Elisabeth von Reitzenstein, senior director of policy and public affairs at Cascale, joined a panel at Innovation Forum earlier this month on how brands can be more reactive to incoming legislation. Moderated by Ian Welsh, publishing director at Innovation Forum, the panel also included Kresse Wesling, co-founder and director of CBE, Elvis & Kresse, and Ilya Kleyner, lead sustainability solutions architect at Altruistiq.
Von Reitzenstein gave an anecdote, noting the progress brands have made over the last 15 years on their public affairs activities. She emphasized the importance of brands stepping up their resources to be proactive, and avoid the potential reputational risk of only taking action when required to comply.
She welcomed a wider collaborative approach, and encouraged brands to be actively involved in policy discussions, sharing knowledge and developing joint industry positions within industry organizations and initiatives such as the Policy Hub. Von Reitzenstein detailed the importance of prioritization of collective action along the supply chain, including transparency to identify and address sustainability issues. She explained the significance behind “Cascale’s” new name, which is “Collective Action at Scale” and reiterated the fact that this collective action had to happen together with manufacturers.
She highlighted the Higg Index suite of tools as an example brands can use to understand and improve their sustainability performance. Cascale is committed to continuously updating the Higg Index tools to meet the needs of its members, users and the broader industry and support them in their compliance journeys and beyond.
This year, Cascale launched a webinar series sharing how the Higg Index tools have been mapped to existing and upcoming legislation, and how it plans to evolve the tools accordingly. The organization has also shared and continues to develop resources for members and Higg Index users to ensure they’re well-informed and supported in their compliance journeys.
