Guest Blog Series: India and Sustainability Standards by Prof Deborah Leipziger

Last week, the Centre for Responsible Business provided a historic opportunity: to promote pathways to sustainability in India and globally. Company executives gathered with government officials and civil society leaders in New Delhi from November 18 - 20^th for ‘India and Sustainability Standards: International Dialogues and Conference 2015’ convened by the Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) along with 50 Indian and international standard setters, policymakers, businesses and civil society organisations, to look at how sustainability standards can be adopted, implemented or adapted to promote better environmental and social practices in India, including in the SME world as part of the global value chains.  Leaders from standard initiatives like Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000), UNICEF, UNDP, OECD, GIZ, and sector-specific standards in cotton and apparel, mining and tea, gathered for three days to dialogue and reflect on how India can lead the charge in the world on self-regulatory approaches. 

For 25 years, I have worked to develop and implement sustainability codes and standards. I feel fortunate that I was involved in the early drafting of several initiatives, including SA8000 and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). I am deeply honored that the third edition of my book The Corporate Responsibility Code Book was launched in New Delhi at the Sustainability Standards conference on 18^th November 2015.

How is the landscape of codes and standards changing?

Standards and codes continue to evolve and become more integrated across industry sectors and themes. There is a greater need for integrating social and environmental issues by businesses in the economy and in our global society.  It is impressive to see how the majority of the standards and initiatives continue to expand their membership and influence. In the 15 years since I began working on the first Code Book, it is impressive to see that some of the early initiatives, like the Ceres Principles, have become so commonplace that they are just part of the ethos for how most companies operate. The new edition of The Corporate Responsibility Code Book has a section on gender, a theme which continues to grow in importance for the standards community.

What is the legacy of codes?  

The evolution of codes and standards has left us with an important legacy. One of the key features of some of the initiatives is their strong multi-stakeholder approaches, which bring together leaders from civil society, the business community, trade unions, government, and academia, and thus creating the much needed credibility for the standards. Also, these multi-stakeholder approaches create opportunities for dialogue, change and, learning. Social Accountability International (SAI), the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) are among the leading international initiatives which have created strong multi-stakeholder alliances.

One of the greatest contributions of these alliances and standards is the development of capacity building. At SAI and ETI, and within the wider community of codes and standards, we have worked to develop training for workers, for managers, and for auditors. Building capacity has yielded benefits to communities and empowered workers to understand and exercise their rights.

Standards and codes have created important definitions and processes that serve as guide posts. The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights uses the term “irremediable” for human rights abuses for which there is no remedy. Standards have helped to develop the terms which allow us to dialogue and change.

But codes and standards are just a beginning. Social entrepreneurs within companies are recognizing their ability to be change agents. Corporations are developing products and services which create social value. I am inspired by the wave of social innovation and social entrepreneurship that is sweeping across many MBA programs and businesses.

Codes and standards provide a framework for dialogue and a starting point for broad cultural change. The legacy of codes provides a common language and multi-stakeholder alliances to create the kind of world we want to leave to our children. 

About the Author

Deborah Leipziger is an author, professor, and advisor in the fields of corporate responsibility (CR) and sustainability. She advises companies, governments, and UN agencies on CR and sustainability issues.  She has advised leading multinational companies on strategic and supply chain issues, as well as a wide range of CR initiatives, including the UN Global Compact, the Global Reporting Initiative, the UN Environment Programme, and Social Accountability International.  She is the co-author of Creating Social Value: A Guide for Leaders and Change Makers, (Greenleaf, 2014) and  The Corporate Responsibility Code Book, soon to be released as a third edition (Greenleaf, 2010) and co-author of Living Corporate Citizenship (FT, 2002) and Corporate Citizenship: Successful Strategies of Responsible Companies, (FT, 1998). She is the author of Social Accountability 8000: The Definitive Guide to the New Social Standard (FT Prentice Hall, 2001).  Her books have been translated into Portuguese, French, Korean, and Chinese.  Born in Brazil, Ms. Leipziger has a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts from Manhattanville College in Economics and International Studies.  For more information, go to http://deborahleipziger.com/

Guest Blog Series: Can Sustainability Standards Help India Meet the SDGs?

