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Social Accountability International SA8000 — An Overview

Laser guns were the stuff of kids’ dreams. Brightly coloured beams of light going zip zap between enemies, usually causing them to explode in a cascade of sparks or a frazzle of hair.

This science fiction is nowhere near the truth of the matter, where lasers are much more sedate and used primary for scientific research or industrial use. As a narrowly focussed beam of light, they can cut through just about anything depending up on the power put behind them.

Social Accountability International’s SA8000 is the laser of sustainability reporting.

It is a tightly focussed standard, concentrating solely upon people’s working conditions. Crucially it encompasses both employees and suppliers, essentially forcing a company to review its entire supply chain.

Fundamental structure
SA8000 is based upon a variety of sources, including UN declarations and International Labour Organisation conventions. It is currently under review with an update due to be published later in 2008.

Requirements are split across eight recognised human rights components, including child labour, collective bargaining, working hours and remuneration. A further section details the management processes a company is expected to have in place.

Unlike many other standards, there is no option to self-certify under SA8000. Rather, each and every company facility has to be visited by a qualified assessor.

Brief and to the point
As with all good standards, SA8000 benefits hugely from keeping the actual criteria straightforward and simple. This means the standard itself is contained to four sides of A4, including definitions the standard relies upon.

However this does not impinge upon the effectiveness of the standard especially with the strengthening which is currently taking place.

For instance, under the Forced Labour section a company is currently prohibited from engaging in forced labour or requiring employees to lodge deposits or identity papers with the company.

The draft of the strengthened standard includes bonded and trafficked persons and also prohibits the retention of any salary or other property of its employees.

A similar pattern emerges with the management processes. Here many of the tweaks in the new draft appear to be based upon loopholes management have discovered in the original.

For example, in the section on Addressing Concerns And Taking Corrective Action the original draft required companies not to discriminate against employees who raise concerns about the business’ performance against the standard.

It is easy to imagine how some companies may have forced employees with concerns to raise them in public, thus ensuring that they effectively self-censored for fear of gaining a reputation as being awkward.

The latest draft of the standard therefore includes a further requirement in this section that a company provide a confidential process for employees to raise their concerns through.

The need for expansion
Because of its focus upon working conditions SA8000 tends to concentrate upon businesses, industrial and manufacturing environments.

While this is undoubtedly the greatest area in need of improvement for western supply chains, it would do the standard no harm to widen its appeal to include other bodies such as government bodies and NGOs.

Government bodies in particular are a large driver of a significant proportion of commercial activities in most countries. If they were to start to adopt SA8000 it would go a long way to improving labour standards across the world without the need for regulation.

However for this to happen, SA8000 needs to take the public sector’s concerns into account in the first place.

The Future of Sustainability Reports

You know when you’re in awards season in the film industry. Everyone seems to be handing out trophies, statuettes and gongs. Paparazzi snap away at gleaming white teeth while fashionistas obsess over the width of stars’ shoulder straps.

After a while the endless cycle of red carpets and acceptance speeches starts to get a little draining and you can end up wishing that Hollywood would crawl back under its habitual rock on the other side of the pond.

Sustainability Reporting is starting to establish a similar annual love in.
[Read more…] about The Future of Sustainability Reports

Coca-Cola, polar bears and social responsibility

What unexpected partnership could you develop to support your brand?

Expecting to see a link to the heralded new Coca-Cola Lets Get Together site, I went to their corporate site again today, and was intrigued to see a link to a sub-site about polar bears. This has been live for about a month, according to their press releases.

I don’t immediately see the connection, though apparently polar bears have been part of the Coca-Cola brand for years. I guess I’m not their target market; for me, polar bears mean Fox’s Glacier Mints.

But the idea – and the mini-site itself – is a good one. It’s a collaborative effort, linking together the CSR section of Coca-Cola’s corporate site and the World Wildlife Fund’s site, and is clearly designed to demonstrate that Coca-Cola are concerned about global warming, and are doing their bit to help protect the environment. I particularly enjoyed the wind-noise – it made me check my windows …

Polar bears are very popular with children (is this the link for Coca-Cola? I suppose the connection with ice/ice-cubes helps too), and are a high-profile high-status animal in danger of extinction, so pull at the public heart-strings. The mini-site contains some educational material and e-cards, but is chiefly a vehicle for confirming polar bears as part of the Coca-Cola advertising and of their corporate social responsibility commitments – and is a very clever association with WWF, whose brand has involved polar bears for years. (Also, of course, it plays well with The Golden Compass ice-bears which are currently popular).

Coca-Cola are donating part of their profits from sales of toy polar bears during December 07 to WWF, and ask that visitors to the site also donate to WWF.

This seems to me to be relatively small-scale donation on the part of Coca-Cola (donating a tiny percentage of the profit from each can of coke would result in a far larger sum), but – according to the WWF site – Coca-Cola and WWF are working together to 1) reduce the water used to produce its beverages, 2) recycle water used in manufacturing processes, and 3) replenish water in communities and nature. This will of course have a far larger impact, and is part of a multi-year partnership announced last June.

So: a clever way of bringing together two organisations to the benefit of both. (And, one hopes, to the benefit of polar bears). Question is, which organisation could you work with in this way?

The Generation Gap Among Digital Consumers Is Getting Bigger

The generation gap among digital consumers in the U.K. keeps getting bigger according to new research from Ofcom.

Every day, more people consume more digital media, content, and communications. The research found that the average U.K. adult spends over half of their waking hours engaged in some kind of media or communications activity. The use of multi-screen multi-tasking by 99% of U.K. adults enables them to conduct 11 hours of communications and media activities in less than nine hours each day. And U.K. adults’ media and communications consumption will continue to grow.

The Ofcam study found that U.K. adults spend an average of 3 hours and 52 minutes watching television each day and an average of 3 hours and 3 minutes listening to the radio each day. 97% of U.K. homes have digital TV and 48% of U.K. radio listeners have a DAB radio in their households.

Online and mobile content consumption continues to grow, too. The study found that 82% of U.K. households have Internet access and 93% of U.K. adults have mobile phones. 61% of mobile phone users have smartphones, and 16% of U.K. households are now mobile-only, meaning they no longer have landline telephones. The average mobile subscriber in the U.K. sends 169 text messages per month. On the other hand, the average residential consumer receives fewer than nine pieces of mail in the post each week and sends fewer than seven pieces per month.

Ofcam surveyed U.K. adults and children and found that the “Digital Day” is very different for adults over the age of 24 compared to young people under the age of 24. As you’d expect, younger people spend far less time listening to the radio each day than older adults and view less television each day than older adults.

Following are a few findings from the study about the digital consumer generation gap that brand marketers should be aware of as they develop their marketing initiatives:

  • Young people between the ages of 16-24 spend as much time engaging in text communications as they do watching television whereas older people spend more time watching television.
  • Young people spend half of their time “watching” media viewing live television (i.e., not viewed from a DVR), while older adults spend more than two-thirds of their “watching” time viewing live television.
  • Young people spend 65% more time using social media each day than older adults.
  • Young people spend 163% more time using their smartphones each day than older adults.
  • Young people are three times more likely to get their news online than older adults.

The digital consumer generation gap gets even bigger when you look at the habits of children. Ofcam found that smartphones are the most used device (after television sets) among children between the ages of 12 and 15, and tablets are the most used device (after television sets) among children between the ages of six and eleven.

Understanding the media habits of U.K. consumers is critical to ensuring your marketing campaigns get in front of the right audiences at the right times. Make sure you consider these digital media consumption trends before you invest in a marketing campaign that won’t drive the return on investment you need.

Mobile Dominates During the Fourth Quarter of 2013

iphone mobile shopping appsFor business, marketing, and ecommerce during the fourth quarter of 2013, one thing dominated—mobile. Whether you look at retail site traffic, email opens, or digital transactions, mobile either took the top spot or gained significant ground during the final months of the year, particularly during the holiday retail season.

Research from a variety of sources shows us that mobile is becoming more important before, during, and after the purchase cycle than ever. Let’s take a closer look at a few of those research reports for the details.

Mobile Sales and Shopping

According to the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, mobile traffic accounted for nearly 35% of all online traffic during the fourth quarter of 2013, which is 40% higher than what was recorded during the same period a year ago. Similarly, mobile sales jumped by 40% over the same period a year earlier and accounted for 16.6% of all online sales during the fourth quarter of 2013.

Overall, IBM found that certain retail subcategories saw even higher increases in mobile sales. Year-over-year, mobile sales increased by 49.6% for department stores, 81.7% for health and beauty, 54.5% for apparel, and 38% for home goods.

Looking at devices, IBM found that tablet users are more likely to complete a purchase using their devices than smartphone users, and they’re likely to spend more money per order ($118.09) than smartphone users ($104.72). An even bigger gap is found between iOS and Android device users. IBM found that iOS users accounted for 12.7% of total online sales compared to just 2.9% for Android users (despite the much larger Android market share in the United States), and iOS users spent more per order ($115.42) than Android users ($83.56).

IBM also looked specifically at mobile and online shopping in the United States on Christmas Day and in the United Kingdom on Boxing Day. On Christmas Day, mobile traffic accounted for 48% of all online traffic (up from 28% on the same day in 2012) with mobile sales hitting nearly 29% of all online sales (up 40% over the same day in 2012). On Boxing Day, mobile traffic accounted for 58% of all online traffic, which is an increase of 42% over the same day in 2012). Mobile sales accounted for more than 45% of all online sales (up 63% from the same day in 2012). On both Christmas Day and Boxing Day, smartphones drove a greater percentage of online traffic than tablets, but tablets accounted for more online sales. Similarly, iOS outperformed Android in mobile traffic, mobile sales, and average spending per order in both countries.

Mobile Email Marketing

In a separate study of 1.3 billion opened emails by Return Path, it was reported that 51% of email opens happened through a mobile device during the 2013 holiday season. The percentage peaked on Christmas Day with 62% of emails opened that day on mobile devices. In fact, during the 2013 holiday season, Return Path did not find a single day when mobile didn’t take the top spot above both desktop and webmail for opens.

Return Path created the infographic below to visually explain some of the highlights from its study.

Return-Path-Email-Mobile-Infographic

One thing is certain—mobile matters. In fact, mobile more than matters. Mobile is mission critical.

Follow the links above to view all of the details from the studies referenced in this article.

Image: Jason Howie