Aliging Profit with Purpose - Global Goals Yearbook 2019
What are companies for? The rules for companies have changed. The focus is increasingly on their sustainable, social, and ecological impacts. The strategic orientation toward the so-called corporate purpose is decisive for profitable growth in the future. This currently results in a large number of questions for businesses: How do you find an inspiring and future-oriented corporate purpose, and how can it be aligned in such a way that it brings profitable growth and social responsibility in concert? The new 2019 edition of the Global Goals Yearbook offers answers to these crucial questions thanks to its consistent orientation toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals and a competent editorial board and author pool.
What are companies for? The rules for companies have changed. The focus is increasingly on their sustainable, social, and ecological impacts. The strategic orientation toward the so-called corporate purpose is decisive for profitable growth in the future.
This currently results in a large number of questions for businesses: How do you find an inspiring and future-oriented corporate purpose, and how can it be aligned in such a way that it brings profitable growth and social responsibility in concert? The new 2019 edition of the Global Goals Yearbook offers answers to these crucial questions thanks to its consistent orientation toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals and a competent editorial board and author pool.
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trees such as pepper, durian, and avocado.<br />
All of the 1,245 farmers working<br />
<strong>with</strong> Olam to produce Rainforest Alliance<br />
certified coffee in this region now<br />
earn extra money from growing at least<br />
two crops, compared to around a quarter<br />
when the programme started just three<br />
years ago.<br />
In Côte d’Ivoire, Olam’s agronomists are<br />
working <strong>with</strong> 13,000 farmers to provide<br />
them <strong>with</strong> high-yield, climate-resilient<br />
coffee seeds, farmer field schools, as<br />
well as training on the best agricultural<br />
practices. That means some 742 hectares<br />
of coffee farms have been rejuvenated,<br />
<strong>with</strong> farmers enjoying yield increases of<br />
up to 74 percent.<br />
What is really important is to see these<br />
changes come “from the ground up”<br />
in every sense – each farmer is an<br />
individual <strong>with</strong> different needs and<br />
mindsets, so we do not use a “blanket”<br />
approach.<br />
In Mt. Elgon, Uganda, for example, Olam<br />
introduced the Stepwise Approach in<br />
partnership <strong>with</strong> the International<br />
Institute of Tropical Agriculture and<br />
support from the German development<br />
organization GIZ and the US Agency for<br />
International Development’s Feed the<br />
Future Alliance consortium for Resilient<br />
Coffee. The programme makes adopting<br />
recommended practices more affordable<br />
and less overwhelming for farmers. For<br />
us at Olam, it helps direct resources more<br />
efficiently in the short term to match the<br />
farmers’ needs and motivations, while<br />
also giving them climate resilience in<br />
the long term.<br />
Increasing their profitability reduces<br />
their vulnerability to unpredictable<br />
weather events and market-related<br />
shocks, which makes resorting to unsustainable<br />
practices less likely.<br />
“Since I started implementing<br />
these practices, I have seen<br />
great improvements in terms<br />
of yield from small areas where<br />
I am getting more yield<br />
because one bush bears<br />
a lot of cherries …<br />
So I saw that there is a way to<br />
get more coffee.”<br />
Antonina Mateba, coffee farmer,<br />
Namabungu village, Uganda<br />
148<br />
<strong>Global</strong> <strong>Goals</strong> <strong>Yearbook</strong> <strong>2019</strong>
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