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Human Rights

Do Vote, Voting
Biz StrategyFinance

Climate Change & Proxy Vote: A moral issue indeed – for the finance industry

From research we know that boards of directors lack skill and expertise when it comes to ESG and Climate Issues. But: certainly the asset owners and investors do see that point, and are worried about boards taking tangible action that would safeguard their assets? This is precisely the question that ShareAction asked in their most recent report. The insights are sobering. Particularly the Big Three asset managers (BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street) have a miserable voting record during AGM season: both, for the number of votes cast, as well as for their stance against most resolution on Climate Change and Human Rights. The good news: it rarely has been so simple to identify Greenwashers. Thanks to publicly available filings about votes cast in AGMs of listed companies.
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Mind the Gap
Biz StrategyDefinitionsSupply Chain

Mind the Gap: Language Matters

The supply chain. It has been accepted a long-time ago: supply chain is a risk. Or better: a RISK in capital letters. But also a word that sounds impersonal. Very akin to a factory being a cogwheel in a much larger clockwork. And while the definition of the term does list ‘people’, the focus is very clearly on the idea of it all being a neat system of seamless interactions.
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Consumer-ismFuture Tech

Scenarios of the future: Future cities, future consumers

At Shirahime, we have worked quite extensively over the last few months on the development of fashion industry scenarios beyond the 2020 time frame, going as far as 2045. We mentioned for example Shell as one that used this approach to suit their own goals. Siemens' 'Future Life' video, as presented the The Crystal in London. A much more interesting approach, and very insightful in terms of methodology, but also how tangible the results are presented, is Siemens’ work on Future Cities
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GlobalisationLabourSupply Chain

Cost of (Fair) Labour in Apparel (I/III)

Mid last year, an interesting campaign piece was delivered to my mailbox: London based Offset Warehouse launched a capsule collection of T-shirts retailing at £4.99 (app. Euro 6, plus P&P). Now, the point is, that even if these T-shirt were sold through a major retailer, they would hardly have retailed at more than £10 - and this at a vastly superior quality then is often case.
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GlobalisationLabourSupply Chain

Sustainablity & the UK textiles industry: Historically speaking

The developments in the British Midlands of the industrial revolution have coined the textiles industry possibly like no other. It was is this area that we find the roots to the modern textile industry, including case studies that (nearly) could be dated from our modern times. From archives and historical records the industrial revolution left behind in the area, we can gain many an insight that will trigger a simple ‘déjà-vu’ when taking note of news about textile factories from the Far East that with regularity hit our headlines.
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