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Danone Think Tankery

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Last week saw a trip down to London to join a dialogue with

  • Myriam Cohen-Welgryn, Danone Vice-President Nature,
  • Laura Palmeiro, Vice-President Nature Finance,
  • Bernard Giraud, Vice-President Sustainability and Shared Value Creation and
  • Laurence Foucher Danone New Media Manager.

The Danone team were joined by

There was no clearly mapped out process or agenda relying instead on getting some interested people into a convivial setting and seeing where the conversation went.  In both cases I suspect that some real learning accrued on both sides.

Once again Danone showed an incredible openness in sharing with us some of their projects and challenges relating to food security, poverty alleviation, health and sustainability and showed how several projects had moved on from our last round of discussions with them.  Highlights for me included investments from their 100m Euro ‘Nature Fund’ to support the development of Cooperatives of  Ukrainian Farmers to supply the high quality milk required to keep the Danone Production lines in full swing.  Danone invested in milking equipment to be shared by small farmers through the cooperative structure and animal welfare standards and husbandry.  These investments were made with no requirement to tie framers into contracts with Danone.  Also Danone say that paying these farmers cooperatives a fair price for milk ensures the long term stability of supply which is more important to them than any short term profits that might be gained through price squeezing.

I was also intrigued by  their research into the fatty acid content of milk and how this can be correlated with the production of methane allowing accurate offsetting of methane production based on the actual methane production of each herd.  Now I am not an expert on off-setting and have a lay persons suspicion of how much can be achieved through this methodology.  Can we possibly plant enough mangrove, mangoes and other carbon fixing crops to ever truly offset production?  The whole conversation about carbon trading was one that left me a little cold.  I am far from convinced that putting a price on carbon is really the way forward.  Especially now that it can be speculated upon.  I am of the school that thinks the next great bubble to burst will be the carbon market….I hope I am wrong and am certainly no expert in this field.

But perhaps most impressive part of the conversation for me was around needing to re-connect consumers to the production process, the reality of farming and food production.  A simple realisation that for Danone, and the rest of us, ‘Nature IS our business’ and simple tools for ensuring that this realisation is that the heart of innovation in the company.  So for example they are using a wonderfully simple compass to provide a test for new developments:

N = Nature – will the development respect nature?

S = Social – will the development lead to improvements in society?  Fair wages, good governance etc

E= Economic – will the project work economically? (I was impressed by Danone’s willingness to flex their normal investment rules to allow projects that would only work with a more generous interpretation of ‘payback periods’)

W= wellbeing or health – the Danone mission is to improve health for the greatest number of people through food.  If the project does not fit the mission then it will not move forward.

My guess is that this compass will be well understood throughout the business and used to assess new business developments and ensure that balances and tensions are effectively managed.

It is a strange phenomena for me to rub against a corporate whom I like, respect and trust.  Generally I am always lifting up the carpets looking for where the dirt has been hidden.  And still questions remain for me at least about the bottling and distribution of mineral water in rich countries (Danone are behind both Evian and Volvic I believe).  But whenever I meet Danoners – be they ‘top brass’ or ‘frontline’ I am always impressed by their passion, openness (‘we have many challenges and we don’t have the answers but we will experiment…’) and commitment to co-invention of ideas and thinking through conversation.

I am already looking forward to the next conversation…when we hope to get some more skeptics involved

 

 



There is Another Game in Town….and she is called Elsie


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You might be forgiven for thinking that traditional ‘economic development’ is the only game in town.  Shopping centres, arenas and enterprise zones, vocational education and training producing a workforce to meet the needs of employers.


This kind of stuff has been the mainstream of economic development for as long as I can remember.


But there is another game that WE can play..


One which relies less on ‘attracting’ talent and wealth from outside and more on developing the passion, aspiration and skills of the people that already make up our communities.  It works with what we have got, starting from where we are.


It relies on the ability of local people to support each other, with knowledge, skills, networks and wherever possible custom.   Instead of looking to buy ‘star players’ to join the team we instead set up an academy, a place and a process in which we can explore our potential and find the people and other resources that we need to move our projects forward.


This is where Elsie comes in.


Leeds Community Enterprise Accelerator (Elsie) is a project designed to build the capacity of ordinary people in the Leeds community to shape their own future according to their own hopes and aspirations.  It starts with what we have, and works with what we have got.  The project needs you to get involved.  It runs on a ‘pay what you like but free is fine policy’ so cost should not be a barrier to getting involved.


So, please, if you want to see another game in town when it comes to developing an economy that serves our community have a look at Elsie and get involved.


Leeds Social Media Surgery – 20th July


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The next Leeds Social Media Surgery is on Wednesday 20th July 6-8pm, at The Round Foundry Media Centre, Foundry Street, LS11 5QP


Leeds Social Media Surgery is a free advice session for community and voluntary groups, clubs, societies and small arts organisations. Come along to find out how you can use free web sites and services to organise activities, promote events, raise funds, collect feedback from your participants and more.


There are some great testimonials from people who have come along before on the link below. So if you’re not sure what we can offer please have a look/listen.


For more information and to book your place visit http://socialmediasurgery.com/events/204


Poor Kids in Leeds


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Many of us this week will have seen the very powerful and moving BBC documentary Poor Kids directed by Jezza Neumann, telling the stories of some of the 3.5 million children living in poverty in the UK. This is one of the worst child poverty rates in the industrialised world, and successive governments have struggled to improve it significantly.


