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Ethical Corporation
Responsible Business
Awards 2014 Part 1
Celebrating responsible business excellence
1

Ethical
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Business
awards 2014

Annual awards

Ethical Corporation Responsible

Business Awards 2014
By Oliver Balch

Our award winners epitomise the best of business practice

ew in this field of sustainability enter it in search of medals and prizes. The

best sustainability professionals are those who care passionately about
using the engines of business to make the world a better place.
But celebrating the best of what they do has its place. Its a way of recognising stellar achievements and inspiring others to follow suit. That was the
driving motivation behind Ethical Corporations Fifth Annual Responsible
Business Awards, which saw nearly 200 of the industrys leading experts
convene in Londons Mayfair on 29 September.

Partnership
The term partnership now occupies a central position in the lexicon of sustainable business. All honest companies admit that they alone cannot solve the
big social and environmental issues of the day. Only through partnership do
they stand a chance.
The Net-Works social business initiative, which was singled out for the
Best Business/NGO Partnership, crystallises what a successful cross-sector
partnership approach looks like. The alliance promotes the recycling of
discarded fishing nets in low-income coastal communities in the Philippines.

The term
partnership
now occupies
a central
position in
the lexicon of
sustainable
business

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ARTPHANEUF

Best Business/NGO Partnership: Net-Works

(Interface and the Zoological Society of London)
The genius of Net-Works, this years winner of the Best Business/NGO
partnership, is that it gives local fishing communities in the Philippines
a sustainable alternative to two intractable problems: poverty and the
environment damage that comes with it.
Without recycling facilities, local fishermen typically discard their old
nets on the beach or in the sea. These non-biodegradable nets pose
a threat to marine life for decades. Carpet manufacturer Interface and
environmental non-profit group Zoological Society of London (ZSL) have
combined to design a solution based on a for-profit recycling initiative.
Launched in January 2013, Net-Works pays villagers to collect old nets,
which are then sold directly to Interfaces nylon supplier. The nets are
reformulated and used for manufacturing Interfaces carpets.
The initiative has already led to the collection of more than 25 tonnes
of waste nets. Participating
villages, meanwhile, are
each able to put an extra
4,800 extra meals on the
table thanks to the income
they have received.
Nigel Stansfield, chief
innovations officer at Interface, says the initiative
achieves all three basic
elements of sustainability:
economic,
environmental
and social/ethical.
You cant do that in
isolation, he says. You
need to develop strong,
Old nets are sold to Interfaces nylon supplier
collaborative relationships.
In our case, we did that through our supply chain and we did it with a
very strong partner.
Heather Koldewey, head of the global conservation programme at
ZSL, echoes Stansfields sentiments. Interface has enabled us to design
a sustainable business model and given us access to a global supply
chain. Thats really liberated some of these communities and allowed us
to set a new frame for conservation, she says.

Nonbiodegradable
nets pose
a threat to
marine life
for decades

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The partnership meets the desire of

