Ecobusiness-Exchange

The sustainability landscape for business in 2012 looks the same as 2011; consumers are not spending freely, customers are looking for value and ethical products. Business customers are facing pressure from consumers and stakeholders to report improvements in their own sustainable performance. Resource efficiency; using less is good for the environment and saves money. Compliance is always essential- risk is increased as there are more extreme weather events and natural disasters that can impact businesses.

It’s been a tough year for most businesses, although a few seem to be doing better than most.Starbucks and Costa coffee saw big increases in their sales this year. Starbucks reported record 4^th quarter fiscal results and Costa had a sales increase of 25% in the last six months. Sales of free trade products are up -Chocolate by about 40%. The Co-op issued a report on ethical product sales showing increases of 9% in the last year popular choices included Green funerals and Micro-generation projects. Technology and gadgets have had a good year judging by the fiscal reports and the massive queues outside mobile phone shops for the latest Apple iphones and ipads in my local shopping centre. This has been coupled with an increase in companies offering to recycle your phone. In hard times “feel good” products and services are doing OK.

There have been a few surveys in 2011 highlighting the preference of consumers for more environmentally sound products. A number of organisations have started to publish the carbon footprints of their products. In a recent survey by KPMG* 95% of the G250 largest global companies were reporting CSR which is good. 60% of Chinas largest companies are reporting their CR metrics. Large enterprises are going to put pressure on their supply chains to report either during the bid process or when they review their supply chain.  

Organisations in the Government, pharmaceutical, finance and insurance sectors are responding to pressure from their stakeholders to produce quality data. The questions in bids & tenders are becoming more demanding in relation to data on scope 1 & 2 and scope 3 emissions and governance areas such as employee diversity. Reporting to the CDP or GRI and an EMS*. As well as demonstrating engagement with communities through volunteering and community projects. This will require respondents to be able to give qualitative data in response and show they have policies and an EMS in place. Some companies have made it mandatory for their suppliers to report: Walmart requires suppliers to report to the CDP.

Why pay for you don’t need- Otherwise known as resource efficiency. Saving money is going to be high on organisations to do lists (expected increase 8% + CRC tariffs) as long as it’s easy. Saving money on energy is using a good place to start either by re-negotiating the contract or engaging employees to turn the lights off. Information Technology accounts for 3% of UK emissions.

Reduce IT costs and emissions through Cloud computing.  Cloud means IT without the need for massive infrastructure investment. . Running IT from the cloud is cheaper, more efficient and can be more innovative. Experimenting with software solutions on a cloud model can mean minimum investment and pay as you go.

Extreme weather events will make Disaster recovery systems essential. More customers are asking their suppliers about their plans for managing business risk. The Last 30 years has seen an increase in the advent of extreme weather events from 133 per year to more than 350 now- droughts floods and tornados. The Guardian coined the Phrase “Global Weirding” This can also bring opportunities as it is expected the south east of England will become drier leading to more work for construction companies repairing subsidence damage.  

Buying consumer goods on leases and returning to manufacturers or suppliers for disposal or re-use could be a way of giving access to consumers with limited funds and allowing the resources to be re-used- Products as a Service?

2011 saw the introduction of the UK Bribery & Compliance act changing the way some businesses responded to offers of corporate entertainments. The act makes individuals accountable as well as corporations. Some organisations have introduced maximum values on the gifts their executives can accept £50 seems a popular figure. This could offer a new opportunity to build relationships with customers and suppliers:

 Instead of saying come to our box at Ascot

Say; we are going to re-develop a community garden would you and your team like to help?

Sources

Co-Op Ethical sales Report 

Extreme Weather events- Scientific American

Global Weirding- Guardian

 * KPMG International Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2011

Starbucks Revenue

Costa Coffee

Greenwash: it’s on the increase- it’s dangerous to consumers and business. How do you recognise the signs and avoid committing the deadly sin?

What is greenwash? Statements or advertising that misleads the audience by stressing the environmental credentials of a person, company or product when they are unfounded or irrelevant. 

Greenwash is on the increase. Many organisations are trying hard to get a share of a growing market where many consumers would prefer to buy a product with ethical or environmental credentials.

Greenwash is dangerous; it erodes consumer trust and can cost your business its reputation and hard cash. Just one complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) can start a preliminary investigation. Complaints may come from members of the public or competitors- in 2007 10% of complaints came from competitors. This can be costly as it is likely that planned advertising will be required to be withdrawn and costs not refunded. The ASA takes Greenwash seriously and views it as an Abuse of Trust.

