Which Soft-Commodities Traders Tell Their Sustainability Stories Best?

by | Jan 17, 2019 | Blog

Soy: coming to a vegan restaurant or animal feed lot near you soon

Everyone’s a publisher now.

Good story telling is good for business: it reassures customers, attracts and retains top talent, and boosts your reputation with investors, consumers and civil society.

It’s especially important in getting the best return on your investment in sustainability. But while many companies have good sustainability stories to tell, they often tell them rather badly. There’s something about the subject and its mix of science, ethics and doing-good that sometimes befuddles corporate story tellers. The results can be sleep-inducing data-heavy tomes, or assorted case studies that lack a clear connection to business strategy.

Leading habits

Two related elements separate leading story tellers from the laggards. The first is having a good sustainability story to tell. And then telling it well.

We’ve begun bench marking how companies combine both elements.  We’ve started with the food and ag sectors (one of our specialisms) and gone to the heart of the supply chain: soft-commodities traders. These companies must deal with the full range of issues, from climate change and deforestation to community rights and forced labour.

Our Approach

We selected 10 top soft-commodities traders who are members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development or the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform. As members, these companies are committed to advancing sustainable business practices and should have good stories to tell.

The alphabetical list is: ADM, Barry Callebaut, Bunge, Cargill, Glencore, Golden Agri-Resources, Louis Dreyfus, Olam, SUCDEN, Wilmar.

We analysed the sustainability content on each company’s global website to find out if it had a good sustainability story to tell. Then we considered how well it told its story, scoring it in four categories: messaging, liveliness, use of different media, and effectiveness of social media. Then we ranked them.

The results are telling. We will reveal the ranking shortly when we publish the full report. Meanwhile we’re contacting each company to make sure we have judged them fairly.

To find out more about the report – Susty Story Ranking: Which Soft-Commodities Traders Tell Their Story Best? – please contact Francesca Ward (Francesca.ward@contexteurope.com).

(Plastic) Ties that Bind

by | Oct 29, 2018 | Blog

Was it the jaunty plastic straw rammed up the nostril of a sea turtle?  Or maybe the sea horse clinging to a used cotton bud?  Or that Coke bottle inside the gut of an emaciated, very dead orca?

Visually speaking, single-use plastics are experiencing an animus horribilis.  The Instagram moments are many and the effect traumatising for those tasked with managing the reputations of the companies who dispense such plastics, especially when their brands are emblazoned on the litter.

The amazing functionality of so many of the villainous items is in reverse proportion to how much we now hate them. Take the disposable plastic water bottle: incredible design, engineering and manufacturing prowess brings us an everlasting vessel filled with fresh, fizzy, hygienic liquid no matter where we are in the world. And how about the plastic-foil laminate sachet which delivers safe, tasty tuna in gravy to our precious little kitty?

No matter how much you hate plastic, you must marvel at the design and engineering of modern packaging. Every bit as clever as a Breitling or Rolex. It’s such a pity to throw it away.

The terrifying thing about single use plastics is how many different items there are to worry about. My current fixation is with plastic ties – those whippy little bits of plastic magic that are used to lash things to lampposts, tie cables together and myriad of every-day uses, including temporary handcuffs ideal for sudden renditions.

Cable ties were invented in 1958 by Maurus C. Logan who worked for Thomas & Betts, an electrical company supplying cable to the aerospace industry. Now, made from nylon, they appear to be everywhere but mostly stranded on lampposts or lying on the ground after being cut and chucked.  Given their global ubiquity, it won’t be surprising to find them rammed up the nostril of a turtle or ringing the neck of a gull.

Fortunately, the next generation of ties are being made to be biodegradable and certainly less wasteful (such as the Rap-Tie that leaves no tail and can be undone and re-used). But given that plastic ties have been around for over 50 years, it’s going to be many more before we can walk past street furniture without seeing the trademark lashing leftovers. A constant reminder of the craziness of single-use plastic.