Interface, a closed-loop carpet manufacturer and the projects corporate sponsor,
to identify recyclable nylon that can be
reused in its production processes back
in Europe. The Zoological Society of
London (ZSL), meanwhile, a conservation non-profit that forms the other half of
the partnership, has found a solution to
marine pollution caused by waste nets.
Were a big believer in collaborative innovation. None of us are smarter than all of
us, says Nigel Stansfield, chief innovations officer at Interface.
Net-Works is also testimony to the fact Nigel Stansfield, Interface, and Heather Koldewey, ZSL
that the best partnerships are often the
least expected. ZSL works to protect endangered animals and their habitats.
Interface makes carpets. Yet working together has helped both organisations
find new ways of doing things, says Heather Koldewey, head of the global
conservation programme at ZSL. Its not about philanthropy, she insists: Its
about combining skills and heads to come up with something that is truly innovative and something that we couldnt do separately.
Similar fresh thinking characterises Banking on Change, a partnership
Mutual
between Barclays and the development charities Care and Plan UK. The
dependence
judges highly commended the initiative for adopting a credit-led approach to
and mutual
the problem of financial exclusion, which affects 2.5 billion people worldwide.
benefit create
Banking on Change establishes savings and loans groups that save and lend
a successful
to one another. More than 25,000 such groups have been set up in 11 counpartnership
tries since the partnership kicked off in 2009.
An acknowledgement of mutual dependence and the promise of mutual
benefit are other factors behind a successful partnership. These qualities can
be seen in abundance in a collaboration between Diageos liqueur brand
Baileys and milk producer Glanbia Ingredients Ireland Limited (GIIL). Selected
for the Best B2B Partnership, the two companies have combined forces to
push sustainability through the entire Baileys supply chain from the first
gallon of fresh milk to the final product.
GIIL, which is the sole supplier of cream to Baileys, recently introduced
a sustainability and quality assurance programme. The initiative will see all
its 4,500 farmer suppliers audited to ensure they comply with environmental
benchmarks. The move forms part of the ongoing introduction of best practice
guidelines throughout the sector.

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For Diageo, it is important that our business partners share our values with
respect to sustainability, responsible sourcing and ethical business practices,
says Luis Rangel, global head of commodities and raw materials for the global
drinks company. Glanbia has been an outstanding example for everything
this award represents.
Selected as Highly Commended
in the B2B category, meanwhile, was
Mars Incorporated. The US confectionary firm was picked out for the
200MW Mesquite Creek Wind Farm,
which will comprise 118 individual
wind turbines and will boast an
annual output of 800,000 megawatt
hours. Mars is jointly underwriting
the colossal renewable project with
Sumitomo Corporation of Americas
and BNB Renewable Energy.
Relevance and results mark out
quality partnerships, too. And these
duly account for the final two awards
in this category. First, the award
for Most Effective International
Community Investment went to Best B2B Partnership: Diageo and Glanbia Ingredient Ireland
mobile phone operator VimpelCom
for a long-running project by its Pakistani brand Mobilink aimed at promoting
female literacy in rural parts of the country. Run in association with childrens
charity Unicef, the initiative provides teachers with a basic literacy curriculum
Mobilink
via text messages. Early evidence shows that the literacy skills among young
provides
female participants who number around 5,000 have more than doubled as
teachers with
a consequence of their involvement.
a basic literacy
As well as the impacts on literacy itself, its also allowing for a breaking
curriculum via
down of cultural barriers to women using mobile phones, says Chris Burgess,
text messages
head of corporate responsibility at VimpelCom. Theres a reinforcing business rationale behind the companys involvement too, he adds. Illiteracy
levels among women in some parts of Pakistan are around 90%, so thats an
awful lot of people who cant use our services.
Support for vulnerable women also featured in a project in Assam, India,
run by tea brand Twinings. In this case, the company worked closely with local
and regional government agencies to provide more than 6,000 girls on 15 tea
estates with folic acid tablets (among other health interventions) to combat
rampant levels of anaemia.

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Interestingly, gender and mobile connectivity

won the eye of the judges for the Most Effective
Domestic Community Investment award too. The
cellphone operator Turkcell has used its mobile
technology to set up whats thought to be the
worlds first crowd-sourced microfinance project.
Money raised through the companys Women
Empowerment in Economy initiative has been
used to support 68,000 low-income women so far.
As with other prize-winning examples, the initiative marks a collaborative effort between multiple
institutions in this case, Turkeys Ministry of
Family and Social Policies and the Grameen Trust, Turkcell used mobile technology to crowd source funds
among others.
Another Turkish telecoms firm TTNET was highly commended. The
companys Internet4All programme aims to bridge the so-called digital divide
in Turkey by providing under-developed communities with internet literacy
training as well as low-cost internet access.