What are the 10 signs of Greenwash?

1. Fluffy language: words or terms with no clear meaning e.g Eco Friendly
2. Green Products V Dirty Company: Energy efficient light bulbs made in a factory that pollutes
3. Suggestive Pictures: Green Images that indicate an unjustified green impact e.g flowers blooming from exhausts
4. Irrelevant claims: emphasising one tiny green attribute when everything else is un-green.
5. Best in Class: declaring you are greener than the rest even if the rest are terrible
6. Just not credible: Greening a dangerous product doesn’t make it safe
7. Gobbledygook: jargon and information that only a scientist could check or understand
8. Imaginary friends: a label that looks like a third party endorsement – excepts it made up
9. No proof: it could be right but where the evidence? In 2007 16 claims to the ASA were upheld on these grounds
10. Out-right lying: totally fabricated claims or data. Disturbingly in 2007 20 claims were upheld.

How to avoid Greenwash?

The best way to avoid greenwash is to ensure the data is correct and robust. Good data collection processes and systems are essential. Combined with data verification this will help avoid sign No 9 “No proof” and sign No 10 which maybe by accident rather than by design.

Ensure that marketing teams are trained to avoid greenwash and that they are collaborating with the environment or a CSR professional to get the messaging right. Having an additional level of checking can be useful- some organisations use their legal teams or consultants.

Choose your friends wisely and remember words can hurt you.

With thanks to Harriet Kingaby at Futerra who hosted the workshop on Greenwash at the IEMA Conference in November 2011.

You can download the Greenwash Guide at:

http://www.futerra.co.uk/downloads/Greenwash_Guide.pdf

IEMA Institute of environmental management & Assessment

http://www.iema.net

 How can organisations meet the pressure from their customers and investors to prove their Green credentials? Business needs to be profitable and sustainable – can you afford to divert a senior manager from their day job to deliver your sustainability program? Even if you do, will one person really be enough?

Why not outsource sustainability?

Organisations in certain sectors such as professional services or finance may not have invested heavily in people or processes to deliver a sustainability program yet need someone to spend time creating their strategy, policies, bid responses, and the annual report entry for CSR or the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project). Opportunities for increasing staff engagement, energy and resource reduction and competitive advantage may be lost as there just isn’t the time to focus on sustainability.

Successful outsourcers can provide you with a service that is designed for your business. There are a number of niche providers delivering services that manage your payroll, deliver HR services to staff and managers, and organisations that manage the operational aspects of the finance function, so why not apply this concept to sustainability?

A Sustainability outsourcer can provide your organisation with a virtual team of experts who will work with you to define your strategy, put the relevant policies and systems in place, create campaigns that will motivate your staff and help reduce the cost of resources.

To coin a phrase:  “People As A Service”

Resources:

Sustainability Services PAAS

Mitie: Energy Management Services

Energy costs are rising- it’s difficult to get precise figures on exactly by how much. However, most organisations are budgeting for at least a 10% rise in basic costs, plus add 10% onto for the cost of the CRC levy. When making the business case energy costs should be taken into account as part of the big picture. The actual costs may not be huge- depending on your business, so cost is not the only factor- as they say every little helps. If energy costs are a significant expense to your business, I expect you have already done this – so any more tips would be great.

The first step is to establish what the costs are; this can be done through an analysis of the utility bills and information can be provided by your supplier. If you have a leased building you may not see the original utility bill and receive an apportioned cost from your landlord. In this case ask the landlord for more information regarding actual usage. If you have a large number of locations and a mixture of leased and owned buildings you may want to enlist the help of a management company to help you gather the information. Note that data gathered for the CRC is only for supplies where one has a direct relationship with the utility provider. Gathering the data is one of the major blockers to implementing an effective plan for energy reduction.

How can you justify the costs and time spent in gathering the data?

The old adage applies “if you can’t measure it- you can’t manage it!” Once you have the data you can prove the case for introducing energy/cost saving measures.

