private governance in the global sportswear industry

What motivates companies to invest in corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Analysing CSR in the global sportswear industry, this paper advances the hypothesis that the campaigning activities of human rights activists pushed industry leaders Nike and adidas to incorporate labour norms in their business (sourcing) practices. Drawing on the spiral model of human rights norm internalization, the paper’s findings suggest that the efforts of leading sportswear companies to address poor labour standards in their supply chains can no longer be explained by mere strategic behaviour induced by external pressure, but are increasingly the result of norm guided behaviour. In the case of adidas and to a lesser extent with regard to Nike evidence points to a “prescriptive status” in which the dominant mode of action shifts from the logic of consequences to the logic of appropriateness

Reviewing the impact of sustainability certification on food security in developing countries

What is the impact of sustainability certification on food security in developing countries? This article explores the issue through a systematic review of the extant scholarship, complemented by a selective review of key studies examining the wider socio-economic effects of certification that may affect food security indirectly. To guide the analysis, we identify three main causal mechanisms – economic, land use and land rights, and gender effects – that link certification to local food security. Our review finds that food security remains a blind spot in the literature on certification impacts. Existing research points to a positive, albeit weak and highly context-dependent, relationship between certification, farmers’ income, and food security. However, there is only indicative evidence about the relationships that link certification to food security via its influence on land use, land rights, and gender equality

Reviewing the impact of sustainability certification on food security in developing countries

What is the impact of sustainability certification on food security in developing countries? This article explores the issue through a systematic review of the extant scholarship, complemented by a selective review of key studies examining the wider socio-economic effects of certification that may affect food security indirectly. To guide the analysis, we identify three main causal mechanisms – economic, land use and land rights, and gender effects – that link certification to local food security. Our review finds that food security remains a blind spot in the literature on certification impacts. Existing research points to a positive, albeit weak and highly context-dependent, relationship between certification, farmers’ income, and food security. However, there is only indicative evidence about the relationships that link certification to food security via its influence on land use, land rights, and gender equality

Whose rules? The institutional diffusion and variation of private participatory governance

As a mode of global sustainability regulation, private participatory governance first emerged in the forestry sector in the early 1990s and from there spread rapidly and widely in the global economy. The literature on the topic points to a good fit with democratic norms, neoliberal norms, social movement pressure, and the entrepreneurial activities of civil society actors and progressive firms as the main drivers behind this process of institutional diffusion. Today, multi-stakeholder initiatives operate in many industry sectors, ranging from apparel manufacturing and diamond mining to aquaculture production and soybean farming. Drawing on new developments in the philosophy of democracy, some see these arrangements as part of a ‘deliberative turn’ in sustainability politics with the potential to democratise global governance institutions. However, the legitimacy of multi-stakeholder initiatives remains contested, and there is evidence to suggest that the diffusion of private participatory governance in the global economy has introduced variation in a key dimension of institutional design: whereas some schemes involve a wide range of actors in their governance and standard-setting activities, others are significantly less inclusive. In order to explore this puzzle, this dissertation unpacks the process of institutional diffusion. It develops an analytical framework that distinguishes three stages in the diffusion process: source selection, transmission, and adoption. For the different stages, hypotheses are formulated about the factors that “intervene” in the diffusion process, leading to more or less inclusive institutional outcomes. This framework is put to work in three case study chapters, examining the diffusion of private participatory governance in the biofuels, soy, and sugarcane sectors. A major finding of this study is that varying levels of coercive institutional pressures influenced the diffusion outcome in the cases studied. In environments characterised by strong coercive pressures (biofuels and soy), adopting a more inclusive approach served institutional designers as a strategy to gain political authority – that is, legitimate decision-making power – in these arenas. In comparison, in the low conflict environment of the sugarcane sector, no comparable process of ‘institutional fitting’ could be observed. Furthermore, this dissertation shows that ideas about private participatory governance are far from set in stone. While multi-stakeholder institutions diffuse in the global economy, late adopters learn from the experiences of prior adopters. Based on these experiences and the lessons they draw from them, they interpret, innovate, and de- and recontextualise the model, giving rise to institutional variation

