsible for Arabesque`s
investing discipline. Technology is used as a tool to leverage
Sustainability Process, which is the basis for all
of Arabesque`s flagship products.
our time and remove the emotional element, which to us is a
good thing. Increasingly it is becoming difficult for humans
to be involved in the analysis. Just look at the amount of data points that are available – it is a
vast amount of information to process.”
Given the key role of technology in the company’s approach it may be tempting to think that the
human element is stripped out of the process entirely, however the picture is more nuanced than
that. According to Andreas, “The meaning of Arabesque is geometric art derived through
mathematics and a rules-based approach is
at the heart of everything we do. However,
“
we also see the company as a sort of human
If you look into behavioural psychology
arabesque. There are different people from
the one big enemy in finance and investing
different backgrounds and cultures and
is emotion.
views coming together with the same goal to
”
push ESG into mainstream investing. Our
company ethos is very important – we need
that diversity and difference of thought and
in many ways the application of technology can be seen as an expression of human values as
well as a way to overcome human limitations. Companies are nothing more than amalgamations
of people coming together with one goal to deliver goods or services, to make a living and to
pay some dividends to the investor – it’s a selection of contracts that binds everything together.
Although we use computers to leverage our time and execute our model we are very aware of the
human element in our company.”
Much has been made of the growth and potential of ESG investing, with 86% of global stock
exchanges now offering sustainable indices and 80% of studies showing that stock price
performance is positively correlated with sustainability. Yet the proportion of total assets under
management that is sustainably invested still
remains in the minority. Andreas suggested
that becoming mainstream is both, “A huge
challenge and opportunity,” yet remains
upbeat – “I believe we are at a tipping
point. Look at the growth in the number of
companies reporting against the GRI, the
proliferation of sustainable stock exchanges,
the increased attention from investors, new
“
We need that diversity and difference
of thought and in many ways the application
of technology can be seen as an expression of
human values as well as a way to overcome
human limitations.
business models predicated on positive
”
impacts and the overall growing awareness
in the general public. These are all drops in the ocean but something is brewing – to my mind
it is not a question of if you do it but rather when, how and with whom? Within the next 10
years the ESG or SRI topic will either vanish or be combined into the standard extra-financial
dimension of analysis. It will be taught as a core part of fundamental analysis – even the CFA is
incorporating it and they are not an agenda-setting body.”
Arabesque has a clear ambition to support this transition through innovating on approaches to
integrating ESG investment into traditional financial analysis and increasing understanding of
ESG products all the way to retail investors. This may seem like a daunting task given the scale
of the challenge, but as Andreas puts it, “This will be a great journey and good fun!”
Michael Harvey
@MichaelHarveySA
A manager in the London office, more
often than not you can find Michael
advising clients on sustainability strategy
and stakeholder engagement (when not
hunting down the best local coffee spots).
You might also like...
Radar Issue 03: What Chance Change?
Exploring the issue of sustainable finance and asking, what chance
is there for change?
READ MORE
What I Have Learnt
Inge Wallage
P
art of being human is the ability to put ourselves in other people’s shoes or, better still,
wear them. Inge Wallage, currently communications director at the International Water
Association (IWA), is one of an increasing number of professionals who are blurring the
lines between business, civil society, public sector and campaigning groups. Her career has
spanned roles at Motorola, Statoil, Philips Electronics, Greenpeace and in communications
consulting. This is what she has learnt.
What I’ve learned after seven years in civil society and a career in business is that solutions for the
future will come about by unusual suspects coming together and sector boundaries blurring – we
bring water professionals together across disciplines, across sectors and across the world.
Humans tend to believe in technocratic solutions but the reality is we need to come up with
new ideas that might come through different roots such as philosophy. Even though IWA is a
registered charity, it is starting to behave like an incubator and/or a social enterprise – you need
to be agile to come up with water management solutions. We’re becoming more business process
focused for good, not to make money.
My approach is to apply the three A’s to any programme: authenticity, audience and audacity.
Another you could add is accountability, which is also crucial.
If you add Mother Earth and future generations into your target audiences it will really challenge
your business plan. And, in order to be authentic and take these two audiences into account, and
be accountable, we need to be audacious – set yourself a target you can’t meet very easily so you
have to be innovative and find peers acting in a similar way to support you.
For authenticity, I always use the example of Unilever. Paul Polman acts from these three A’s.
Hopefully being on the B Team also supports him to move ahead. I’ve also been really impressed
with Nestlé, what they do in terms of alignment with the SDGs seems very solid and they give me
the impression they truly want to contribute.