• The Carbon Trust estimates that at least 5% can be saved by introducing energy efficient measures such as turning off lights and IT equipment when not needed.
• Retrofit of energy efficient lighting can save additional costs and emissions
• Fitting energy management devices such as Voltage Optimisers can make savings
• Installing alternative energy sources such as; Photovoltaic’s or Wind power maybe an option.
• Consider using an energy management company to re-negotiate your tariffs. If you have your supply spread across numerous locations or are paying through landlords it may save costs to take the supply direct.

Gathering the data enables an organisation to set meaningful targets for reductions. These can be used as part of an employee engagement strategy, in the annual report and used for reporting to the various frameworks such as the CDP (Carbon Disclosure project). For services organisations energy makes up a significant part of the Carbon Footprint for employees and service delivery. Measuring energy should make it easier to compile a Carbon Footprint for your organisation. Getting a baseline of energy emissions is a key factor in any credible sustainability program.

 More information:

Energy Management Services

NUS Consulting

It is likely that your organisation is already under some pressure to report  activity on Sustainability or CSR from customers or suppliers. Between 60-95% of corporations in the UK are currently reporting on their sustainability activities. It is reported that at least 60% of consumers take CSR performance in to account when making purchasing choices. All things being equal they make the greener choice.

Pressures from the supply chain manifest themselves in the bids and tender process. The most frequent questions relate to implementation of an Environmental management system (EMS), Certification to ISO14001, copies of CSR policies, training of staff in Sustainability and compliance, Health & Safety, measurements of Scope 1 & 2 Emissions, Diversity, Risk identification and logging processes, reporting on the CDP (Carbon Disclosure project) or GRI Global Reporting Initiative, mapping the global supply chain, details of KPI’s and progress against target.

If you intend to bid for business in the Public, financial services, Utilities, Retail and professional services sectors, you will need to have your answers ready. There are a numbers of ways of doing this: an Environmental Management system will help, and if you have one then read no further. If not then read on for a couple of pointers in justifying the costs of implementing EMS or a software solution to manage the data collection, reporting and bid process.

The most compelling justifications for investing in a management solution are:

Reducing risks that damage the business

• Environmental incidents caused by process failure which damage the environment or cause loss of life.
• Loss of assets caused by an environmental incident such as an extreme weather event for which the business is unprepared, such as flooding or Ash clouds which leads to business loss or suspension.
• Business loss through the Failure to identify and prepare for future risks to the supply chain, Operations or availability of resources.

Financial Risks

• Lost business: Sustainability can score highly as part of the supplier selection process for some organisations. Walmart recently insisted that all its suppliers complete a CDP disclosure as part of their commitment to greening their supply chain. If your organisation has lost any business, or scored low marks in a tender process this has a financial value that can used as part of a business case.
• Prosecution and Fines: The recent Bribery Act in the UK which came into force in April 2011 places obligations on organisations to ensure that their suppliers are compliant.

Lost Reputation

• It is difficult to put a financial value on reputation and trust till it’s gone. Oil companies over the last 30 years have suffered damage to their reputations and their stock prices. Public companies or those looking for investment should take into consideration that investors are placing value on organisations that take sustainability seriously. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index is well established and respected by investors
• Reputations can be lost by the actions of your own supply chain- as some retailers sourcing their supplies from countries using child or slave labour have found to their cost.

To put the business case together find some examples of potential business risk and loss, estimate the financial values by talking to key people in Operations, sales, Marketing and executives. Identify key questions that have been asked as part of the supplier tender process and how they were answered. Make it understood that this is a snapshot of the business and a well implemented system will help identify the deeper risks and costs.

Risk is not the only aspect: find some opportunities to include in the case: won business, Greener products, measurement of emissions from travel may give you some cost reduction and business advantage.

In doing this you should find compelling reasons for making a change and potentially garner support along the way to help you make the case for implementing new systems.

Dow Jones Sustainability Index

FTSE 100 reporting source:             

http://www.bis.gov.uk/files/file50312.pdf

Carbon Footprint Calculator

Its a challenge to define the footprint of your organisation- if you would like to start by defining your own footprint; please click on the link above to the calculator designed by Carbon Footprint Ltd.

What is a Carbon Footprint?  The phrase describes the total Greenhouse Gas emissions of an organisation or those relating to a particular product or service. It has its roots in the concept of Life Cycle Analysis which evaluates the total environmental impacts of a product or a process. The challenge with a Carbon Footprint is to define exactly what is being measured or the “system boundary” and getting the data correct.

