What impact can partnerships between the private, public, and social sectors have on accelerating the transition to regenerative agriculture? How does your own work incorporate cross-sector collaboration?
Rebecca Ballard: This transition will take a Herculean effort. Unfortunately, the present trajectory in the fashion industry is leading away from a more regenerative system rather than towards it. This is evidenced in many ways, including the increase of synthetic textiles derived from fossil fuels, overproduction, the lack of textile reuse and recycling, and increasing hazardous waste.
We need a giant toolkit to create the transformative, systemic change necessary to move from an extractive model to a regenerative one. And we need to utilise every tool we can to make this transition in enough time to not exceed planetary boundaries.
Each sector has incredible (and sometimes overlapping) tools to both implement the transition and accelerate it. We need deep knowledge of the extent of problems and the best practices for solutions from the social sector, and to also scale the innovative practices of social entrepreneurs. We need the private sector to give us a real understanding of the challenges around implementation and the bottomline.
And we need the public sector to deeply understand all of this, and then put in place wise policies that bring about real, lasting change, making regenerative agriculture both possible and profitable. The importance of cross-sector partnerships is also a major theme of my career and advisory work.
I began my career working in the social and public sectors. However, I saw that change wasn’t happening at the speed and scale needed. I needed to deeply understand the inner workings of the industry’s status quo and challenges around the bottomline to be able to do truly transformative work. This drew me into private sector work with a focus on innovation. I now work across all three sectors, with a major focus on partnership-building and collaboration to implement and scale best practices.
In fact, my favourite work involves cross-sector collaboration, as I love the insights, innovation, and range of solutions found at this intersection.
I encourage everyone at the Summit to connect with those working in sectors and areas that are very different from their own. I look forward to learning from my fellow attendees, incorporating their insights in my work moving forward, and creating long-lasting relationships and partnerships.
What are some of the common pitfalls businesses face when building their sustainability strategies?
Rebecca Ballard: Having a “check the box”, reactive, and soiled approach is no sustainability strategy, as sustainability should primarily be proactive.
Far too many companies are overly focused on responding to what they believe the government will be doing in the near future. Instead of waiting with panic and letting the government define the path forward in isolation, proactively engage with government and be a part of the conversation.
We are seeing a consumer push for more sustainable choices alongside consumer lifestyle change. For example, we see this in the incredible growth of the second-hand apparel market. Many companies will respond to this consumer desire for more sustainable choices, which will create competitive pressure on those who do not that is then compounded by increasing regulatory action. Thus, companies are facing real risks if they don’t put sustainability front and centre now.
It must be part of the DNA of a business to focus on not just profit, but also people and planet; this is also a great strategy to avoid future regulatory issues. Sustainability cannot be left up to only one team, but needs to permeate the entire company. For this to happen it needs to be a value and priority of leadership and an ongoing area for learning and growth.
It’s important that we centre worker perspectives, and I appreciate that the Summit starts with sharing the insights of farmers. Engage directly with workers across your supply chain and take their ideas seriously. And speaking of relationships...
I encourage business leaders to really take the time to get to know civil society organisations working to advance regenerative practices. It is important to develop real relationships and knowledge-sharing partnerships with both the national and global organisations as well as the grassroots organisations in regions where your supply chain is located.
Connect with social entrepreneurs, innovators, and smaller businesses who are making great sustainability strides at a smaller scale. I see one of the greatest untapped opportunities in large companies partnering with social entrepreneurs who have already created strong sustainability practices, and there are so many wonderful forms for these partnerships.