Engagement
If collaboration is essential to truly sustainable solutions, then engagement
is its critical precursor. Those involved in sustainability see the necessity of
responsible stewardship of the planets resources. But it cant be assumed
that everyone gets it.
For all companies, engaging their staff marks an imperative first step.
Without employees on board, a business is left with a well-meaning sustainability strategies and zero action. US green household products firm Seventh
Generation has a worldwide reputation for being a values-based business. With
an intensive induction programme, regular discussions with the chief executive and ongoing training on sustainability issues, employees are clear about
the subjects importance. To avoid any doubt, 20% of employees bonuses are
tied to the completion of four self-selected sustainability goals.
Yet pipping Seventh Generation (Highly Commended) to the post in this
years Best Employee Engagement category was Ita Unibanco. The Brazilian
bank won special commendation for an innovative financial education
programme that it runs for its staff. As a result, the number of employees that
now have savings accounts and pension plans has increased by 56% and
37%, respectively.
Not only are the personal finances of 80,000 staff members more stable.
Their advice to the banks customers shows improvements too. As Jorge
Paulo Rodrigues da Silva, a general commercial manager in one of the banks

Ita Unibanco
ran an
innovative
financial
education
programme
for its staff

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branches, explains: Now, when we present the theme [of financial responsibility] to our clients, they begin taking a significantly different view of our bank
a view of a relationship that is more consistent, sensible, sustainable and,
above all, profitable.
Engaging key audiences outside, as well as inside,
the business is crucial as well. Interested parties, from
NGOs to investors, want to know how companies are
responding to sustainability risks and issues. One important vehicle for achieving such communication is annual
reports. Beating off tough competition from the likes of
Merck, H&M (Highly Commended), Legal & General and
GE for Best Sustainability Report was Maersk.
The Danish shipping group was praised for a very
clear, honest report. Not only did Maersk highlight its
achievements, but and this is all-important for external
credibility and engagement it was upfront about the
challenges it faces too. Among the difficult issues
tackled in the report are the challenges around facilitation
payments in the shipping industry, shipping accidents,
long working hours in China and poor supplier performance on human rights.
Our story, societal context and wider purpose is told
consistently from year to year, and every year we are
able to add more data and facts to our societal impacts
through our impact studies, said Louise Kjaergaard, Best Employee Engagement: Ita Unibanco
group lead for sustainability communication at Maersk.
Along with consistency, clarity is another key attribute of effective communication. And it was this quality that drew the judges to Nestls Supplier
Code, which won the Swiss food giant the Best Supplier Engagement award.
The Code sets out non-negotiable minimum standards for the companys
suppliers, right down to the individual farm level. Its not about applying a big
stick, though. Nestl provides guidelines and advice to help its suppliers make
their business practices more sustainable. Already, 74% of its supply base is
fully compliant. As a result of its supplier engagement efforts, Nestl can now
trace 28% of the volumes of its 12 key commodities back to source.
High Commended, meanwhile, was Woolworths. As with Nestl, the South
African retailer asks its fresh produce and horticulture suppliers to meet core
Clarity is
environmental standards. As part of its Farming for the Future initiative, all of
another key
these suppliers are independently audited. Whats rare about the programme
attribute of
is that Woolworths foots the bill for these initial audits, not the supplier. The
effective
retailer plans to engage its beef and dairy suppliers similarly in the near future.
communication

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Consumers are arguably one of the hardest groups to engage. Beyond