Creating a Carbon Footprint can provide an organisation with competitive advantage by making its offerings more attractive to consumers and by identifying areas where costs can be reduced in the product lifecycle.

Here follows a dummies guide to creating a Carbon Footprint. To start, you need to measure the emissions of your organisation or product. Carbon relates only to greenhouse gases, so unlike a Lifecycle assessment this doesn’t take into account all the environmental impacts which may include water and adverse impacts on biodiversity.

To create the footprint for your organisation in compliance with the PAS2050 standard you need to measure Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, Scope 3 are optional.

Scope 1- Direct Emissions: Fuels combustion, company owned transport, Industrial Process emissions, Fugitive (leaking emissions)

Scope 2 -Energy Indirect Emissions: Consumption of purchased electricity, Heat, steam and cooling

Scope 3- Other Indirect Emissions: Employee travel, packaging, suppliers Emissions, Third Party distribution, Use of Product, Raw Materials, End of life, and more as identified during the product lifecycle.

To establish the Carbon Footprint of a product: measure scope 1, 2 and 3 in relation to the specific product or service. To do this effectively you need to establish the emissions throughout the whole lifecycle of the product from the raw materials, manufacturing, distribution, retail use and disposal.

Have fun with the Carbon Footprint calculator and let EBEX know how useful it is in helping you define your footprint.

A number of large companies in the UK have been calling for mandatory reporting hoping to create a level playing field. Under the 2009 Climate Change act, the government is obliged to review Greenhouse Gas reporting and suggest improvements. Or be forced to explain to parliament by April 2012 why it has not. Defra has launched a consultation process due to complete by July 5^th 2011 to gather feedback on the options from businesses. There is still some debate as to how this legislation will be affected by the government’s commitment to one in one out.

There are 4 options:

1. Business as usual – no changes
2. Enhanced Voluntary Reporting. This will be a non mandatory option. The government will increase awareness of the reporting guidance and encourage businesses to report. Potentially by working more closely with the CDP( Carbon disclosure project) and having sector specific voluntary agreements.
3. Mandate under the companies act (2006) for all quoted companies: This option will not capture large private companies. 62% of FTSE all share companies already report their emissions, however only 22% in line with government guidelines.
4. Mandate under the companies act for all large companies: all large companies as defined by the criteria set in the companies act. This will include large private companies not captured by option 2.
5. Companies exceeding an energy consumption threshold: this would focus the reporting requirements on those firms with the largest UK emissions from energy use. Initial consideration is given to firms using 6000MWh of half hourly metered electricity as threshold. However the threshold could be set higher or lower. Based on the registration data submitted to the CRC 4050 companies would be required to report.

What will be covered?

Organisations will be required to report on emissions from the six Greenhouse gases converted to CO2 emissions. This will include emissions from UK and abroad. Scope 1; Direct emissions and Scope 2; Energy indirect emissions will be included. The consultation will explore the option of reporting scope 3 emissions such as Business travel by employees. It is likely that waste, recycling and product lifecycle emissions will be excluded. If mandatory reporting is implemented under the companies act then data will need to be audited.

How could it affect your organisation?

A recent business survey by PwC says that 90% of companies report Brand Building as an incentive to report and reduce emissions. Improved reporting may make easier for companies to provide better quality responses to CSR type questions in bids. Defra’s consultation document highlights that if reduction measures are implemented costs savings can be as high as 2% on energy and 4% on travel. Large emissions may be a liability, in light of potential future legislation on climate change to limit emissions. Mandatory reporting will allow investors to identify the level of exposure to such risks in an area that is gaining in profile. Reporting will need to be managed sensitively as exposure of data can lead to searching questions for the organisations. It will make it easier for consumers and stakeholders to compare company performance. Organisations currently reporting will need to be creative to maintain their lead in this space and it is likely that this will lead to more supply chain reporting and the development of product carbon footprints.

How much could this cost?

Defra estimated the cost for organisations new to reporting between 5,600-£30,000 per annum which accounts for the costs of setting up new systems and reading and understanding the legislation. For organisations with over 50 sites it estimates 57 person days per annum or £28,500. This includes 19 days for audit. Defra expects that the benefits could outweigh the costs.

References

Defra Consultation Document

CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme

Started as a Cap & Trade scheme is now a levy on energy emissions.

