Transition Whispering
“Scott helped me and my team initiate and navigate the difficult path to sustainability in the Palm Oil industry. I respect Scott for his genuine interest in sustainability. We came together to work but ended up as friends.
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Bringing Change In Complex Contexts
I’ve been blessed to have so often been in the right place at the right time.
I’ve been at the beginning of many major change processes that have led to industry-wide transitions. They’ve all started with a single conversation and supporting people to travel beyond known boundaries to that unknown, sometimes scary frontier to solve challenging problems is part of my DNA.
I’ve been a founder, an entrepreneur, a provocateur, a writer, a speaker, a friend. I would like to think that above all, I’ve been a human, sometimes failing, sometimes kind, mostly striving to be the best version of me possible.
My work has revolved around helping people, organisations and entire industries to change and transition to a different way.
“Scott is a driven, honest person who says what he thinks. This allowed him to convince companies to adopt policies aiming to contribute to making the world a better place as well as gain the trust of key campaigning NGOs.”
When all is foggy and unclear, stormy and dark, your instruments down, navigating a way ahead can be challenging.
That’s where I come in.
I support people, organisations, whole industries and systems to change and transition. I stand with people, teams and organisations to help them to find their True North, their resonance and set their sail toward it.
I am the dog in the picture below.
Practically, this has included supporting individual, organisational and sector-wide transformations in the garden furniture industry, in the Congo Basin forest industry, in the Indonesian teak industry, and in the palm oil and pulp and paper industries. In 1999, I founded The Forest Trust to anchor this work and when I stepped aside as CEO in 2015, TFT people were operating in 48 countries, working to bring change in 20 commodity sectors, impacting the environmental and social responsibility of more than $1 trillion in annual supply chain transactions.
This works.
“Few people balance a passionate commitment to protect the planet and change human behaviour with the pragmatism and willingness to learn that Scott has. While others criticise from the outside, Scott talks, and more importantly listens, from the inside. He is steadfast in his belief that businesses are run by human beings, and that all human beings have values that drive their behaviour. Tap into those, and you can transform conversations and actions. With his help and guidance, GAR was able to see a sustainability pathway that worked for the company as well as civil society. He opened up possibilities instead of shutting down options”
I speak a lot now about “a different way,” and the name of my company is a different way Limited. It encapsulates a deeper philosophy underpinning my work.
It’s born from much reflection on ancient wisdom and practically informed by my decades of experience that also included my own suffering from burn out and facing the possibility of dropping dead as a result of a way too driven, completely unsustainable lifestyle.
Connection is at the heart of this different way - to yourself, to others, to nature.
Here’s a sample of “firsts” I’ve been directly involved in or supported through my leadership at TFT:
~ First Environmental policy by a garden furniture company
~ First sustainable wood procurement program by a garden furniture company
~ First large-scale production of FSC garden furniture from Vietnam
~ First Manual for excluding illegal wood from supply chains
~ First ever conference on FSC forest management in Cambodia
~ First natural forest to achieve FSC certification in Peninsula Malaysia
~ First natural forest to achieve FSC certification in Laos
~ First community forest to achieve FSC certification in Laos
~ First natural forest to achieve FSC certification in the Congo Basin
~ First Pygmy language community radio station in the Congo Basin
~ First logging company to use community mapping to identify protected forest
~ First public-private sector partnership to exclude illegal wood from supply chains
~ First community forest to achieve FSC certification in Indonesia
~ Founded the Centre for Social Excellence in the Congo Basin
~ First FSC Gap assessment in the Democratic Republic of Congo
~ First ever No Deforestation Policy (Nestle)
~ First No Deforestation Policy for a palm oil company (Golden Agri Resources)
~ Pioneered development of the High Carbon Stock forest approach
~ Asia Pulp and Paper No Deforestation, Peatland, Exploitation Policy
~ First NDPE by a global palm oil trader (Wilmar International)
~ First supply chain Transparency dashboard by a global trader (Wilmar International)
~ First FSC certified forest concession in Brazil
~ Pioneered Values-Transparency-Transformation-Verification approach
In terms of my work “Between Two Worlds” mediating between companies and NGOs, though there have been numerous small projects, I remember the BIG 7:
~ Supported ScanCom International and Global Witness to lead the transformation of the wooden garden furniture sector;
~ Supported CIB and Greenpeace to secure the first FSC certified Congo Basin forest;
~ Supported Indonesia's State-owned Teak Corporation remove more than 4,000 guns from its forest protection program across 2 million hectares of forest and instead partner with local communities;
~ Supported Nestlé and Greenpeace to announce the world's first ever No Deforestation commitment;
~ Supported Golden Agri Resources and Greenpeace to announce the first palm oil industry No Deforestation policy;
~ Supported Asia Pulp & Paper and Greenpeace to end all natural forest fibre sourcing and to announce its own No Deforestation commitment; and
~ Supported Wilmar International and Climate Advisers to announce the world's first No Deforestation commitment by a major trader.