The GLOBE climate legislation study: a review of climate change legislation in 66 countries: fourth edition

The GLOBE Climate Legislation Study is the most comprehensive audit of climate legislation across 66 countries, together responsible for around 88% of global manmade greenhouse gas emissions. It is produced by the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics in collaboration with GLOBE International. The 4th edition of the Study was formally launched at the 2nd GLOBE Climate Legislation Summit held at the Senate of the United States of America and at the World Bank in Washington DC on 27th-28th February 2014. The next edition of the Climate Legislation Study will be launched in early 2015, covering legislation in 100 countries. Key messages from the 4th edition: ◾Almost 500 climate laws have been passed in the 66 countries covered by the study; the direction of travel is clear; and encouragingly, it is developing countries and emerging markets, which are advancing climate change laws and regulation at the fastest pace. ◾Even though the legislative progress is impressive, the cumulative ambition of these laws is not yet sufficient to limit global average temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the agreed goal of the international community. ◾In order for a successful outcome in Paris in 2015 there is now extreme urgency to strengthen commitments, and for countries that have not yet passed climate change laws and/or regulations to do so

The 2015 Global Climate Legislation Study: a review of climate change legislation in 99 countries: summary for policy-makers

This report summarises the main insights from the 2015 Global Climate Legislation Study. It is the fifth edition in a series dating back to 2010 (Townshend et al., 2011). The 2015 edition covers 98 countries plus the EU, up from 66 in 2014, which together account for 93 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The study is intended as a source of information for legislators, researchers and policy-makers. It is hoped that parliaments considering climate change legislation will benefit from the growing body of experience reflected in the study. Facilitating knowledge exchange among parliamentarians was one of the primary motivations behind the Climate Legislation Study when the series was conceived by the Grantham Research Institute, LSE and GLOBE International in 2010. Since then there have been many examples of parliamentarians learning from, and being inspired by, each other through forums such as GLOBE and the Inter-Parliamentary Union – the two co-sponsors of the 2015 study

Biodiversity protection through networks of voluntary sustainability standard organizations?

This paper explores the potential for voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) organizations to contribute to policy-making on biodiversity protection by examining their biodiversity policies, total standard compliant area, proximity to biodiversity hotspots, and the networks and p

Transnational sustainability governance in the global south : a comparative study of producer support in Brazil

A primary objective of transnational sustainability governance is to address governance failures in the global south. But little is known about the conditions under which producer groups in these countries participate in private regulation. To shed some light on this question, this article examines the decisions of key players in the Brazilian agriculture industry to support (not to support) transnational sustainability governance. Using a qualitative case study approach, the article explores how soybean producers first backed the Roundtable on Responsible Soy, but then decided to withdraw their support from the initiative. In the sugarcane sector, the dynamic was a very different one. After initial resistance, the principal industry association switched strategy and endorsed Bonsucro, making it the leading sustainability standard for sugarcane in Brazil. Through a within-in case analysis and cross-sector comparison, this article shows how southern producer groups responded to economic and regulatory changes in the global market place, in particular, a shift in trade flows and the adoption of public sustainability regulation in the global north

Creating legitimacy for private rules : explaining the choice of legitimation strategies in transnational non-state governance

Transnational non-state governance supplies a growing proportion of the rules and regulations that govern the global economy, raising pressing questions about its legitimacy. Cutting across established perspectives, this article adopts the empirical approach of legitimation research to explain variation in the choice of normative strategies to create legitimacy for private rules. To this end, it reviews existing explanations of institutional design in private governance research and integrates them into a common framework of analysis. This framework is put to work in three in-depth case studies, tracing the formation of multi-stakeholder governance in the field of sustainable agriculture – currently the most dynamic site of transnational non-state institution building. The case studies reveal that a full explanation of variation in the use of participation-, expert-, and procedural fairness-based strategies needs to consider both the internal mechanisms of institutional choice as well as differences in the political environments in which these choices are taken