How do you collaborate with competitors on sustainability?

1 Why collaborate?

Collaboration is not a one-size-fits-all strategy, as it depends on the context, objectives, and level of trust between the parties. However, there are several reasons why you may want to collaborate with competitors on sustainability. These include addressing complex systemic issues that require collective action and innovation, such as climate change or human rights violations. Additionally, collaboration can provide an opportunity to share best practices and knowledge, pool resources, reduce costs, and increase efficiency and effectiveness. Furthermore, it can be beneficial in terms of enhancing reputation and credibility with customers and other stakeholders, as well as creating new market opportunities.

2 How to collaborate?

Collaborating with competitors on sustainability requires some common steps and principles. Identifying the problem and opportunity, defining the scope and goals, choosing partners and a framework, establishing governance and rules, and implementing and evaluating are all important. You must consider what sustainability challenge you face, the potential value of collaboration, how it aligns with your vision, mission, and values, the objectives and outcomes you want to achieve, indicators to measure progress and impact, communication methods, potential collaborators who share your vision, the best framework for collaboration, roles of each partner, legal and ethical implications, how to execute the plan and activities, how to monitor performance and impact, and how to learn from the experience.

3 What are some examples?

Successful collaborations between competitors on sustainability can be found in various industries and sectors. For instance, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) is a global alliance of apparel, footwear, and textile companies, NGOs, academic institutions, and government agencies striving to improve the environmental and social performance of the industry. The SAC created the Higg Index, which measures and compares the sustainability impacts of products, materials, facilities, and processes. Similarly, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a multi-stakeholder initiative that includes palm oil producers, processors, traders, retailers, investors, NGOs, and governments working to promote sustainable palm oil production; they developed a set of principles and criteria to certify the sustainability of palm oil operations and products. Additionally, the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI) is a group of pharmaceutical and healthcare companies that collaborate to improve the social, environmental, and ethical performance of their supply chains; they created a set of standards, tools, and training programs to help suppliers meet industry expectations and regulations. Lastly, the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) is a coalition of electronics, retail, auto, and toy companies that works to improve corporate social responsibility in their global supply chains. They developed a code of conduct as well as risk assessment tools and audit programs to assess labor practices, environmental conditions, and ethical standards of their suppliers.

4 What are the challenges?

Collaborating with competitors on sustainability can present some challenges, such as lack of trust and transparency, conflicting interests and agendas, complexity and uncertainty, and free-riding and opportunism. To overcome these issues, you need to establish clear communication channels, protect intellectual property rights, respect confidentiality agreements, align expectations, define boundaries, balance trade-offs, simplify processes, clarify roles, adapt to changing circumstances, monitor performance, enforce rules, and hold each other accountable.

5 What are the best practices?

Collaborating with competitors on sustainability is an ongoing process that requires commitment, patience, and learning. To ensure success, it's important to start small and scale up gradually. Focus on value creation by identifying the value proposition of the collaboration for each partner and society. Engage and empower stakeholders by involving and consulting them in the collaboration. Lastly, use the collaboration as a chance to innovate and experiment with new ideas, solutions, and opportunities that can boost sustainability performance and impact. Test your assumptions, learn from failures, and celebrate successes.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?