Webinar co-hosted by LIMA and Business for Social Responsibility urges licensees to take
the lead in adopting a collaborative management-systems approach to working with suppliers

How can the consumer products community most effectively balance their core business interests with the imperative to have products manufactured in the most socially responsible way? In a webinar hosted by the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA), licensees were urged to adopt a collaborative approach within their sourcing operations as a first step toward improving the social and environmental impact of product manufacturing.

The webinar was developed by BusineNoting that social and environmental responsibility shouldn’t be viewed as being at odds with traditional business objectives, Blythe Chorn, BSR’s Associate for Advisory Services, pointed out that “strong labor practices can help reduce the risk of work stoppages and productivity delays, contributing to higher productivity and lower prices, while strong environmental practices help reduce energy and natural resource use, which also lowers cost.”

Establish a Management-Systems Approach with Improvement Goals
To establish a collaborative environment, webinar presenters encouraged licensees to adopt a formal code of conduct that sets expectations and to implement a management-systems approach to ensure continual improvement until factories successfully meet all expectations set forth in the code. Furthermore, BSR encouraged licensees to actively seek out and reward suppliers that are willing to make social and environmental sustainability part of their culture.

According to Cody Sisco, BSR’s Manager of Advisory Services, continuous improvement management systems typically have four key elements:

1. Planning – establish objectives and design processes to achieve those objectives
2. Doing – put those processes in place
3. Checking – make sure the processes are having the desired effect
4. Acting – make changes and tweaks based on what you’ve learned from the check cycle

“To develop these systems it really takes two to tango,” Cisco said. “Licensees can support suppliers by moving toward a long-term relationship with the factory and by being more transparent about expectations. Then it’s up to suppliers to develop better management systems and openly and proactively share performance results and plans with licensees, including what support they need to improve compliance.”

“One of the key take-aways from the webinar is that licensees have a unique opportunity to take ownership in this area and work with licensors, retailers and suppliers to set a new direction in supply chain sustainability and compliance—one that will result in ultimately result in manufacturing environments that are safer and greener,” said Marty Brochstein, LIMA’s Senior Vice President of Industry Relations and Information.

The second webinar in the social and environmental compliance series will take place on January 19, 2011 and address the steps licensors can take to create internal alignment to support social and environmental compliance in the supply chain.

Contact Marty Brochstein at mbrochstein@licensing.org or (646) 744-3747 to listen to the archived webinar, receive a copy of the presentation or to learn more about the LIMA webinar series.