The United Nations Global Compact Gets Tough
July 7, 2008
“And what’s this?” asks a bemused Olympics commentator as the middle distance race enters its final lap. “I don’t believe it … I really don’t believe it!” and the slightest trace of a giggle enters her voice.
For round the track, overtaking all the runners, comes an athletic, well-muscled figure dressed in a baggy red suit with white fur trimmed collar and cuffs and holding a curvy bottle of a bestselling sugar-based fizzy drink.
“Yes indeed,” concludes the commentator, “Santa really has been working out! No more fat and flabby; no more shaggy beard. He’s fit and lean and ready to take on the World!”
When it comes to previously slow and cumbersome figures starting to show a little zing in their activities, the United Nations being tough with miscreants isn’t too far off the fantasy of a fit and active Santa.
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Green Without Sustainability
July 1, 2008
Once upon a time, on the edges of Fangorn Forest, Gimli son of Glóin grasped the haft of his axe and eyed up the tree next to him.
He was in full flow about this “horrid, dark, dank, tree-infested” forest when a threatening rumble from the forest itself brought him up short.
Suddenly the dwarf realised the trees around him were in fact “charming, quite charming”, and in all likelihood avoided the environmental disaster of a-branch-dropped-on-the-head as well.
So the tension between dwarf and tree was interpreted by Peter Jackson in his film adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s “The Two Towers”.
It appears a similar rumble is starting to be heard amongst investors and those who serve them, the index companies. The most recent response comes from FTSE, who have just launched a new “Green Index”.
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Primark — The Ethical Debate
June 26, 2008
Wile E Coyote, the famous Warner Brothers’ cartoon character, always managed to get himself stuffed full of cactus spines whenever he tried to catch Roadrunner.
Approaching the issue of Primark’s use of child labour, and their consequent dropping of three Indian suppliers, is equally painful.
The story, for those unfamiliar with it, is as follows: the BBC Panorama programme did an episode focussing upon whether the ethical trading claims of Primark, an Ireland based clothing retailer, were as strong as they claimed.
The sharp end of the programme was the revelation that certain garments, sourced from Tamil Nadu in India, had been worked upon by children.
As part of the programme’s production the BBC approached Primark for their response. The business conducted its own investigation and concluded that three suppliers had broken it’s standard, dropping them with immediate effect.
Primark issued a Right To Reply statement, stating:
“It is NOT acceptable for children to produce or work on garments … under any circumstances whatsoever.”
The suppliers in question regularly outsourced their garments to home based workers for the finishing sequin work. In one particular instance they outsourced to some refugees from Sri Lanka, in an attempt to help them gain a proper financial foothold.
The refugees, in order to make as much of this opportunity as possible, allowed their children to work on the garments. In extreme poverty, where there is no guaranteed employment or state education, there is little alternative.
Decisions Decisions
So to be clear, there was no forced child labour. No sweatshop conditions or kiddies being shoved down mineshafts. In fact the organisation in question was trying to improve the lot of some of the poorest in its region.
Labour Behind the Label, a group which campaigns for better working conditions throughout the UK’s clothing supply chain, Labour criticised Primark’s action, saying:
“When companies respond in this way what they are really saying is that if workers speak out about their conditions they will lose their jobs.”
LBL goes on to contest that if Primark was genuinely interested in working conditions, it should do something to help alleviate the problems of poverty, not cut off those who are affected by it.
The Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI), of which Primark is a member, supports this position, stating unequivocally:
“If a company discovers that children are involved in making its products we expect them to … secure their urgent transition from work into good quality education.”
ETI go on to suggest that companies should get involved in programmes to provide that education where it is unavailable and improve their policies so that adults are paid enough to support the whole family.
So in the light of LBL’s observations it is difficult not to wonder whether Primark’s overriding concern in axing the three suppliers in question was to protect its brand and income, not advance ethical standards.
A More Painful Future
Primark’s situation was undoubtedly unenviable. Do you stick rigidly to the letter of the standard which you have adopted, or do you give yourself more flexibility to allow you to adhere to its spirit?
A business, according to the current definition, has to make money. However the principle has been established that the financial, environmental and social aspects of its operations ought to be considered with equal gravity.
So a businesses caught on the hook of a similar situation ought to look deep inside itself and ask whether it can improve the lot of those in greater need than its customers by relaxing some of its financial constraints.
This kind of painful dilemma is likely to arise more often as sustainability takes hold as the commonplace business practice.
The Primark picture is further muddied by allegations in the Indian Press that the situation was misrepresented by an NGO seeking to “garner foreign funds” for itself.
Whether true or not, this serves as a timely reminder that sustainability is not a pure area free of wrong, rather that we all need to beware of those who would turn it to their own particular advantage.
It would have been interesting to see Primark make a go of it, acknowledge that their supply chain had fallen below standard and then embark upon a programme to bring it back into line.
In the meantime, the space remains open for a business to take the principled road out of such a dilemma, attract customers’ spending and so prove to investors that ethical business practices truly are less risky.
Our Elders Should Know Better
June 25, 2008
Embedded within the human race’s shared psyche there is one memory every child has: the wagging finger and stern expression of an elder scolding you for your latest transgression.
Along with it is one of those hallelujah moments which act as milestones on the path from child to adulthood: the realisation that elders aren’t actually supreme beings who are wholly infallible.
With this comes further understanding that rules can be broken with justification but that it’s all too easy to slip into hypocrisy, which in turn leads directly to a lack of credibility from which it is difficult to recover.
The London Stock Exchange is such an elder organisation, its remit being to police how company ownership is traded on all London’s stock markets.
However if London is to move forwards as a centre of sustainability it needs to examine its own performance in this area, lest its current failings lead companies to look elsewhere for a suitable base in the future.
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The Best is Understated
June 23, 2008
The 1968 comedy caper “Hot Millions” is something of an unsung movie.
The plot is relatively straightforward. On his release from prison a convicted embezzler joins a huge multinational conglomerate, where he proceeds to hack the computer and embezzle still more money.
This makes it the first movie to feature computer hacking and to this day it remains one of the best. It also makes embezzlement pretty exciting to watch, no easy feat given the slow drip-drip process the crime usually involves.
However, no matter how much enjoyable it is to see an emotionless box of logic circuits being taken for a ride, the film’s real star is the embezzler himself: Peter Ustinov.
Here is a great British actor at the height of his talents, indulging himself shamelessly in the casual, almost careless throwaway understatement which remained his trademark throughout his career.
The website of Johnson Matthey, the only Chemicals company in the FTSE 100, is reminiscent of Peter Ustinov. Initially understated it hides a talent which is truly exciting once fully revealed.
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