Companies are under growing pressure from outside advocacy organizations to improve their practices, not only in their products’ image, but even in their supply chain and how products are made. We have been in a globalized economy for some time now, as companies have outsourced manufacturing to or obtain raw materials from farflung countries, which not only do not have environmental, safety, and labor laws nor enforce them like in the US, but actually offer incentives to lure them over, such as tax breaks and very cheap labor. Another lure is that by doing much production work overseas, it would be beyond the ability of watchdog groups to watch.

But some have done just that. One of the first examples 2 decades ago was Nike, who underwent much criticism of the underage and underpaid labor used to produce Air Jordans and other brands, not to mention the unsafe conditions and equipment used. Now more advocacy groups are able to spend more time investigating a wide variety of companies. In addition, the ease in documenting and publicizing supposed misdeeds through social media has resulted in the greater potential for bad publicity for a variety of consumer brands to occur in a short amount of time.

Much of this exposure has moved into the environmental and sustainability areas, as standards for the derivation and use of energy, minerals, water, food, chemicals, and others have been scrutinized and publicized. Environmental and business practices have never been so closely reviewed and publicized by outsiders ever.

What is a company to do? A company’s reputation with its consumers is of extreme importance in this age of almost instant publication of information. A company must know that its upstream suppliers, retailers, investors, and the public all be satisfied that operations, once thought to be private, are not embarrassing in any public way.

Therefore, companies need to take a deeper look into how they manage their water, energy, resources, and environmental impacts, as well as labor and social issues, so they are beyond reproach by an external group and beyond demonization. This can best be achieved by a thorough external review of processes.

Companies must adapt to a new world of being able to research in detail many procedures thought of as beyond review and the ability through social media to publicize any perceived failings in hyperspeed. A thorough review and optimization of processes that are positive for sustainability will only make such companies look better.

CCES has the experts to help your company or entity perform detailed reviews of environmental and sustainable procedures and can make recommendations to make your program more robust and beyond reproach. Contact us at karell@CCESworld.com or at 914-584-6720.