Responsible Production & the Circular Economy

Sustainability Joins the Mainstream - Thanks to vocal consumers, shareholders and responsible investment firms, a growing number of companies are now promoting their sustainability, workplace and other social achievements as essential aspects of their brands. At the same time, many corporate leaders have come to realize that pursuing social responsibility can reduce litigation and reputational risk, while also improving innovation and efficiency. In addition, recent academic studies have demonstrated that investing in companies with strong ESG profiles can improve portfolio returns.

The Eeyores of the world would have us believe that “sustainable business” is an oxymoron. Worse, some cynically give a public face to “being green” with no real intent or interest in changing their non-green ways.

This year, celebrations of International Coffee Day start on Friday, September 29 and culminate on Sunday, October 1, resulting in probably the most alert weekend of 2017. It’s also a great time to join Fair Trade USA’s #JustOneCup campaign and support coffee farmers across the globe.

We approach environmental responsibility from a holistic perspective grounded in life cycle thinking—looking carefully at raw material use, energy generation, manufacturing and the end of life of our products. We work across the supply chain to drive change within our spheres of influence.

Two themes appeared during almost every session during the 2017 Data for Good Exchange (D4GX), held at the Bloomberg headquarters on Sunday, September 24. One was the need to generate trust between data scientists and the people whose data they hold. Another was the need to address the bias that often appears in data and algorithms.

At Bloomberg’s 2017 Data for Good Exchange, the fourth annual conference exploring how data science can help solve problems for social good, a partnership was announced between Bloomberg, BrightHive and Data for Democracy to develop a code of ethics for data scientists from the ground up. Called the “Community Principles on Ethical Data Sharing (CPEDS),” this code of ethics will provide a set of guidelines about responsible data sharing and collaboration.

Gildan received the CSR Seal awarded by the Foundation for Corporate Social Responsibility in Honduras (FUNDAHRSE) for the 10th consecutive year. This year, 65 companies received the award, with Gildan being the only apparel company to receive this distinction 10 years in a row.

Over the last two years, we’ve sharpened our pencils on the glide path to 2025. Let’s be honest: it isn’t easy or obvious. There are many business hurdles and operational challenges to realizing this goal. But our commitment to making progress has not changed. Why? Because long term, it makes sense for our business and it makes sense for the planet. We want to position our company to have access to quality ingredients at a cost that we can afford into the future. All of this depends on a healthy planet.

India is the third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the world, accounting for 6.8 percent of global CO2 emissions. At the 2015 United Nations Convention on Climate Change, India signed the Paris Agreement and committed to reducing CO2 emissions 35 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 emission levels. Since then, the Indian government has introduced emissions control measures for power plants and tighter vehicular emission standards, while calling on businesses to reduce emissions.

At last week’s Climate Week in New York City, I participated in a unique panel discussion entitled: Can business help take back our climate to be fit for life again? And how? Held at the Flanders House, the cross-sector panel was organized by CO2logic, Connect4Climate, The General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the U.S.A., IFC (World Bank Group), and the New York City chapter of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals.