Past NGO engagement with our sector has been laced with controversy but, as availability of sustainable timber improves, should we be redefining these key operating relationships? Mark Goyder, director of business think-tank Tomorrow’s Company, recommends that companies look well ahead: “Yesterday’s community issue can rapidly become today’s customer issue and tomorrow’s shareholder issue. If you want to avoid being taken by surprise, you need close and honest relationships with partners who represent social concerns. And it’s no good saying ‘we’ll only do this where there is a business case’. While there is evidence that working closely with community partners to reflect social needs can benefit the bottom line, self interest alone is no basis for any relationship. Strong stakeholder relationships need trust, and trust comes from being clear what you believe in. If your partner thinks you are going to stop the relationship the minute the numbers change, the relationship is not going to achieve much.”
Businesses have been working in partnership with WWF-UK’s Forest & Trade Network since 1991. “There are risks on both sides in NGO/business relationships, so each partner has a vested interest in success,” said manager Steve Crewe. “Both parties may at first be worried about the time and resources that could be taken up and the risks to reputation. Yet the benefits far outweigh the risks. Businesses benefit by better understanding of NGO aims and also through association; NGOs benefit by being able to influence the development of agendas that benefit society and the environment.”
Multi-group partnerships
Tobias Webb, editor of Ethical Corporate magazine, has seen a number of changes in NGO relationships with business in recent years. “Concentration is now more focused on capacity-building in the supply chain – developing and checking ethical lines of product sourcing. Many of the past culturally-related barriers to working with NGOs have now come down, and the UN has played a largely unrecognised role in promoting dialogue. Some of today’s partnerships are likely to be multi-company, multi-NGO groupings. The Forests Dialogue (TFD) is a good example. The larger the group, the greater the ability to lobby on major issues.”
World Business Council for Sustainable Development director James Griffiths is a member of the Steering Group of TFD. He says there are two main benefits of engaging with NGOs. “NGOs have detailed knowledge on biodiversity, right down to individual forest site level, and a real passion for conservation. Companies are very good at managing resources, and at making things happen. Partnership between the two can deliver real bottom line and conservation benefits to the com-panies and NGOs really prepared to engage.”
“For business and environmental continuity, development of consensus is necessary on a variety of issues ranging from what comprises sustainable forest management to the role of forests in poverty alleviation. The Forests Dialogue involves a global panoply of companies, NGOs and inter-governmental stakeholders in this process: everyone around the table is committed to sustainable forest management. A few years ago, such dialogue would not have been possible, but we have now reached a point where, in recent weeks, TFD has issued eight recommendations to governments on their leading role in combating illegal logging and forest-related crime.”
Beneficial relations
Andy Roby, corporate and social responsibility adviser at the Timber Trade Federation (TTF), has been actively promoting beneficial relations with the environmental lobby on behalf of the UK trade. “NGOs appreciate the value of timber as a sustainable material and want to promote its use in the UK,” he said. “We need this endorsement if we are to convince a sceptical public of our environmental credentials. NGOs also want to make sure that companies are fulfilling their due diligence in checking their supply chains, and won’t hesitate to remind us if we’re not living up to our Code of Conduct commitments.
“If, as an industry, we mean what we say about wanting to buy, sell, use and promote sustainable timber, then NGOs are very much on our side. For example, the TTF now has a good, open working relationship with Greenpeace. While we do not always agree, and their campaigns can damage us, they are prepared to help find solutions if they believe we are serious about eliminating illegal timber from our supply chains.”
As the old saying goes, honesty is the best policy.
