Improving Sustainability Standards: TDi’s Julija Menise shares her experiences of guiding positive change through collaboration.
TDi Senior Vice-President Julija Menise recently spoke to Open Access Government, about TDi’s experiences of developing industry leadership projects – highlighting collaboration as a key component in improving sustainability standards.
In her piece outlining key examples from years of experience bringing together cross-industry groups to effect positive change, as well as sharing top tips on how to overcome common challenges, Julija considers today’s business landscape and provides examples of how a collaborative approach can work.
Two key examples include CiPPPA (the Circularity in Primary Pharmaceutical Packaging Accelerator) and the SSI (Solar Stewardship Initiative), both industry initiatives that TDi has helped to develop.
CiPPPA is a not-for-profit, industry-wide initiative with a mission to provide solutions that improve the circularity of primary pharmaceutical packaging. This collaborative initiative was introduced because there was an obvious gap impacting the entire industry. The creation of CiPPPA, which is now project-managed by TDi Sustainability, has allowed organisations to come together in a non-competitive space and work together to develop potential solutions to these industry-wide challenges.
Similarly, the SSI was created to fill a void impacting a number of stakeholders – this time in the solar PV sector, where a raft of ESG and supply chain traceability issues were emerging. Now with the backing of over 50 solar organisations, the SSI is the only holistic sustainable supply chain solution with the support of a majority market share of the solar PV industry, working to collaboratively foster responsible production, sourcing and stewardship of materials in the solar value chain.
Julija’s guiding principles for success include:
- Adopt a multi-stakeholder approach – no single actor can or should define what “good” looks like in isolation.
- Lead with purpose – before considering creating something new, ask yourself why you’re doing it – what gap does it fill, and is there a genuine need for something to be done differently?
- Set realistic timelines – laws are changing at such a quick pace that standards need to keep up.
- Transparency is key – if stakeholders can see that the initiative/standard is built on a fair structure, they will be more likely to participate and support the outcome.
Read the full article on Open Access Government.
How can we help? TDi Sustainability develops and delivers end-to-end programmes including the development of standards and assurance schemes that support the reputation, growth and long-term sustainability of business and industry. We also provide project management and secretariat services for industry leadership initiatives. Get in touch to find out more.