Responsible sourcing and production: practical support is at hand
In Proforest’s first blog post on Medium, we introduce our new series of practical guidance for responsible sourcing and production.
Increasing numbers of companies are making commitments to address deforestation, biodiversity loss, land conflicts, child labour and other social and environmental issues within their supply chains. But implementing these responsible sourcing commitments across large and complex supply chains can be challenging, and little guidance is available. As more and more organisations make public their commitments to responsible sourcing, practical guidance on how to implement them is needed.
Proforest has been helping companies and many other organisations to understand and implement responsible sourcing and production practices for forest and agricultural commodities for more than 15 years. In that time, we have worked with thousands of different supply chains, hundreds of companies and dozens of multi-stakeholder initiatives.
In 2015 we published our Responsible Sourcing: A Practical Guide, which provided a step-by-step approach to moving from commitment to implementation. Now, we are launching a new series of Responsible Sourcing and Production Briefings which aims to provide the guidance needed, in concise, clear and practical terms. The series draws upon our extensive practical experience of helping companies, governments and civil society to deliver their responsible sourcing commitments.
The briefings apply to responsible sourcing in many commodities including palm oil, pulp and paper, sugar, soy and rubber. They are relevant to implementing commitments on zero deforestation, community development, child labour and human rights, biodiversity loss and land conflict among others.
Delivering responsible sourcing in practice: an integrated approach, our first briefing note in this series, highlights the three main strategies available to supply chain companies to develop the requisite links with producers: certification, legal compliance and direct supplier engagement. It also includes an overview of how landscape or jurisdictional initiatives can support all three approaches and help to address some of their greatest challenges.
Who is the guidance for?
The briefings are aimed at people working in forest and agricultural commodity supply chains, who need to understand how to develop and implement responsible sourcing commitments. They will also be relevant for civil society organisations and practitioners working on land-based sustainability initiatives, and government officials involved in public–private approaches to agriculture and forest sustainability.
What does it cover?
The briefings provide up-to-date information on fast-evolving issues in responsible sourcing of forest and agricultural commodities. Forthcoming topics include:
- Practical approaches to responsible sourcing
- Jurisdictional and landscape approaches, and their application for responsible sourcing
- Engaging with smallholder suppliers
- Building on legality as an approach to responsible sourcing
Subscribe
The first Responsible Sourcing and Production Briefing is available now. If you would like to receive further briefings direct to your mailbox, please subscribe to our mailing list.
