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6Walking Further Together: Partnership and Innovation

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

—African Proverb

By now, you might be throwing your hands up in the air and thinking that responsible sourcing seems all too complicated. With so many risks lurking behind every decision, how can anyone figure out the best way to operate? If the whole exercise feels a little hopeless, don't fret! To be successful in responsible sourcing and corporate social responsibility, you are going to need some help, and thankfully, increasingly, that help is available. This is where partnerships, collaboration, and innovation come in.

While we talked in previous chapters about the emergence of industry coalitions (such as the efforts that resulted from the Rana Plaza tragedy), in this chapter we will look at how brands form successful partnerships with other companies (sometimes competitors), as well as nonprofits and NGOs, to create a win‐win‐win situation: a symbiotic relationship that benefits both partners and—and this is key—the supply chains within which the brands work. These types of partnerships have proven successful in improving sustainable sourcing and increasing positive societal impacts while simultaneously generating investor and consumer interest through the free publicity gained by media reporting. For example, the Adidas and Allbirds collaboration, which we will explore later in this chapter, has received coverage from CNN, Vogue Business, Newsweek, ...