Most people think they have a societal responsibility. A recent discussion at the European
Association of Communication Directors showed that when push comes to shove they are
accountable to the people who pay their wage and short termism takes over from the long term.
Unfortunately, behaviour doesn’t necessarily correlate with the way people think. None of this is
easy and communication is key.
Inge was talking to...
Zoë Arden
@zoearden
Sustainability sleuth, cake
maker and director in
SustainAbility’s London office.
You might also like...
Orchestrating Change: Catalyzing the Next Generation of
Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration for Sustainability
Helps companies and other organisations better plan for the increasing demands
of collaboration, and bring sustainability much more rapidly to scale.
READ MORE
Cultivating Purpose:
Sustainability Innovation
and Employee Engagement
Fostering an environment where people can work with
purpose by innovating for more sustainable outcomes
can help inspire and retain employees.
“There is an ugliness in being paid for work one does not like,” Anaïs Nin penned in 1941 in
her diary. We may have to admit that the global workplace may indeed be in an ugly place.
Gallup suggests that globally only 13% of employees are engaged in their work and its State of
the American Workplace survey shows that 70% of workers are not engaged. In fact, 15.7% are
actively disengaged and doing more harm than good at their companies.
The majority of people are compelled to work not by passion but by practicality – by the
necessity for food, shelter and security. But even today, when such practicalities are often
within reach, employment tends to lack the trifecta of autonomy, mastery and purpose that
psychologists and David Pink (author of Drive) believe marks meaningful work. This seems to
especially be true among millennials, with only 28.9% engagement vs. their traditionalist (born
1922-1945) peers at 42.2%.
It appears millennials are particularly less likely than other generations to say they “have the
opportunity to do what they do best” at work. Considering that more than 90% of millennials
want to use their “skills for good” and the fact that the future of work lies in empowering
millennial talent (they will make up 75% of the workforce by 2025), these numbers convey
rather harrowing news.
Newer generations, however, are not so different from
older ones, and after all, are common humans seeking
meaning in daily work. Studies show that younger
generations are especially keen to work for companies
with solid ethical and environmental practices that
can offer a sustainable work-life balance. Fostering an
environment where employees can work with purpose
by innovating for more sustainable outcomes may be key
to cultivating the talent and engagement needed to not
only get our planet on track to a low-carbon and more
90% of millennials want to use their “skills
for good” yet are more likely than other
equitable future, but also dispel an unpleasant feeling of
generations to say they “have the opportunity
one’s labour being non-worthwhile.
to do what they do best” at work.
Engagement Through Sustainability Innovation?
A 2014 survey by IBM found that almost half of genXers and millennials say they would leave
their current job for another offering a more innovative environment. In SustainAbility’s
Model Behavior II: Strategies to Rewire Business we identified three particular qualities that can
improve and foster sustainability innovation, and thus employee engagement:
1.
Leadership from the top;
2.
Comfort with risk; and
3.
Cross-collaboration.
From research and interviews with over 16 innovation experts, these were seen as key aspects,
but there are undoubtedly many others.
Leadership from the Top
Several studies have shown that belief in senior leadership is the strongest engagement driver.
In an interview with HR specialist Megan Moran at Insperity, a provider of human resource
and business performance solutions, she admitted that employee engagement takes time, but it
is key to have leadership on board and on the same page. She mentioned, “However leadership
views them, employees see that and will work off that energy.” Leadership sets the tone and helps
promote a culture of engagement and innovation. Gallup reiterates this point: employees who
are supervised by highly engaged managers are 59% more likely to be engaged.
Comfort with Risks
A company culture that can allow employees to take risks and experiment is not only something
that most employees crave, but it also can help contribute to outside-the-box inventions. This
is particularly dominant in entrepreneurial culture where new events and organisations, such as
Fuck-Up Nights and FailCon, provide a platform for honouring and learning from others’ failed
risks. Even erasing the word ‘failure’ from business lexicon and seeing it simply as a ‘glitch’ or
part of the process towards innovation and experimentation can make a difference.
The iconic, if not strictly sustainability-oriented, example is Apple, whose famous tagline ‘Think
Different’ framed the launch of the industry-disrupting iPod. At Apple, staying within the norm
meant losing out and what companies Sony and Microsoft felt in market share once the iPod
began to take off. At the time when Apple released the iPod and its ‘Think Different’ campaign,
however, the company only had 90 days of budget left and needed something big to help it
survive. While Steve Jobs is well-remembered for his tendency for taking large, often stubborn,
risks, this quality was also what propelled Apple into one of the most profitable and well-known
tech companies in the world and kept its cult-like following of A-list employees in tow.