the hard core of eco shoppers, who actively look for sustainable products
and services, most dont take much note. So how can you raise consumers
awareness and nudge them to buy and act
more sustainably?
One impressive effort comes from B&Q, which
was highly commended in the Best Consumer
Engagement Campaign category. The retailers
three-month Great British Bee Count campaign
caught the judges attention for its grassroots
nature and its clear consumer focus. Run in partnership with Friends of the Earth, the campaign
invited members of the public to download a
dedicated smartphone app and to share bee
sightings via social media. Within a week of its
launch in June 2014, the app had almost 20,000
registered users and almost half a million bees
were logged.
Another move that caused big ripples among
consumers was the decision by US pharmacy
chain CVS Caremark to stop selling tobacco Best Sustainability Report: Maersk
products in its 7,600 stores. The bold move,
which won a special mention from the judges, garnered 350,000 likes on
Facebook and 218m print and broadcast media impressions. In addition, one
in four consumers surveyed said they were more likely to shop at CVS Caremark as a result.
The top prize in the consumer engagement category went to another stellar
performer: Santander Brasil. The Brazilian bank the second to be singled
out at this years awards was picked out for its Reduza e Compense CO2
programme. The scheme provides a pioneering bargaining platform that sets
out to break the dominance of institutional investors in the carbon market and
open it up to individuals or enterprises. Anyone can log on to the web-based
initiative, calculate their carbon footprint and then acquire the corresponding
carbon credits on the voluntary market for projects.
Crucial in the success of the programme was Santander Brasils ability to
win over people to the idea of carbon offsetting, which it did through instructive and light-hearted videos. To show it was serious, the bank also undertook
to offset the first 1,000km of each vehicle in the companys fleet. Santander
Brasil also hosts an app on its corporate Facebook page (which has over 1
million followers), which shows the amount of carbon that users have emitted
by browsing on the social media site.

Santander
Brasil was
picked out for
its Reduza e
Compense CO2
programme

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This achievement reinforces the pioneering nature of our initiative, which

aims to develop the carbon market, especially among those who are distant
from discussions about the subject, such as members of the public and
small and medium-sized companies, said Marcos
Madureira, vice president of sustainability at the
bank, on receiving the award.
Companies want consumers to take action to
promote sustainability. And that action could be
voting with their wallets. Turning sustainable principles into a viable market offering is no easy task,
however, which is why PureCircles promotion of
stevia-based sweeteners is so impressive, and why
the Malaysian firm won the Sustainability Commercialised award. The zero-calorie sweetener, which
represents an entire new category, is proven to have
an 85% smaller carbon footprint than natural caloric
sweeteners such as sugar cane and beet sugar. Its
water footprint is even better, comprising a mere 5%
that of the average sweetener on the market.
Best Supplier Engagement: Nestl
Selected as Highly Commended once again
was B&Q for its easyGrow product, an innovative teabag technology used to
PureCircles
package bedding plants. B&Q sells about 140m such plants a year. Historically
zero-calorie
they would be packaged in non-recyclable polystyrene trays. The retailers
sweetener
new solution uses a renewable material based on corn starch. The pots are
has an 85%
filled with coir, meanwhile, a sustainable alternative to peat. Launched in April
smaller carbon
2014, EasyGrow drove an additional 1m in sales within the first six months.
footprint than

natural caloric
sweeteners

Leadership
The above examples all point to individual excellence: companies doing one
thing exceptionally well. But if the cause of sustainability is to make a real
indent on the worlds most pressing problems, it takes coordinated effort
across multiple fields. That is only possible with genuine, integral leadership
from the top of an organisation.
Mars Incorporated is one of those. The US confectioner took the award for
Best Private Company for an unprecedented second year running. Last year
Mars was praised for its work on tackling child labour in the cocoa industry
in West Africa, and this year the judges highlighted its development of a new
deforestation policy and its underwriting of the new 200MW wind farm in Texas
(as cited above).
The benefit for Mars in being a private company is the ability to take the
long-term perspective, said Kristen Kinkella, corporate affairs director for Mars

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MBA Polymers
is developing
high-quality
post-consumer
recycled
plastics

