The network for the Social Economy in Higher Education project has expanded to another part of the world. In this case the selection of a Japanese organization: Caux Round Table, is a typical example of how our project is shaping a “global” network interested in contributing with their expertise to the sustainability of the project’s outcomes. The expertise of Caux Round Table, as an organization focused on the correlation between Corporate Social Responsibility for private organizations and Human Rights, allows us to deepen the the quality of information the handbook will be offering to universities worldwide.
The following has been written by Guillermo Juarez Salinas, CRT Japan
The Caux Round Table (CRT) is an international network of principled business leaders working to promote a moral capitalism. The CRT advocates implementation of the CRT Principles for Business through which principled capitalism can flourish and sustainable and socially responsible prosperity can become the foundation for a fair, free and transparent global society.
Since CRT-Japan accepted to become an Associate Partner to the Social Economy Project their priority has been sharing relevant information about the activities of CRT globally that would become a leverage to the dialogue among the participants to the Social Economy Project and encourage proactive discussion.
One of CRT-Japan concerns is to create awareness around global issues and tracing a roadmap that can lead to a better understanding on how business activities impact a broader range of stakeholders. In this regards we would like to share some of our ongoing activities which we believe can enhance the understanding of “Social Economy” to Japanese corporations from a Human Rights perspective. And also may present a baseline to social economy organizations to find new ways to come together to organize their economic interaction.
Human Rights Due Diligence Workshop
In 2012 the Nippon CSR Consortium was established to raise awareness and promote activities in the field of business and human rights by offering Human Rights Due Diligence Workshops in which companies can discuss human rights issues with NGOs, experts and other companies
We are ready for the next step and from July to December this year we’ll continue with the Human Rights Due Diligence Workshop in which so far 22 companies and 40 people have been registered.
You can find some of the results from the workshop on the following links:
http://www.crt-japan.jp/EN/files/human_rights_due_diligence/intro.html
http://www.crt-japan.jp/EN/files/human_rights_due_diligence/case/nipponexpress.html
“Sustainable Navigation” framework
To facilitate the practical implementation of UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights we developed the “Sustainable Navigation (Sus-Navi)” framework, a roadmap that marks out twelve steps from A to K in order to create a clear link between Human Rights issues, CSR Activities and Reporting (transparency). You may find more information about the Sus-Navi framework on the following link: http://www.crt-japan.jp/EN/files/Holistic_Approach/framework.html
Supply chain management
As part of the roadmap we identify potential risks throughout the supply chain with the support of CSR initiatives such as Sedex, Maplecroft and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) which is holding its full membership meeting from May 6th till 9th at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and where we are participating, discussing with more than 200 participants about Supply Chain Management and how SAC can maximize collective impact through the industry. You may find more information about our activities on Supply Chain Management on the following link: http://www.crt-japan.jp/EN/press/140128_Sedex_report_E.html
CSR Risk Management Conference in Tokyo, September 4th and 5th, 2014
Caux Round Table Japan has organized the Conference on CSR and Risk Management since 2013 in order to explore the possibilities of strengthening risk management by implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In 2014, the Global Conference on CSR Risk Management is planned to be held two times in March and September. At this moment we are preparing the final list of international speakers.
With these activities, we aim to assist organizations in (1) ‘identifying and assessing any actual or potentially adverse human rights impacts’ as defined in the UN Guiding Principles, (2) integrating and acting upon the findings, (3) tracking responses, and (4) communicating how impacts are addressed with the affected stakeholders, such that companies can use the knowledge acquired to support their human rights due diligence activities, which help the implementation of the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework.