Transparency and sustainability in global commodity supply chains

Gardner, Toby; Benzie, Magnus; Börner, Jan; Dawkins, Elena; Fick, Steve; Garrett, Rachael; Godar, Javier; Grimard, A.; Lake, Sarah; Larsen, Rasmus Kløcker; Mardas, N.; McDermott, Constance L.; Meyfroidt, Patrick; Osbeck, Maria; Persson, Martin; Sembrés, Thomas; Suavet, Clément; Strassburg, Bernardo B. N.; Trevisan, Adriana Hofmann; West, Chris; Wolvekamp, P.

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.05.025

Cited by 315 publications

(275 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(104 reference statements)

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“…Finally, it is worth highlighting that improvement in transparency, whether through independent initiatives such as Trase, or through trader initiatives such as the Soft Commodities Forum, of course does not, in and of itself, reduce deforestation. While transparency is a critical precondition for accountability (Gardner et al 2018), concrete changes in company sourcing and producer land use decision-making are required to break the link between the expansion of soy and deforestation.…”

Section: Using Supply Chain Data To Monitor Zdcsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In practice, however, the potential impact of ZDCs is undermined by weaknesses in their definition and implementation-not least a lack of transparency (Climate Focus 2016, Jopke and Schoneveld 2018, Garrett et al 2019. Transparency is a prerequisite for understanding the coverage and impact of ZDCs and crucial for their accountability (Gardner et al 2018). Unless implementation is verifiable, it is not possible to determine whether ZDCs are actually translating into on-the-ground reductions in deforestation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using supply chain data to monitor zero deforestation commitments: an assessment of progress in the Brazilian soy sector

Ermgassen

Ayre

Godar

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Zero deforestation commitments (ZDCs) are voluntary initiatives where companies or countries pledge to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains. These commitments offer much promise for sustainable commodity production, but are undermined by a lack of transparency about their coverage and impacts. Here, using state-of-the-art supply chain data, we introduce an approach to evaluate the impact of ZDCs, linking traders and international markets to commodity-associated deforestation in the sub-national jurisdictions from which they source. We focus on the Brazilian soy sector, where we find that ZDC coverage is increasing, but under-represents the Cerrado biome where most soy-associated deforestation currently takes place. Though soy-associated deforestation declined in the Amazon after the introduction of the Soy Moratorium, we observe no change in the exposure of companies or countries adopting ZDCs to soy-associated deforestation in the Cerrado. We further assess the formulation and implementation of these ZDCs and identify several systematic weaknesses that must be addressed to increase the likelihood that they achieve meaningful reductions in deforestation in future. As the 2020 deadline for several of these commitments approaches, our approach can provide independent monitoring of progress toward the goal of ending commodityassociated deforestation.

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Section: Using Supply Chain Data To Monitor Zdcsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using supply chain data to monitor zero deforestation commitments: an assessment of progress in the Brazilian soy sector

Ermgassen

Ayre

Godar

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…Moreover, biomass production may gradually shift from traditional sources in the Americas and South East Asia to new agricultural frontiers with lower governance capacities in Africa (Gasparri et al 2016). Hence, better information and transparency about the socio-economic and environmental benefits and costs associated with globally traded biomass will become key to inform the increasing number of valuechain based governance initiatives (Gardner et al 2018). Key governance challenges include substitution effects between value chains with heterogeneous levels of regulation or regulatory enforcement that can lead to environmentally costly indirect land use change (Arima et al 2011).…”

Section: Governance Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the global cropland footprint of the European Union’s non-food bioeconomy

Brückner

Häyhä

Giljum

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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A rapidly growing share of global agricultural areas is devoted to the production of biomass for nonfood purposes. The expanding non-food bioeconomy can have far-reaching social and ecological implications; yet, the non-food sector has attained little attention in land footprint studies. This paper provides the first assessment of the global cropland footprint of non-food products of the European Union (EU), a globally important region regarding its expanding bio-based economy. We apply a novel hybrid land flow accounting model, combining the biophysical trade model LANDFLOW with the multi-regional input-output model EXIOBASE. The developed hybrid approach improves the level of product and country detail, while comprehensively covering all global supply chains from agricultural production to final consumption, including highly processed products, such as many non-food products. The results highlight the EU's role as a major processing and the biggest consuming region of cropland-based non-food products, while at the same time relying heavily on imports. Two thirds of the cropland required to satisfy the EU's non-food biomass consumption are located in other world regions, particularly in China, the US and Indonesia, giving rise to potential impacts on distant ecosystems. With almost 39% in 2010, oilseeds used to produce for example biofuels, detergents and polymers represented the dominant share of the EU's non-food cropland demand. Traditional non-food biomass uses, such as fibre crops for textiles and animal hides and skins for leather products, also contributed notably (22%). Our findings suggest that if the EU Bioeconomy Strategy is to support global sustainable development, a detailed monitoring of land use displacement and spillover effects is decisive for targeted and effective EU policy making.

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“…Peer‐reviewed publications that use robust scientific methods and avoid misrepresentations of transparency data (Gardner et al., ) would be of significant interest to media, NGOs, and corporate actors, especially given the high level of trust enjoyed by academics. Media coverage and NGO campaigns can produce improvements in corporate supply chains or alert regulatory agencies with remit to punish environmental crimes (Gibson & Warren, ).…”

Section: Why and How Should Academics Study Individual Corporations Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Why academics should study the supply chains of individual corporations

Goldstein

Newell

2019

J of Industrial Ecology

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Although fields such as industrial ecology have advanced our understanding of how cleaner technologies, recycling, and lifestyle changes can reduce the impacts of production and consumption on people and planet, environmental deterioration and social injustices stubbornly persist. New strategies are needed to achieve change in an era of increasing urgency. This paper proposes that academics study the supply chains of individual corporations and link them to environmental and social impacts in geographically specific areas. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have used this approach successfully, issuing reports about corporate activity related to deforestation, sweatshops, and other issues of social concern. But academics, by and large, have studied generic products, industries, and sectors. To verify this, after reviewing approximately 11,000 studies on supply chains, we identified just 27 academic papers that focused on individual corporations. These were primarily by NGOs and social scientists, with no studies by industrial ecologists meeting our review criteria. To uncover corporate supply chains, researchers used two distinct methodological approaches: in situ (interviews, surveys, and surveillance) and ex situ (trade data, document analysis, and maps). In this paper, we explain why and how academics should study the supply chains of individual corporations. This is done by combining approaches from industrial ecology, with those from geography, sociology, and other social sciences to develop a political‐industrial ecology of supply chains. This both physically links actual product flows with their environmental impacts, and explores how they affect justice, equity, and welfare. The work we propose offers clear collaborative linkages with NGOs, industry, and the media.

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Transparency and sustainability in global commodity supply chains

Cited by 315 publications

References 54 publications

Using supply chain data to monitor zero deforestation commitments: an assessment of progress in the Brazilian soy sector

Using supply chain data to monitor zero deforestation commitments: an assessment of progress in the Brazilian soy sector

Quantifying the global cropland footprint of the European Union’s non-food bioeconomy

Why academics should study the supply chains of individual corporations

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