Working Together
In order to tackle many of the grand challenges presented by climate change, resource scarcity
and global inequality, taking big risks is inevitable, as is learning from each other and working
together. Collaboration, whether internally, externally, or both, is a key element in creating a
constructive environment for engaged employees that are inspired to innovate. This can take the
form of allowing employees time and resources to develop projects of their own, like at LinkedIn
or 3M, to leverage their own capacity to stop and reframe important questions rather than make
incremental improvements on what already exists.
Sometimes a specialised ‘skunk works’ approach to collaboration reaps more radical innovation,
such as that done at Cree, a company that hand-picked an internal team to work in a secure and
private location to create an advanced LED bulb. Two years and 20 million bulbs later, Cree is
the best-selling LED light in the US.
Many companies, conversely, have experienced much higher levels of engagement and innovation
when collaborating outside company walls. Unilever uses hack-a-thons to help drive new
thinking, while Tesco has run a number of hack-a-thons including a 48-hour one with the aim of
improving health for the long term as part of the company’s campaign on obesity. Meanwhile,
companies like GE, GM, Siemens and Unilever are partaking in collaborative and open
innovation efforts to help create the next generations of low-carbon technologies.
These efforts not only bring in new ideas, they bring in new people and new excitement
within companies that, in turn, increases engagement. Companies that can foster a culture that
encourages sustainability innovation are not only likely to lead with a competitive, disruptive
edge, but also may be the most successful at retaining and inspiring their workers to feel they are
fulfilling their potential through meaningful, beautiful work.
Rochelle Marsh
@EarthofFoxes
Analyst at SustainAbility exploring
the ideas and designs that express the
intersections between sustainability,
tech, business, art, and health.
You might also like...
Model Behavior II: Strategies to Rewire Business
Guidance to large companies on how to harness the power of business model
innovation to create a more sustainable future.
READ MORE
Tech Companies and the ‘War for Talent’
Competition for high performers in the tech sector can drive sustainability
practices in companies.
READ MORE
Giving Workers a Voice:
Well-Being in Supply Chains
C
ompany approaches to supply chain well-being are increasingly centered on
technologies and research that enable workers to express their concerns and
give honest and open feedback of factory conditions.
Globalisation, one of the most preeminent trends of the past several decades, has profoundly
influenced how people communicate, travel and consume and how companies do business. It
has brought new jobs and plentiful economic opportunities to developing nations in Asia, Latin
America and Africa and has enabled multinational companies to cut costs and offer lower prices.
Outsourcing has also brought challenges
and companies have struggled to gain full
“
transparency of increasingly complex and
are turning to direct employee engagement to
factories. As advancements in technologies
gain better visibility and improve worker well-
open new opportunities, a growing number
being in supply chains.
of companies are turning to direct employee
As advancements in technologies open new
geographically dispersed supply chains
opportunities, a growing number of companies
and to maintain fair working conditions in
”
engagement to gain better visibility and
improve worker well-being in supply chains.
Defining Worker Well-being
Northern California-based non-profit organisation Good World Solutions helps companies gain
better visibility into working conditions at their supply chain factories and improve worker lives
with the help of its mobile phone survey tool, Laborlink. It recently launched China Factories
Survey, a pioneering partnership with 10 leading brands to increase retention rates and improve
working conditions in 70 factories.
Executive Director Heather Franzese says that Good World
Solutions boiled down its definition of worker well-being
to two key areas – safety and respect. Safe is the minimum
standard that every company should provide and ensure.
Respect encompasses such standards as no verbal abuse,
harassment and realistic production targets, although these
goals remain aspirational
for many companies.
Laborlink, a mobile phone survey tool from
Good World Solutions is helping companies
Global toy manufacturer Mattel, which employs more than
gain better visibility into working conditions
35,000 workers in its supply chain in 40 countries, primarily
at their supply chain factories and improve
worker lives.
in China and the Asia-Pacific region, and is a participant
in the China factories project, focuses on health and safety
issues in its worker well-being programs. According to
corporate responsibility manager Katrice McCorkle, the
company recently revamped its labor conditions and human rights program and launched the
Play With Care campaign in 2015, which encourages employees to take responsibility for their
safety and the safety of their co-workers.
Safety, Overtime and Stress Are Top Concerns
Concerns of supply chain workers vary depending on factory and geography but often focus
on safety, stress level, overtime and pay. Furthermore, they are highly dependent on gender.
