Embracing our Collective Values

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is times like these that we have an opportunity to demonstrate exceptional leadership as a profession. Sustainability & EHS practitioners are at the tip of the spear in addressing humanities greatest challenges – climate change, ocean plastics and human rights & safety amongst many others. Whilst coronavirus has emerged rapidly, we should remind ourselves that the scale of this issue represents terrain that we are adept at navigating. 

We live by three values at Acre – Collaboration, Innovation and Integrity. These guide us because they are the cornerstones of the sustainability and EHS professions. Now more than ever, it is time to embrace these values as a community – they are important for the months ahead. 

Collaboration 

Amongst the proudest moments of my time at Acre has been supporting multi-stakeholder initiatives – primarily because the model has a lot of potential for significant impact. The Bangladesh Accord saw over 200 retailers join forces with NGOs and Trade Unions to tackle unacceptable safety standards in Bangladesh factories. This is perhaps the greatest example of industrial collaboration in history, and it was coordinated by Sustainability and EHS professionals. Our community will be called upon again to support global communities in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak – and the experience we have gained as a profession will stand us in good stead.

Innovation 

Innovation flourishes during times of high-stakes and constraints put pressure on the need for new and enhanced solutions. We are currently in a time of great constraint – prevented from being in our places of work, constrained by economic concern, in some cases - constrained by anxiety. This will force us to adapt and innovate. I am experiencing innovation already in the first few days of remote working, and I’m becoming interested in innovative products which will help us navigate through the coming months. By embracing innovation now, companies will emerge from this situation all the stronger. 

Integrity

As individuals and teams, we benefit from challenges - they give us opportunities to test ourselves and to step-up. We learn new things about ourselves in these situations and have the opportunity to build a sense of capability and pride. They also allow us to build resilience which is important because large scale challenges will come around again and once the coronavirus pandemic has lifted, there will remain a need for exceptional and purposeful leadership to address other system-level issues. This is a time for compassion – we will see the best of people over the coming weeks.

From me and my colleagues at Acre – we wish our global communities good health and good fortune over the coming period. We will play our role in protecting the health of our team and stakeholders, and we will execute a plan which sees us contributing to economic stability. If we can support you, please reach out.

Best wishes to you all. 

Andy