Greenhouse gases

Six main Greenhouse gases as covered by the Kyoto Protocol: CO2 Carbon Dioxide, CH4 Methane, HFC’s Hydroflurocarbons, N2O Nitrous Oxide, Perflurocarbons PFc’s, Sulphur hexafluoride SF6

Travel emissions are a significant cause of emissions for non-manufacturing organisations. Making the business case for reducing travel is relatively easy. Use this as an opportnity to introduce a system that makes it easier to report and manage emissions too.

Measurement and collection is a challenge: Most organisations access their travel data from a number of systems and in different formats. Employees record their mileage in their expenses claims and book their own travel on the internet.

If you outsource your travel booking and expenses to a provider who supplies you with an integrated solution this should make reporting much easier and more flexible. Systems can be customised to produce reports in the format you need. Plus you can introduce travel reduction measures based on who travels, where and why.  

The Business Case for an Integrated Solution

• Reducing travel costs: research by WWF found that firms are significantly cutting business travel which usually means significant operational savings.  A travel & expenses solution can reduce costs of services such as hotels, train and air travel by better rate negotiation and forward planning. Introducing integrated travel & expenses can ensure employees adhere to expenses policies. Many tools include mileage calculators so claims will be more accurate. Return on investment claims by suppliers range from 10-20% of the travel budget.
• Duty of care: Integrated travel and expenses will provide the organisation with more accurate information concerning employees whereabouts and enable you to comply with a duty of care that ensures employees are not put in “harms way” or can be accounted for in case of a natural disaster.
• Timely management information: Reports on travel are provided that do the calculation for you of converting the travel to CO2 emissions and equivalent. Organisations that provide services: Concur, KDS and web expenses.
• Flexibility if provided as a Software as a Service: Travel & Expenses solutions are often provided as SAAS, and on subscription.

If an integrated solution is not possible: Carbon Footprint Ltd provide a business travel calculator that computes travel by air, car, and train that can be incorporated into your expenses solution and one could generate reports that way.

Neither of these cover Grey fleet- the company car plus fuel card- this is more challenging and other than asking employees to declare their business mileage. I haven’t found an easier way of separating private and business mileage- any suggestions would be useful.

Reducing Travel Costs

This has been covered extensively in this blog – see links below to videoconferencing, webex etc.

The only thing to add is; why not encourage your customers to do business with you via videoconference- it could reduce your costs, and maybe theirs and provide some competitive advantage. Cost reduction is usually an easy sell – In the words of one Finance Director of a global corporation- “business travel should be the last resort”

Links

Travel & Expenses providers: Concur, KDS, Webexpenses

How to reduce your travel by Videoconferencing

Health & Safety executive

 Many enterprises have implemented or have the building blocks of an environmental program in place. Often they are created in reaction to customer or supplier pressure and evolve slowly. How or why should an organisation with a slowly evolving program or none at all change the program to make a significant business impact? Creating the business plan for an environmental program could be the mechanism to persuade the organisation to invest resources, understand better the challenges facing them, and be used as a communication tool to engage the leadership team and employees. A successful business plan should try and embrace the aspects of the Triple Bottom Line; Economic, Social and Environmental.

Why would an organisation want to make more investment in their environmental programs?

In no particular order, here is a list of the most common pressures felt by business:

Rising Travel Costs: travel is expensive costly and time consuming – savings by reducing travel through new systems and processes can be significant. Plus, the organisation has a duty of care towards employees which can only be executed if it knows where they are when they travel.

Water Shortages: often water is considered a free resource, costs and availability of water is a concern for many organisations who are taking steps to reduce and conserve supplies. Either through better use of existing resources, or creating partnerships with charities and NGO’s to conserve supplies.

Supply Chain Pressure: potential customers are asking for information and greater proof of environmental activity. This is influencing the procurement process particularly in local government, utility and financial sectors.

Rising Energy Costs: with a recent announcement by the government of a £16 per tonne carbon price in the UK prices are expected to be increased by a further 10% on already rising costs.

Investor Pressure and Reputational Risk: poor environmental performance puts businesses at risk. Private investors such as KKR understand that good environmental performance makes good business sense. KKR introduced a program called the Green Portfolio to their managed companies saving over $160m in operating costs.

Government Legislation: Being compliant is an essential step for businesses. Legislation is becoming more complicated and difficult to track even for small business. Failure to comply means cost and loss.

A business plan is a mechanism to take these pressures, evaluate which have the greatest impact on the business, identify how the business can benefit by managing the risks, and put in place some initiatives that go further than just risk or cost reduction.