According to Vodafone, managing health and safety continues to be the most common area
identified for improvement in supplier factories by far, followed by working hours. Working
hours is a common industry issue, says Vodafone. From the 157 workers it recently surveyed
in one of its supplier factories, 45% said one to three days a week they worked more than 10
hours, while 27% worked overtime on four or more days. At the same time, 94% of workers
said they wanted to work as many hours as possible or were willing to work
overtime sometimes.
Polling the Workers
In early 2016, Good World Solutions conducted the first phase of the China Factories Survey
polling 37,000 workers in China-based factories. Key findings include:
58
68
%
71
%
%
Are satisfied wth
Plan to stay in job longer
Experience regular
their job
than 6 months
workplace stress
Participating companies: The Walt Disney Company, M&S, J.Crew, American Eagle Outfitters,
Mattel, Harry’s, Vodafone, Walmart, C&A.
According to Franzese, when asked about their needs, workers in China often express a
preference for more training, education and career advancement opportunities. In South Asia,
women tend to request better childcare, while men express a preference for better transportation.
In response to these concerns, many companies enhance internal communications with the aid of
helpdesks and internal chat platforms. At one China-based footwear factory surveyed by Good
World Solutions, workers wanted improvements of dormitories and the cafeteria food. When
these needs were addressed, job satisfaction jumped by 24%.
For the China Factories Survey, which is the first collaborative initiative of its kind, Good
World Solutions partnered with 10 major brands including Walmart, J.Crew, C&A and M&S.
Michael Widman, Vice President of International Labor Standards at The Walt Disney Company,
which extended financial support to the project and is also a participant, said that the initiative
provides a scalable, innovative approach that gives voice to factory workers. The data collected
from 37,000 workers in early 2016 (see box) represents the first stage of the project and will
serve as a benchmark for companies as they make improvements and continue to track worker
opinions on job satisfaction and worker-management communication.
Technology, Transparency Driving Change
One of the key factors driving greater transparency on working conditions is the advance of
technologies and what they make possible – not only enabling the media and other stakeholders
to have better visibility of supply chain conditions but also providing new tools to companies to
drive positive change.
Franzese believes that in five to 10 years time, there will not be a successful apparel or
electronics company that does not have direct worker engagement as a core part of their supply
chain strategy.
Although not always the case, supply chain
working conditions are also slowly becoming
“
In five to 10 years time, there will not be a
a competitive issue for some sectors.
successful apparel or electronics company that
Companies such as Levi’s have positioned
does not have direct worker engagement as a
themselves as clear leaders, raising the bar
core part of their supply chain strategy.
for everyone. By partnering with vendors and
”
stakeholders, Levi’s has been able to tailor
its programs to meet the individual needs of
each factory community with progress
made on a rage of issues from women’s health to financial inclusion. Levi’s argues that investing
in workers also makes business sense and its suppliers have seen a significant return — up to $3
for every $1 invested in the program.
Franzese says that the case for investing in worker well-being is particularly strong in countries
like China, where turnover can be as high as 20% a month. It places a big cost and burden on
factories to rehire and retrain the workforce.
Path Forward – In Search of Solutions
While progress has been made on improving supply chain conditions, many outstanding
issues remain. The key challenge that many brands face is gaining better visibility of working
conditions beyond directly operated and owned facilities. It is in those subcontractor factories
and other formal and informal facilities further down the supply chain where most egregious
violations, such as forced and child labor, occur. According to some estimates, China alone has
more than 30 million informally employed homeworkers that often work long hours for little
pay and have no protection of their rights, while another study from Stern Business School
estimates that a third of all factories in Bangladesh are informal.
Given that the brands are often not the ones
employing the workers, it is really important
to ensure factory buy-in if the well-being
programs are to succeed. If the factory does
“
The key challenge that many brands face
not take ownership of it, they will find a
is gaining better visibility of working conditions
million ways to sabotage it, says Franzese. In
in supply chain beyond directly operated and
contrast to audits, solutions like Laborlink
owned facilities.
provide tools to factories to directly engage
with the workforce that are not meant to be
”
going over their head or circumventing them.
According to Mattel’s McCorkle, scaling of worker safety and well-being programs across
their entire operations is another key challenge facing companies given the sheer size of global
supply chains and geographic dispersal of factories. Engaging stakeholders such as NGOs and
local governments is key, says McCorkle, as no single company can meet this challenge alone.