In September, the heads of state of over 190 countries met at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in New York to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Replacing the Millennium Development Goals, which expired this year, the SDGs consist of 17 goals and 169 targets, aimed at reducing poverty, promoting social development, and protecting the environment on a global scale. Along with other heads of state, Prime Minister Modi declared India’s firm commitment to achieve these goals by 2030. By every measure, the SDGs constitute the most comprehensive and ambitious list of sustainable development goals world leaders have ever committed to.

All eyes are on India

There is no doubt that India will play a key role in the implementation of the SDG agenda. Its sheer size and the magnitude of its development challenge make the country a focal point in this process. India is home to nearly a third of the world’s ‘bottom billion’ and continues to struggle to provide large segments of its population with access to basic public services, such as water, food, healthcare, and education. At the same time, India holds great potential to make progress on these issues. The country is an emerging economic powerhouse that has seen annual average growth rates of 6-8 percent over the last few decades. This year it overtook China as world’s fastest growing large emerging economy. The promotion of economic growth through initiatives like Prime Minister Moodi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign is central to the country’s development strategy. But better mechanisms are needed to reconcile its economic, social, and environmental policy objectives. Whether or not the government will succeed in this will be of crucial importance not only for India but for the entire SDG process.

However, experts and even senior government officials concede that implementing the SDGs in India by 2030 poses a major challenge. Prior to the UN conference in New York, Mrs Sindhushree Khullar, CEO of NITI Aayon, a new government body charged with implementing the SDGs, expressed concerns about the feasibility of the task. According to Khullar, India has already had problems to reach its own more modest sustainable development targets and that, in comparison, the 169 SDG targets marked “a huge jump”.

Can sustainability standards help?

At least since the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio in 1992, the private sector has been actively involved in the formulation and implementation of global sustainability goals. One important mechanism is supply-chain-driven sustainability standards. Prominent examples of this approach are the Forest Stewardship Council, the Marine Stewardship Council, or the Better Cotton Initiative. Sponsored by firms and NGOs – often with the support of governments – these programmes harness market forces and corporate power to implement international sustainability targets. Now well-integrated into the regulatory regimes in Europe and North America, they are relatively new to India and other emerging economies.  

While no silver bullet, sustainability standards have the potential to help India tackle its implementation challenge. In particular, they could provide support in three areas in which progress is crucial:

Defining indicators – Only those things that can be measured can be managed. The SDGs define 169 targets, but to work towards these targets concrete indicators are needed. These indicators need to define and operationalize what sustainability means across industries and issue areas. This requires a high level of technical expertise which public regulators often lack. Over the years, sustainability standard systems have developed this expertise for the industries and issue areas they work in. Instead of trying to ‘reinvent wheel’, India should make use of this expertise and enlist appropriate sustainability standards in its regulatory frameworks. In this way, precious time and resources could be saved.

Monitoring and reporting progress – Related to the previous point, progress needs to be monitored and reported. Given India’s size and the comprehensiveness of the SDGs, this truly is a mammoth task. But again, sustainability standards could help India meet this challenge. These systems have developed sophisticated monitoring and reporting devices that can track and trace the environmental and social impacts of products and commodities from production to consumption. This is not to say that these systems are perfect and some are better than others, but, used in the right way, they could complement the work of public regulatory agencies.

Creating ownership – Finally, sustainability standards are well placed to generate greater ownership for the SDG agenda within the Indian business community and the wider civil sphere. Most standard systems follow an inclusive and transparent governance model and actively encourage participation and stakeholder consultation. Scaled-up through government endorsement, they could serve as vehicles to create larger communities of practice in support of India’s SDG agenda.

