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Business Ethics

Odd one out Governance Ethics
GovernanceOpinions

For better or for worse: Governance is made by People

When it comes to governance, discussions about ‘Best Practice’ are frequent. What is often forgotten however: Governance, and notably ‘good’ governance, stands and falls with people. WHO sits on the board is hence at the very least as important as HOW that board is set up to operate by its procedures and surrounding legal constraints. Why is that so? And why is this often ignored?
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Stepping into your Courage
Biz StrategyBook ReviewsGovernance

The Courage to Act: The inside view on creating change

Sustainability is usually thought of as an environmental issue. And it is. But but not only. It is in fact a mindset. One that takes courage. This magazine - come out of a creative collaboration - explores three key questions by interviewing personalities in business (Vincent Stanley from Patagonia, Eric Garnier from Choba Choba, Adriana Marina from Hecho x Nosostros, Fergal Smith from the Moy Hill Farm and Andy Middleton from the TYF Group), and by giving space to written creativity of sustainability professionals. The three fundamental questions are: How does ‘creating change’ feel from within? What does it mean to swim against the business mainstream because genuinely the status quo does not work? Where and how does courage come into play?
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The Spark
Biz StrategyOpinions

The Spark: The Resonance of an SME with vision, aspiration, commitment

We all interact frequently with SMEs of different types, characters, and offers. Yet there are two types of such businesses. Those where 'the spark' is graspable: Their vision, raison d'etre, motivation, aspiration, commitment. And then those, who at best surf the waves of third party demands. Content to be 'victims' instead of taking the courage to forge their own irons. A never ending fascination.
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Diversity-and-Inclusion
Biz StrategyGlobalisationGovernance

Fashion Companies & their Boards of Directors: Rotten Eggs in a Diverse World

Diversity and Inclusion is a highly relevant topic not ‘just’ because it is all about equality and justice. But as long as entire parts of our global population remain disenfranchised, and desperate to just survive from day to day, tackling challenges - and in particular Climate Change - that affect all of us, indiscriminately, remains impossible. Boards of Directors set out the "Tone at the Top', also in matter of diversity and inclusion. In fashion companies, what exactly is the tone, the music, that they are creating?
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Plenty of value in the waste
Biz StrategyCircularityGlobalisationSupply Chain

Circularity and Business Models: 2 US reports, many learnings

The world, by and large, operates based on land-filling. The only way to improve the situation any time soon is: not to landfill. At all. Or at least as little as possible, and that asap. To that extent, 2 reports on textiles the circular economy have been published, both of which look at the issue from different, and complementary perspectives. What is it that we can learn from these 2 reports, side by side? One, the old adage could not be any truer: One Man’s Rubbish is another Man’s Treasure. And: True cost accounting would make a huge difference.
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Brockman 4 Iron ore Mine train
Biz StrategyGlobalisationGovernanceMaterials

Juukan Gorge and Leadership Ethics – Compound interest of: technocratic lawyers + profit focus + racism

On May 24th 2020 Rio Tinto blew up the Juukan Gorge rock shelters in Australia, which ancestors of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people occupied over the course of 46’000 years.There are a multitude of lessons to be learned from the entire process that lead to the disastrous blast of a site of such archaeological importance. But also from how the scrutiny in its aftermaths and the have been. Here a selection of just a few to think about.
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GovernanceSupply ChainTrade Shows

License to operate: Report from the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) yearly conference

On September 12 to 14, I attended the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) yearly conference in Lille, France. The theme of this year’s edition was ‘License to Operate’. I and my colleague Ilaria Pasquinelli, both presented a research paper, focused on sustainability and value generation in the fashion industry, and the status quo of knowledge on sustainable consumption habits respectively.
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