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Sustainability Incubator

We reform problems of today like modern slavery strategically and sustainably.

Founded in 2012 in Honolulu, we solve problems by investigating conditions, gathering the evidence, finding the places where competing interests intersect then convening people with different stakes to find a shared objective or else assisting each to adapt by resetting arrangements on many fronts. This is how a shift occurs in a system like a global supply chain towards stability, dignity, and durability.

We work through major conflicts today where institutions have not evolved fast enough to avoid conflicts between important needs:

Livelihoods and environmental sustainability,

Economic efficiency and worker dignity,

Global markets and local communities,

Producers and buyers have different pressures. Workers and employers have different interests. Governments and industries have different responsibilities. Yet no-one can sustain their interests without strong working relationshps.

We invest in governance to steward the system.

Here is an example:

Starting in 2011 we began investing in solving the problem of modern slavery in global supply chains. We tracked flows of fish and work across the seafood sector and calculated the magnitude of illegal fishing and forced labour. We learned that 20-32% of US imports were made from illegally-harvested fish and worst offenders like Thai tuna (70%) were made with routine forced labour.

We invited human rights experts to co-research and co-develop methods for locating and correcting forced labour inside a supply chain. We trained supermarkets and their suppliers to perform human rights due diligence.

Push-back took unexpected forms like positive, risk-free accounts of fishing work at sea and in aquaculture based not on worker testimonies but voiced by the industry clients of ecolabels and their environmental NGO partners.

We continued to track this problem empirically and interviewed over 500 workers and producers. They shared their earnings and that their earnings fell significantly after the pandemic. Wholesale prices fell despite recovery. The evidence showed that earnings for middlemen and supermarkets were skyrocketing, suggesting the market was extracting value from production like never before, disguised by higher consumer prices.

We believe that a solution is not a solution unless it is human-scaled. We invest in worker-focused solutions for ASEAN, governments of Indonesia and the Philippines, the UN-FAO and IOM, inspectors, plant owners and fishing fleets to build oversight and to deliver an effective response to fishers and workers.

We stick with people and support them until there is a shift to a better path. The background work is mighty but sometimes enables a grounded solution to emerge rapidly. Thirteen young women were rescued at the General Santos City airport and their traffickers apprehended within 2 months of the municipal government mandating a protocol we assisted them to implement.

We have also built significant capacity for ocean stewardship. We reduced the incidental capture and death of sea birds, turtles, sharks and rays as leader of 30 industry-led Fishery Improvement Projects starting in 2012,. Currently we manage the ocean stewardship investment of SYM PAC International, Fong Hsiang Enterprises and Sprouts Farmers Market.

Resources to Share

When More Means LessDownload

Laboring for lessDownload

Contact us at the.sustainability.incubator@gmail.com. Mahalo.