These are just three examples through which sustainability standards could help India tackle its implementation challenge. But currently this potential is not realized. Awareness among policy-makers and business leaders in India about sustainability standards and their work remains low. Addressing this knowledge gap could bring India (and the world) a small step closer to achieving the SDGs by 2030.

About the author: 

Philip Schleifer is a Max Weber Fellow at the Global Governance Programme of the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. His research interests lie in the areas of international political economy, global environmental politics, and transnational private governance. He received his PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics in 2014.

CRB International Dialogue Forum and Conference 2015 : India and Sustainability Standards

Social Dialogue at Workplace in Global Value and Supply Chains: Experiences from India, Wider Asia and Way Forward

Social Dialogue, as defined by International Labour Organisation (ILO), include negotiations, communication, consultations, or simply exchange of information between or among representatives of governments, employers and workers, on issues of common interest relating to economic and social policy in a workplace. Governments, employers or workers acting alone cannot achieve economic and social progress and stability, and require continuous and constructive interaction and engagement to arrive at social consensus and/or compromise. Social Dialogue provides participating stakeholders with opportunities to jointly decide on their mutual and individual responsibilities and futures. Social Dialogue as a mechanism and an effective tool for solving collective challenges by creating structures and environment suitable for efficient problem -solving, facilitates conditions for establishing better working and living conditions and social justice for workers in particular, and enhanced harmony and productivity at workplace for employers and managers.

Social Dialogue is an integral component of ILO’s Decent Work agenda and extremely relevant in the context of Asia as a major part of global production networks (GPN) and value and supply chains. ILO’s fundamental principles and rights at work, and particularly the right to associate and bargain collectively, are pre-conditions for social dialogue. However, effective operation of social dialogue is required for these principles to be fully realized. The benefits of social dialogue within enterprises have been recorded in the form of improved worker-management communication, initiation and strengthening of forums for communication, dialogue, deliberation and solution oriented decisions and improved industrial relations. Worldwide Enhancement of Social Quality (WE Project), a partnership project between Tchibo, a German retailer, and GIZ, could be seen as a good example of social dialogue at workplace. WE Project improved production rates by 30% and reduced turnover rates from 10% to 6% during the project period.

However, wider implementation of social dialogue methods at workplace in GPNs and value and supply chains in India and wider Asia is far from desired, due to several complex challenges around policies, context and practices. Senior management in organizations in GPNs do not view employee engagement as a strategic function, since there is no apparent direct link between benefits of social dialogue within an organization and it’s bottom-line. Limited awareness amongst workers and managers about labour standards and worker’s rights, and absence of democratically elected worker unions results in limited two-way communication between workers and senior management.

Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) in partnership with several garment and apparel and footwear brands is engaged in initiatives on social dialogue in their value and supply chains to enable creation of systems and processes in factories to practice and promote social dialogue and bridge gaps between the management and workers. To share experiences, perspectives and learning on social dialogue as an effective mechanism and chart future steps, CRB in collaboration with ISEAL Alliance, UK, is organizing a webinar on the topic “Social Dialogue at Workplace in Global Value and Supply Chains: Experiences from India, Wider Asia and Way Forward”. The webinar will bring together a panel comprising of international organisation and experts, who will share their experiences and discuss the role of various stakeholders, complexities and challenges in formulating, initiating and deepening social dialogue practices and systems, and the scope of promoting cordial industrial relations and improved working environments through social dialogue.

Human Rights and Business in India

Businesses, with their geographical and monetary reach owing to extensive globalization, have had a powerful impact on the Human society through employment generation, raising living standard, community development and provision of goods and services for enhancing daily-life convenience. Particular emphasis has been on its effects on Human Rights, and today it is considered an integral pillar of the Business Responsibility discourse. The most significant development on this in the recent years has been the release of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) for implementing the UN “Protect, Respect and Remedy” framework in 2011. Developed by the United Nations through a consultative process spanning 6 years, it enumerates the roles and responsibilities of Governments and Businesses towards protecting Human rights, and encourages nations to have a national action plan on businesses and human rights.