Sustainability Commercialised: PureCircle

UK. We look at sustainability, like many other companies, as key to our future
success and leaving the world better than when we found it.
Highly Commended in this category is Roshan, the largest telecoms
provider in Afghanistan. The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development holds
a controlling 51% stake in the firm, ensuring that social and economic development are hard wired into the companys business model. The judges praised
its positive contribution to society in Afghanistan against all the odds.
MBA Polymers, meanwhile, walked away with the award for Best SME
(small or medium-sized enterprise). Less than one tenth of the 280m tonnes of
plastic produced annually are recycled. This small Worksop-based firm, which
began life in a Californian garage more than 20 years ago, is leading the way
in developing high-quality post-consumer recycled plastics. The companys
clients include HP, Nespresso and Electrolux.
Scotland-based Elan Hair Design was Highly Commended for its
eco-friendly practices, which stretch to sending its clients shorn locks for
composting, while the Mad Monkey Hostel in Cambodia won special mention
for its commitment to social responsibility.
Behind every great company is a great leader. B&Qs appearance in
several of the category shortlists made Matt Sexton, the driving force behind
the companys One Planet Home programme, a worthy winner of the Head of
Sustainability of the Year award.

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Head of Sustainability of the Year: Matt Sexton, B&Q

The energy and inspiration that Matt Sexton has given to B&Qs One Planet Home programme
over the past six years earned him this years coveted Head of Sustainability of the Year award.
The accolade is richly deserved. Under Sextons leadership, the iconic DIY brand has
reduced its carbon footprint by 30% (saving the retailer more than 66m in the process),
diverted 90% of waste from landfill and reduced paint solvents by more than 60%.
Sexton is quick to give credit to his fellow employees. Not a fan of centralised objectives,
he prefers to think of One Planet
Home the name B&Q gives to
its company-wide sustainability
programme as more of a movement. We have advocates in most
departments across the business.
I like to think of them as a group
of people who all share a similar
goal.
His achievements speak of an
ability to get employees on board.
One way of doing that is never to
miss an opportunity to communicate. At Sextons insistence, the
One Planet Home logo was woven
onto 30,000 new uniforms. Every
new recruit also gets trained in Matt Sexton: Former Director of corporate social responsibility, B&Q
B&Qs sustainability practices as
part of their induction. Whether its the internal television system or a company newspaper,
well get our message in there, he says. And were very consistent. So we say, This is One
Planet. This is what we do.
Another secret to his success is to let the experts get on with what they are expert at. So,
yes, we have an emission goal around haulage, but I know absolutely nothing about trucks,
he admits. Yet within B&Qs 30,000 workforce, there are all the specialists you could want. If
we can inspire them and get them on board, then they become real champions.

Accepting the accolade, Sexton was quick to credit his colleagues.

Theres an enormous amount of goodwill among B&Qs employees, he said.
A personal mission to reduce the level of toxic chemical in paints drew him
from a career as a buyer into sustainability. He summarises his job succinctly:
taking all the things that people are doing at B&Q and trying to get them to
do it in a slightly different, more responsible way.

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Genuine innovation, commitment and action honoured

As for the prestigious CEO of the Year, the award for 2014 went to Rana
Kapoor at Yes Bank. Under Kapoors leadership, Yes Bank has emerged as
Indias fourth largest private sector bank. But its done so while retaining
a clear social mission. Among other measures, Yes Banks CEO has
instituted Responsible Banking as a strategic unit with the bank. Kapoor has
also appointed Chief Sustainability Officer and Chief Innovation Officer roles,
rarities in Indias finance sector. The effectiveness of such moves is evident
in Yes Banks portfolio of services for the millions who are unbanked or
under-banked in India.
Kapoor is a firm believer that a business-like approach to development
will provide a secure and realistic solution to Indias sustainable growth. His
message to his fellow corporate leaders is equally clear: Integrating CSR principles within the core business operations is critical for business sustenance.
One outstanding leader whose career is truly inspiring from her time
as president of Ireland through to her recent nomination as UN special
envoy for climate change is Mary Robinson. As the judges put it, this years
Lifetime Achievement award winner has embodied the entire spectrum
of sustainability.
Behind every accolade won at the 5th Annual Responsible Business Awards
lies a story of real innovation, genuine commitment and meaningful action.
Long may such efforts continue. n

12

Yes Banks CEO

has instituted
Responsible
Banking as a
strategic unit
with the bank