Social Entrepreneurship

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The readymade garments (RMG) industry in Bangladesh is the greatest contributor to female employment in Bangladesh; over 3.2 million of its employees live at the bottom of the economic pyramid (defined as people with less than US$10 per day in purchasing power in 2015 US dollars). Recognising this, at DBL Group we have focused on increasing the number of female workers: in 2012 women made up only 35 percent of DBL’s female workers in its garments manufacturing units, but today, in 2018, almost half of our employees (49%) are female.

Mohawk Group’s Lichen carpet plank collection, which merges leading concepts in biophilic design and sustainability, was recently honored by BGIS with the Sustainable Product Award at its An Inspired Future event. The accolade was given on-site at the fifth biennial conference, which took place last week at the Hilton Markham Suites & Conference Centre in Markham, Ontario.

Gender inequality and the process of empowerment are both dynamic and complex; as are the market systems in which women work. Monitoring and evaluation systems must be consistently updated and adapted in line with the changing needs of women to effectively address the market constraints they face and the positive impact of their empowerment on business growth. This requires a carefully designed measurement system that captures data on women’s economic empowerment from multiple perspectives and sources.

Mohawk Industries, a flooring manufacturer headquartered in Calhoun, Georgia, is committed to sustainability through better manufacturing and operations processes – providing products without negative impacts on our health and the planet’s health.

Back in August this year I attended the opening of our Innovation and Knowledge Center in Pune, India - an expansion of our facilities to celebrate our 20 year anniversary in the country. The center is one of 7 global Innovation and Knowledge centers, each of which represent the specific needs of their region as well as having unique perspectives and specialist material science expertise.

As part of its ambitious 2025 sustainability goals, Avery Dennison Label and Packaging Materials has created a new portfolio designed to enable customers choose products that can help to make a positive environmental impact.

Last week the team went to the EDIE Sustainability Awards 2018. We were proud to be a finalist for the employee engagement and behavioural change category for our Sustainable September campaign. Unfortunately we lost out to Virgin Atlantic Airways (Congratulations to them!) but we are still very proud of the recognition and excited to continue in our progress towards our 2025 Sustainability goals as a corporation! Sharene Katsoulas, Isabel Gonzalez Jungblut, Jenny Wassenaar

During Sustainable September, we spoke with Alicia Procello, VP, Corporate Social Responsibility and President, Avery Dennison Foundation and Janet Sandoval, Senior Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility and the Avery Dennison Foundation. They spoke about their work and how serving as a force for good contributes to a more sustainable future.