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Why we've launched the Provenance Integrity Council

Published on
May 12, 2020
The Provenance Team

Provenance is a platform that empowers brands to make the sourcing and impact behind their products transparent. We exist to enable citizens to access and trust in business sustainability efforts beyond today’s marketing hype. We are tenacious in our pursuit of enabling open communications with integrity. External third-party organisations (from standard setters to NGOs) are vital to this, as is the structure of our processes and software. As part of our efforts to ensure we continue to act for people and planet as we grow, we’re launching the Provenance Integrity Council.

As a company, we’ve always been vocal about the need for industry standards in the fight against greenwashing. To help companies communicate credibly on their social and environmental impact, we developed the Provenance Framework, an open-source rulebook for sustainability communications. We’ve done this to the best of our ability, keeping integrity at the centre. With the acute awareness that the framework would constantly be evolving, we’ve been building on new knowledge and feedback from experts.

Why we set up an Integrity Council

We set up the Integrity Council because the same principles apply to us as they do to any other brand:

  • We must champion honesty and transparency
  • We can’t mark our own homework
  • We need industry and issue experts to share their knowledge
  • We need to be kept accountable

We’ve been fortunate to rely on an amazing network of like-minded experts to develop this framework. But as we grow and work with an increasingly large number of pioneering brands, we feel the need to bring this one step forward by bringing together a council that will keep us accountable externally.

Meet the council members

With diverse backgrounds and expertise, our council members will meet quarterly to review the changes made to our Transparency Framework and make sure we are steering in the right direction. In short, we see them as the guardians of our integrity, supporting our resolve to empower conscious, ethical consumption all along the supply chain.

Sarah Holloway is an independent advisor on sustainability strategy and purpose-driven leadership, working with senior teams to define their organisation's place in a sustainable world. She’s spent nearly 20 years helping some of the world’s best-known businesses drive transformative change.

Steve Trent is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation. He has over 30 years’ experience in environmental and human rights campaigning, creating effective advocacy and communications campaigns and field projects, as well as leading investigations in over 40 countries. Prior to this, Steve was the Campaigns Director at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

Olivia Windham-Stewart is an independent business and human rights specialist. She previously worked on the Labour Rights team at Laudes Foundation (formerly C&A Foundation) and Impactt Ltd in the UK. Prior to this, she was a founding member of award-winning communications agency, On Our Radar, and continues to engage in documentary making and activist heritage in her spare time.

Anna Turns is an environmental journalist specialising in sustainability, climate change, marine issues, food and drink. She regularly contributes to the Guardian, Positive News, Evening Standard, The Independent, Telegraph Travel and Riverford’s Wicked Leeks among others.

Rachel Wilshaw is the Workers' Rights Senior Manager for Oxfam GB. She has over 30-years experience identifying best practice in relation to labour rights in global supply chains, and undertakes advocacy and advice to companies on behalf of Oxfam GB. She’s a member of the Global Living Wage Initiative’s steering group and was a board member of the Ethical Trade Initiative for over 10 years.We’re looking forward to working with this group of inspiring people and in the spirit of transparency, we’ll be publishing minutes after each meeting to keep you up to date with our progress.

Learn more about how our platform can help brands engage customers and deliver transparency.

Interested in why we’re committed to integrity? Read our thoughts on the rise of greenwashing and why we’re worried.

The Provenance Team

Provenance powers sustainability claims you can trust. The global leader in sustainability marketing technology, Provenance helps brands and retailers share credible, compelling and fact-checked social and environmental impact information at the point of sale. Provenance’s technology is already increasing conversion rates, brand value and market share for customers including Cult Beauty, Napolina, Arla and Unilever.

The Provenance Team

Provenance powers sustainability claims you can trust. The global leader in sustainability marketing technology, Provenance helps brands and retailers share credible, compelling and fact-checked social and environmental impact information at the point of sale. Provenance’s technology is already increasing conversion rates, brand value and market share for customers including Cult Beauty, Douglas, GANNI, Napolina, Arla and Unilever

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