India has actively espoused the importance of Human Rights, having played a key role in developing and adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and followed this with the adoption of the Constitution of India, and its articulation of Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy. In more recent times, the Government of India enacted the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 and the establishment of a National Human Rights Commission. However, there were no clear directives for the role of businesses in Human Rights emancipation. To this end, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs released the National Voluntary Guidelines (NVGs) for Business in 2011, wherein one of its Nine Principles of Business Responsibility is devoted to Human Rights. The Companies Act 2013 relies heavily on the NVGs to provide frameworks for businesses to advance Human Rights both inside and outside the workplace.

Despite the presence of suitable legislative architectures, the awareness in businesses regarding their roles and responsibilities on advancing Human rights, and amongst citizens about their rights as consumers, is very low. Businesses need to incorporate Human Rights into their core businesses and CSR initiatives, and engage with various stakeholders to implement, assess and report their initiatives. To discuss these issues further and chart a way forward, Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) in collaboration with ISEAL Alliance, UK, is organizing a webinar on the topic ‘Advancing Human Rights in Businesses in India’. The webinar will bring together a panel comprising leaders from companies and civil society organizations with extensive Human Rights experiences to share their perspectives on this topic. The 90 minute webinar will be organized on 15th April 2015, and will start at 10:30 pm (GMT).

E-waste management in Electronics Sector in India

The Electronics and IT sector is one of the fastest growing sector of India, with a total size of $ 69.6 Billion in FY 12 (India Brand Equity Foundation, 2013). With rising domestic purchasing power and reduction in electronics goods worldwide, the sector is estimated to touch $ 400 Billion in market size and employ 28 Million people by 2020 in India. The sector also contributes significantly to India’s exports, leading to $ 8.9 Billion revenue generation in 2012. The high demand for ICT and CE goods has led to creation of manufacturing clusters all over India, with both global majors and indigenous SMEs playing a significant role (NSDC, 2009). The total production for the Electronic System Design & Manufacturing industry stood at $ 32.7 B in FY 2013 (IBEF, 2013).

This rapid sectorial growth, coupled with constant product innovation is leading to high product obsolescence. This is resulting in generation of large quantities of electronic waste (e-waste) in India, leading to 4 lakh tonne waste annually. Most of this waste, which is toxic in nature due to presence of chemicals such as lead, mercury, cadmium and certain brominated flame retardants (BFRs), lands up in the informal sector, where it is recycled without paying any heed to safety and environment. Apart from endangering workers’ health and surrounding biodiversity, these practices also prevent extraction of valuable non-renewable materials from electronic items.  To control the situation, Government of India has introduced the E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011, which is based on ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ (EPR) principles. The policy came into effect in May 2012, and a One-year timeframe was provided to the producers, to establish infrastructure and processes for take back programme and channelizing of e-waste for further utilization. Unfortunately, there is not much progress on this take-back program (Toxics Link, retrieved 2^nd April 2015)

Sector driven recycling standards can go a long way in mitigating these issues. Apart from streamlining and formalizing recycling sector, these standards can also enable suitable infrastructural mechanisms which will ensure that materials reach the right recyclers, resulting in suitable disposal and extraction of valuable materials. With the Make in India programme, Government of India is emphasizing on self-regulation by corporates, providing further encouragement for a sector wide collaborative on institutionalizing voluntary standards for e-waste disposal.

To discuss these issues further and chart a way forward, Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) in collaboration with ISEAL Alliance, UK, is organizing a webinar on the topic ‘E-waste management in ICT/CE sector – Is self-regulation the way forward?’. The webinar will bring together a panel comprising leaders from companies, industry associations, standards and civil society organizations to share their experiences and discuss the role of various stakeholders can participate in formulating suitable industry wide standards and mechanisms for implementing them. The 90 minute webinar will be organized on 15th April 2015, and will start at 10:30 pm (GMT). Hope to see you there! 

