West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum presented a luncheon on social responsibility in the supply chain and other topics for its November membership meeting at Grand Rapids Public Museum on Monday, November 16.
Featured speakers were Sean Ansett, principal of At Stake Advisors, and Dale Robertson, President and CEO of the Grand Rapids Public Museum.
Sean is the founder of At Stake Advisors, a sustainability consultancy based in Kalamazoo, Chief Sustainability Officer at Fairphone, Acting Board Chair of Liberty&Justice Clothing, a fair trade garment factory in Monrovia, Liberia and Senior Associate and tutor at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Cambridge UK. Previously he was the Executive Director of the Bangladesh Safety Accord covering over 170 global brands,1600 factories and 2 million workers, Director of Corporate Responsibility at Burberry in London, and Director of Global Partnerships at Gap Inc. where he led the retailers social responsibility and stakeholder engagement strategy.
Sean shared his first-hand experience working in over thirty countries and lessons of how to create value rather than destroying it. He shared deeply personal perspectives regarding the opportunities and challenges in implementing sustainability programs and the possibilities for charting a path forward.