For example; rising travel costs- installing videoconferencing to be used by employees can reduce travel costs. This could also be a business USP (Unique Selling Point), by offering to install videoconferencing in your client’s premises you can cut the costs and increase the number of interactions with your client. Also, increase the chances of client retention.

Once you have identified the benefits and risks associated with your business pressures spend as much time in identifying the resources and systems needed to implement the changes and the benefits in devoting resource to doing this as opposed to adding tasks to some ones day job!

There are some books and free templates out there which will give you the basics of how to write the plan and over the next few weeks Ecobusiness Exchange will be providing more insight on how the common pressures felt by business can be mitigated and turned into business opportunity.

Creating a business plan could help your organisation to recognise what benefits could be, or the consequences of not addressing the environmental pressures it faces. Plus how else can one get the resources needed to efectively implement and environmental program?

Resources

The Triple Bottom Line- phrase first coined by John Elkington in his book Cannibals with Forks. Published Capstone 1997

The Definitive Business Plan Richard Stutely. Published; FT Prentice Hall

Compliance services: www.legalregister.co.uk

Corporate Responsibility questions in bids and tenders are becoming more frequent- one company EBEX  spoke to said; nine out of ten bids had  questions  related to CR or sustainability. The variety of frameworks and associations can stretch the knowledge and resources of most mid size companies.  Sometimes just understanding the question can be a challenge. Eco-Business exchange offers some insight and some useful links to more information about some of the terms and frameworks  that are cropping up in bids to Tender..

Does your organisation have an EMS and comply with ISO14000/1?

This is the most frequently asked question to which there is a yes or no answer. Environmental Management Systems (EMS) provide a systems approach to managing the responses and processes needed to avert and respond to environmental incidents.  If you have an EMS- great news,  CR questions should be easier for your company. If not, and one can give more than a yes/no answer- if you can say that you have identified your business significant impacts then that is a good start. EMS has the most value in managing and identifying significant impacts. ISO14001 is a BSI standard for an EMS.

EMS & ISO14001 made easy

http://www.iso14000-iso14001-environmental-management.com/

Does your organisation report to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) ?

The CDP is a reporting framework popular with investors. Reports are published on the CDP website and are publicly available. Contributors are asked to update their entries annually although this is not mandatory. Participants must complete a comprehensive questionnaire covering emissions according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocols, business strategy and responsibilities and the risks and opportunities presented by climate change.

https://cdproject.net/CDP%20Questionaire%20Documents/CDP_Investor_2010.pdf

Does your organisation report under the Global Reporting Initiative(GRI)

This reporting framework covers organisational strategy, governance, human rights, product, energy and environment. The responses are published regularly on their website and can be searched by organisation and by sector. The GRI runs a number of public conferences available to members. Most organisations would use either the GRI or CDP.

http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/DDB9A2EA-7715-4E1A-9047-FD2FA8032762/0/G3_QuickReferenceSheet.pdf

How does your organisation support The United Nations Global Compact & Declaration of Human Rights?

The Global Compact contains ten principles covering everything from Human rights, Labour relations, Anticorruption, creation of new environmental products and services to employee engagement. If your organisation has a corporate Social Responsibility strategy it is possible to relate actions to the ten principles if you have not signed up to the Global Compact. A fundamental component of the Global Compact is the declaration of Human Rights and more details can be found by following this link.

http://www.unglobalcompact.org/aboutthegc/thetenprinciples/index.html

Ethical Trading Initiative

This is an alliance of companies, Trade Unions and voluntary organisations working in partnership to improve the lives of workers around the globe who make or from consumer goods from Tea to flowers. Company members are predominantly large retailers and include ASDA, GAP, Tesco, Body shop, Next Retail and Typhoo Tea. Fair treatment and improving conditions for the global workforce and environment are key concerns.

http://www.ethicaltrade.org/

The selection above is just a small sample of the most popular questions, others are:

• Do you measure the Carbon Footprint of products and services?
• Reporting of emissions using the Green House Gas Protocols.
• Suppliers do you require your suppliers to comply with environmental policies?
• Requests for copies of Procurement policies, environmental policies, transport policies,
• Targets and methods of  recycling waste: WEEE, Confidential paper, Industrial
• CR strategy, vision and education.

Have you had some tricky questions recently?