Children and Business Supply Chains

New Delhi ,January 30, 2015: UNICEF and Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) organized a half day roundtable consultation to initiate conversations on the effect of business supply chains on children’s lives and their rights, and how CRBP and other Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) can be used by businesses and associated stakeholders to address these issues. The consultation, organized in India Habitat Center, saw participation from over 70 representatives across businesses, standards and civil societies over wide-ranging discussions backed by experiences on how businesses can work towards promoting child rights within regional and sectoral contexts.

The event was kicked off by Mr. Louis-Georges Arsenault- Country Representative, UNICEF India, who remarked on various child rights challenges faced by India, and how the path-breaking CSR Mandate as part of Companies Act 2013 can play an important role in creating frameworks for child-rights engagement for businesses. Dr. Bimal Arora-CEO, CRB, contextualized the discussion and highlighted the need to increase business awareness about presence of children in supply chains and create a roadmap for businesses to follow to mitigate such issues. Mr. Michael Copping- Corporate Engagement Manager, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Region Office, emphasized the CRBP framework and gave anecdotal evidence of its impact in Regional markets. The first round was capped by Ms. Ruchira Gujral- CSR and Corporate Engagement Officer, UNICEF India, where she emphasized the role of UNICEF in engaging with corporations and academia for formulating long-term solutions for child rights issues. 

  

This was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Mr. Vivek Law–Business Journalist and ex-Editor, Bloomberg TV India, and comprising of Ms. Diya Sharma (Programme Manager, ETP), Ms. Vandana Verma (Programme Director, IKEA Foundation) and Mr. Manoj Bhatt (Country Director, GoodWeave India) touched upon the level of corporate sensitization towards child rights and steps they are taking to incorporate them in their respective value chains. Ms. Diya enumerated how this incorporation is good for businesses by giving anecdotal evidence of yield increment resulting from favorable child rights policies in the tea valleys of Sri Lanka. The floor was then opened to the audience for discussions, where the need for strengthening public institutions, in particular educational ones, was enumerated by several participants. Sensitizing consumers, proliferating worker’s rights, formulating multi-stakeholder partnerships, making supply chains transparent and policy strengthening were some of the other points mooted to champion the cause of child rights by businesses.

  

Lastly, Dr. Bimal enumerated the way forward and a need for all present to participate in furthering the CRBP ambitions in India. Mr. Viraf Mehta –Convener, Human Rights & Business Resources Group, spoke about the need for businesses to contextualize the overarching UNGC Human Rights Frameworks for child rights activities. Ms. Christine Edier-Chief, Resource Mobilization and Partnerships, UNICEF India, gave a vote of thanks to all speakers and talked about her take-away from the multiple discussions and experience sharing from all present. She concluded by emphasizing the need for companies to take their role in safe-guarding the future of children seriously, and commenting on the utilization of CSR Mandate towards that end in India.

CRB and AWS organize Foundations of Water Stewardship training

New Delhi, December 18, 2014: Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) and Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) organized a “Foundations of Water Stewardship” workshop, a one-day training program to provide an introduction to the emerging area of water stewardship and the AWS International Water Stewardship Standard. The event was organized in India Habitat Centre, New Delhi and was attended by around 25 consultants, trainers and CSR professionals from corporate and developmental organizations.

                                                                                 

India has more than 18% of the world’s population, but has only 4% of world’s renewable water resources and 2.4% of world’s land area. There are further limits on utilizable quantities of water owing to uneven distribution over time and space. Improved water supplies are critical since they mitigate several allied issues like child mortality, poor maternal health, lack of universal education, gender inequality and poverty. Keeping this in mind, the National Water Policy 2012, formulated by the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, treats water as economic good which will promote conservation and efficient use of water.