Moreover, directly engaging the workers is critical but so is securing buy-in and support from
the brand’s senior leadership.
Franzese believes that the business community has come a long way on acceptance that workers
deserve a seat at the table and their voice is important – not only in terms of improving their
well-being but also for business outcomes. As this becomes more universally recognised,
hopefully we will see larger numbers of companies directly engaging with workers and scaling
solutions to improve their well-being.
Aiste Brackley
@aistebrackley
Research Manager at SustainAbility’s
Bay Area office, passionate about data,
climate change, women’s leadership
and jazz. Ultimate believer in human
creativity and potential.
You might also like...
Meet our Network: Sean Ansett
Sean discusses his work with LaborVoices, a social enterprise that polls workers
through their mobile phones to provide real-time visibility inside supply chains.
READ MORE
See Change: How Transparency Drives Performance
Explores how transparency can drive better decision-making, improve
corporate performance, and ultimately compel and enable companies to create a
sustainable future.
READ MORE
Individuals in Business:
Radar Roundtable
W
e recently hosted a roundtable to discuss with some of our network the Radar
theme ‘Being Human’ and better understand what it means to be human in an
increasingly technological and systemised world.
At SustainAbility, we recognise that making swift progress towards better business and a better
world requires inspiration, collaboration and trust, and a stronger emotional connection with
our planet and each other. Yet such human qualities are increasingly under pressure in the
global economy.
“A lot of organisations don’t incentivise us to be our full selves.
Often they ask us to bring ourselves to the workplace, but it is
only done in a formalistic and inauthentic way.”
Sustainable Finance & Investment Executive
Working from this assumption we asked participants from business, academia, NGOs and social
enterprises to think about how human qualities can continue to flourish in business.
The important human qualities identified included creativity,
curiosity, and empathy as well as passion and humour. And
while these qualities were seen across business to some
degree, when we tried to unpick what this all meant for our
working lives, the complexities of this topic became apparent.
It was felt that workplaces and the wider economic system
focus on efficiency, removing the value of essential human
elements and qualities. Organisations are slow to change
The first Radar Roundtable saw us bring
because they operate within the existing system that, it was
together a range of participants from business,
argued, is itself a corrupted and dysfunctional model.
NGOs and academia.
As one participant observed, dominant business practices
often remove the space we need as humans to create and to
connect. A ‘let’s just get through the agenda’ mindset means we skip over or ignore creating the
space to meet each other on a human level. Paradoxically, it is when we connect at a deeper and
more honest human level that the rest of the ‘agenda items’ can get sorted and progress is made.
“We have a system designed to be efficient in a certain way,
which is removing the space we require to create, to connect.
There is a culture of ‘let’s just get through the agenda’ and we skip
over or ignore creating the space to meet each other on a human level.”
Strategist & Change Agent
Taking all of this into account, one contributor identified a set of three initial system controls
that we can start by addressing; specifically, the leadership, structures and incentives that
currently drive negative behaviours in the workplace. There was the view that by first focusing
on these elements it is possible to positively reinforce the qualities first identified around
the room.
“I think we may all have different interpretations of what humanity is.
But the question is also, how do you respect the humanity in others?
How do you not only respect it but also help it to grow it in others?”
Academic
Fundamentally though, many in the room felt that simplicity is the key – showing up and
meeting people as they are and where they are at and creating a space for that, before the agenda
takes over. We are often so busy to get things done applauding a superficial efficiency that we can
miss the valuable meaning found in meeting each other.
Alicia Ayars
Manager at SustainAbility’s
London office, ardent
reader, consumer of
information and advocate
for climate solutions.
Zoë Arden
@zoearden
Sustainability sleuth, cake
maker and director in
SustainAbility’s London office.
Radar
Credits
Radar
Image Credits
Issue 10: Spring 2016
Cover
Publisher
iStockphoto
SustainAbility Ltd.
SustainAbility is a think tank and
strategic advisory firm working
to inspire transformative business
leadership on sustainability.
Established in 1987, SustainAbility
Articles
p3
- iStockphoto
p4
- Press Association
p5
- iStockphoto
p6
- Author’s own
p7
- iStockphoto
p8
- iStockphoto
p9
- iStockphoto
delivers illuminating foresight and
actionable insight on sustainable
- Good World Solutions
development trends and issues.
For more information visit:
www.sustainability.com
© All images remain the copyright
of their respective owners.
Radar Team
Design
Frances Buckingham
Lucy Player
Zoë Arden
Chris Wolf
Charlotte Pearson
© 2016 SustainAbility Ltd.