Managing Sustainability Challenges in Multinational Multi-Tier Value Chains

Thursday, 22 October 2015, Eschborn,Frankfurt am Main, Germany

The ISVC Annual Meeting 2015 attracted over 90 participants of various nations. For the program details, please click on Program

At the ISVC Annual Meeting renown experts with various backgrounds and perspectives gather to openly discuss sustainability challenges in global value chains.

With its exceptional conference format, enabling maximum open interaction, every participant is an important contributor. Its focus on workshops and panel discussions allows comprehensive issue coverage and joint solution development. The ISVC Annual Meeting's core objective is to nourish discussions beyond mainstream to eventually develop and agree on action plans that make a difference to the world.

The Annual Meeting of the International Forum on Sustainable Value Chains (ISVC)

The ISVC Annual Meeting is an interactive discussion platform to address some of the most relevant challenges to sustainability in multinational multi-tier value chains these days:

(1) How to integrate sustainability into companies' regular business practices,

(2) How to decide upon the focus of sustainability management attention, and

(3) How to move management attention from monitoring and risk evaluations towards establishing truly sustainable value chains?

The ISVC Annual Meeting brings together a selected group of well-experienced senior managers (supply chain, procurement, CSR etc.) of manufacturers, producers, traders as well as senior representatives of regulators, non government organizations, civil society and academia by personal invitation.

A Unique Conference Format

The ISVC Annual Meeting is a platform for open equal discussion among all participants and speakers. It puts major focus on honest, critical discourse and constructive workshops to allow maximum interaction and joint development of alternative solutions. Participants and speakers are encouraged to share their true experiences and to point out contradictory or ambiguous know-how.

The meeting objectives are future oriented: Discussions in the workshops shall bundle into compelling project proposals detailing the challenges addressed, the targeted outcomes, the suggested way forward and the recommended leadership. The intend is to bring together motivated individuals forming project groups that drive development and implementation. At ISVC, we want to be measured against realized fundamental change in business practices.

Key Notes and Panel Discussions

The two key notes give concise introductions to the conference theme. They provide show case examples and exceptional insights from leading experts in the field. Each key note is followed by a panel discussion of renown experts with differing perspectives. Their opinions further enrich the key note topic and trigger inspiration for the the subsequent open discussion with all conference participants.

Key Note Speakers

Panel Discussions

Panel "Responsible Sourcing Across Industries: Collective action for similar challenges" organized by CSR Europe with Stefan Crets (CSR Europe), Dr. Martin Christie (Bettercoal), David Lawrence (AIM Progress), Dr. Pedro Ortun (EC DG GROW) and Veronica Rubio (BSCI)

Workshops

Workshops are the heart of the ISVC Annual Meeting. All participants and speakers jointly analyze challenges and experiences, develop and evaluate potential solutions, and sketch a plan on how to create and implement required knowledge, organizational elements, policies, tools etc. ISVC will follow up on the developed proposals by establishing specific projects. Participants are invited to engage in those projects.

Workshop 1: Following-Up on Massive Supply Chain Auditing
chaired by Dr. Gerrit Schneider, Vice President Sustainability@Procurement, Evonik; econsense

Many companies require their suppliers to be formally audited upon defined social or environmental standards. The high number of audits and the heterogeneity in the audit results require supplementary capacity and competencies to evaluate audits and follow up with non-compliant suppliers. How to handle the often large amount of audits? How to shift attention from requesting supplier audits to developing sustainable value chains?

Workshop 2: Integrating Sustainability into Regular Procurement
chaired by Andy York, Ethical Trading Manager, JD Williams

Procurement has been actively upgraded to become the central unit responsible for the buyer-supplier-interface, supplier selection and supplier management. However, procurement functions of many companies lack capabilities or incentive to manage suppliers' sustainability performance. How to integrate sustainability standards into operative procurement processes and adjust procurement objectives and incentive?

Workshop 3: Identifying Relevant Sub-Suppliers Based on Impact
chaired by Andreas Streubig, Division Manager Corporate Responsibility, Otto Group and Torben Kehne, Director, Systain

Being confronted with a vast number of sustainability issues in a value chain, companies aim at prioritizing and focusing their resources on developing those steps in the value chain with the biggest sustainability impact. Yet, most sustainability issues occur out of their observation beyond their direct reach at sub-supplier levels. How can companies better identify relevant sub-suppliers and reliably evaluate their sustainability impact?

Workshop 4: Mapping Product Group Value Chains
chaired by Dr. Joerg S. Hofstetter, ISVC; Uni St. Gallen

Today's value chains are highly fragmented into many small production, trading and logistics steps. Few companies understand the value chain of the material they procure and are aware of critical actors. Economic trade data does not report dependencies. To avoid duplicate efforts at companies and governmental organizations, how can generic value chains for different product groups be mapped collectively?

Registration

ISVC is grateful for the kind sponsorship by:

Conference Venue

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Dag-Hammarskjöld-Weg 1-5
65760 Eschborn, Germany

www.giz.de