Mr. Adrian Sym, Executive Director, AWS, said “Water stewardship helps companies understand and improve their water use in this context of a catchment. Importantly, the AWS Standard allows companies to demonstrate their good stewardship of our most precious resource to other stakeholders, whether that is government, communities, investors or through supply chains. Today’s training program in Delhi is an important step to rolling out water stewardship in India and building the networks and partnerships that are needed to achieve the maximum impact for the country’s critical water resources.”

Another important step, taken by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, is the introduction of CSR clause (Section 135 of Companies Act, 2013) which mentions water issues and environmental sustainability (which includes sustainable water use) as one of areas in which corporates can pursue CSR activities. All these steps are aimed at making corporates a major player in the area of water conservation through proactive stewardship.

Ria Bakshi, Senior Consultant at Grant Thornton and a participant at the workshop said “AWS training was quite comprehensive from knowledge perspective. Integrating various standards like GRI, CDP etc with AWS particularly on the data requirements was a good learning. AWS very well encapsulates the concept of Natural Capital Accounting in its framework, which I shall be promoting to my clients since it makes a lot of long-term business sense. The training was extremely engaging and interactive too!” 

Dr. Bimal Arora, CEO, CRB, said “Stewardship is the best way forward and Alliance for Water Stewardship offers the framework to engage in that stewardship for companies where they can ensure the four outcomes - sustainable water balance, good water governance, important water related areas and water quality. This is in my view is going to be very helpful for companies and also in process of engaging with stakeholders.”

For further information, please contact Tilak Pattnaik at 011-41088853 or drop a mail at communications@c4rb.net

Dialogue on Sustainability Standards in the evolving context for CSR in India

New Delhi, December 16, 2014: Centre for Responsible Business (CRB), has partnered with ISEAL Alliance, UK to organize a day-long seminar on the topic ‘CSR Mandate & Voluntary Sustainability Standards: Contribution to Business, Economy, Society and Environment in India’. The event was organized in Leela Ambience, Gurgaon and included speakers from the Government of India, United Nations, World Wildlife Fund, International Labor Organization and Quality Council of India. The entire day was dedicated to discussing various aspects of engaging with CSR and sustainability through voluntary standards, in both the public and private sector businesses and was attended by over 120 representatives from government, businesses and civil society organizations.

India is currently ranked 142^nd in World Bank’s ‘ease of doing business’ index, and the Government of India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is committed to reversing this situation through the ‘Make in India’ initiative. An important step being taken by the Government in this direction is the effort to ease the regulatory landscape by reducing government interference and promoting self-regulation. Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) can play an extremely important role in providing businesses with frameworks for self-regulation, and making them more competitive in the sustainability conscious global markets.    

Mr. Ashok Kumar Pavadia, Joint Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises, Government of India, mentioned in his keynote speech how CSR in India has evolved over a period of 6 years. He said, “India is a happening place as far as CSR is concerned because of the number of changes going on here. We have formulated our own perspective since different stakeholders in different countries have different perspectives on CSR and sustainability.”

Ms. Karin Kreider, Executive Director, Iseal Alliance, said, ”In the coming years, India will face tremendous challenges in terms of sustainability issues like population growth, climate change, water pressures and sustainability standards offer a roadmap for both sustainable production and consumption to help producers to improve their sustainability impact.”

While roll out and implementation of CSR Mandate, enabled through the Companies Act, is gradually shaping up in India, Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) as a framework and tools for businesses/industry self-regulation, are increasing in use and scope, and standard setting, as a trend, is gaining momentum in India. While use of VSS in the domain of sustainable development is much higher in the developed economies, awareness and understanding of impacts of VSS in India is relatively low.

Dr. Bimal Arora, CEO for CRB, said “We try to achieve 8 percent growth target with balanced growth in all sectors. While this is commendable, it also has negative impacts on environment and biodiversity. Correspondingly, there has been increase in number of institutions working on CSR, and CRB is one such institution working towards sustainability in a trading context”.

For further information, please contact Tilak Pattnaik at 011-41088853 or drop a mail at communications@c4rb.net