From what I have experienced reaction to it in Leeds seems to have fallen into three broad camps.  Firstly there is a group for whom this is ‘the reality’, and Poor Kids was just a powerful re-telling of an everyday story. Members of this group meet these kids and their families on a regular basis because they live or work with them.


Secondly there is a much larger group for whom this programme was a revelation.  People with no idea that our housing stock was often so poor. With no idea that the poor pay more for basic services such as utilities or TV than the rest.  With little understanding that such levels of poverty existed in our society.


And thirdly there was a group who just seem to brush it off with ‘the poor will always be with us’ attitudes and ‘I share no responsibility for other peoples poor parenting or economic incompetence’.


And the bad news is that the smart money says that child poverty is likely to get worse rather than better.


So how does this play out in the economic powerhouse of Yorkshire, the retail and tourist success story, the regenerated and rebuilt city that is Leeds?


Well, here are some figures, collated by the Leeds Initiative and published on their website.


    

  • In Leeds there are 29,695 children aged under 16 who are living in poverty – 22.9% of all children in this age range
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  • There are 33,295 dependent children aged under 20 who are living in poverty (22.1% of the children / young people in this age range)
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33000 children, 1 in 5 of our children, living in poverty.


Poverty is not distributed evenly across the City however, and these averages hide some pockets of child poverty that are as high as anywhere in the UK.  In 2008 at the Lower Super Output Area (essentially a small geographical area that we might think of as a neighbourhood – see SOAs Explained) level there were:


    

  • 19 LSOAs where no children were deemed to be living in poverty
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  • 105 LSOAs with rates of 5% or less
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  • 55 LSOAs where 44.2% or more of children are living in poverty (double the city average)
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  • In the most deprived LSOAs in Leeds there are 17,620 dependant children living in poverty, a rate of approximately 45%.
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And if you look for Child Poverty rates at parliamentary ward level here is what you find:






    

  • Leeds Central  41%
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  • Leeds East  35%
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  • Leeds North East  17%
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  • Leeds North West  14%
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  • Leeds West  29%
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  • Morley and Rothwell  17%
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Essentially child poverty is concentrated in the so-called doughnut of despair, that ring of communities that surround the city centre.


There is little point in re-stating the data from the Leeds Initiative research, you can read it for yourself on the ‘Ending Child Poverty’ Paper.


How does child poverty in Leeds compare to that in other major UK cities?  Well actually we are not doing too badly in relative terms.  Child poverty rates are higher in Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Bradford, Newcastle, Liverpool, Nottingham and Sheffield.


But still the child poverty rates in some Leeds communities are as high as almost anywhere in the UK.  Just look at this breakdown supplied by ‘End Child Poverty‘ that shows just how unevenly it is spread across the city.


    

  • Adel and Wharfedale 6%
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  • Alwoodley 12%
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  • Ardsley and Robin Hood 12%
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  • Armley 32%
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  • Beeston and Holbeck 32%
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  • Bramley and Stanningley 28%
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  • Burmantofts and Richmond Hill 46%
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  • Calverley and Farsley 9%
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  • Chapel Allerton 33%
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  • City and Hunslet 44%
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  • Cross Gates and Whinmoor 19%
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  • Farnley and Wortley 25%
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  • Garforth and Swillington 9%
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  • Gipton and Harehills 47%
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  • Guiseley and Rawdon 7%
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  • Harewood 5%
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  • Headingley 19%
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  • Horsforth 9%
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  • Hyde Park and Woodhouse 46%
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  • Killingbeck and Seacroft 37%
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  • Kippax and Methley 12%
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  • Kirkstall 33%
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  • Middleton Park 41%
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  • Moortown 12%
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  • Morley North 11%
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  • Morley South 14%
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  • Otley and Yeadon 12%
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  • Pudsey 15%
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  • Rothwell 16%
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  • Roundhay 13%
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  • Temple Newsam 23%
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  • Weetwood 18%
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  • Wetherby 6%
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In the draft Vision for Leeds and associated City Priority Plans the issue of poverty in the city becomes a ‘cross-cutting theme’ for all 5 of the new Partnership Boards, and its importance is clearly expressed.  Whether as a ‘cross cutting theme’ it will have quite the focus it demands we will have to wait and see.


My main concern is that when I look at the proposed, and still draft, Headline Indicators that are associated with the City Priority Plans, indices of poverty and child poverty do not get a look in.  Instead, more tractable ‘proxy’ measures are suggested such as the number of children not in education, employment and training or the number of ‘looked after children’.


But the Vision for Leeds does say that by 2030 ‘people will have the opportunity to get out of poverty‘.  It is just a shame that by 2030 the young stars of Poor Kids and their Leeds peers will be well into adulthood.  And why aren’t we doing more to help build these opportunities now?


When you talk to both sides of the fence on this issue it is clear that there is a disconnect between those who talk of ‘opportunities’, ‘economic growth’, ‘ job creation’ and ‘enterprise zones’ and the people who live in poverty, many of whom talk of having no hope, no power and no future.


Different words from different worlds.


If you are interested in trying to do something about child poverty in Leeds this maybe of interest…