CEP ALUMNI | Alice Tepper Marlin, CEP and SAI Founder

Alice Tepper Marlin giving her response to tributes, October 27, 2015. Photo by Alicia Mara.

The dinner was held by Social Accountability International (SAI) at the Prince George Ballroom, 27th Street and Fifth Avenue, New York City. See also separate post with Tributes.

Prayer before Dinner by Loida Nicolas Lewis

Let us remember the presence of God within us. Almighty God, Lord of All Creation. We adore you, We glorify you, We give you thanks for your great glory. We especially ask your bountiful blessings on our honoree Alice Tepper Marlin whose life has been dedicated with great courage and tenacity to challenge the comfortable disorder in order to create a more just and orderly society - whether her targets are American public corporations or the military establishment or labor conditions practiced by multinationals overseas.

We thank you Lord for Alice Tepper Marlin! Bless her, Lord, and her family, her husband John and their son Jay, their daughter Caroline and her husband Francis - all the days of their lives. Bless the organization Alice founded, after the Council of Economic Priorities, Social Accountability International, in all its worthwhile endeavors.

As we are about to receive this gift from Your bounty, Lord, may this food revive our spirit and nourish our body. Bless the hands that prepared this food and those that serve it. Bless all of us here present and our loved ones near and far. Grant us wisdom and discernment to know your Will in everything that we do. We ask all of these in Your mighty name. Let us all say, "Amen"

[Remarks to come - Bruce Buchanan, C. W. Nichols Professor, Stern School of Business, NYU; and Laura Rubbo, The Walt Disney Company.]

Introduction by Amy Hall, Director of Social Consciousness, Eileen Fisher and Chair of the SAI Advisory Board

I want to read the beginning of a press release that went out this past Friday:

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor gave institutional investors explicit permission to invest in businesses [like B Corps] that have adopted ESG (environmental, social, and governance) best practices like expanded fiduciary duties.

Or, in the esteemed words of Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, “ESG no longer has cooties.”

The date of that announcement: October 23, 2015. That is 47 years since Alice Tepper Marlin designed and managed the first EVER social investment portfolio management service. And 46 years since Alice founded the Council on Economic Priorities, the first EVER organization to analyze the social and environmental records of corporations.

A show of hands, please: How many people in this room were born before 1969? Those of us who have raised our hands can honestly say that, in our lifetime, a sea change has taken place in the world of business. No longer is financial performance the only way to evaluate and measure a company’s value. In our lifetime, companies no longer turn a blind eye to their social and environmental impacts. And in our lifetime, supply chains have become as visible and critical to a company’s reputation and profitability as its annual sales figures.

Alice: It is a rare feat to be able to leave a legacy such as yours. One that has turned conventional business practice on end. One that has resulted in new phrases, like “corporate social responsibility,” “social impact investing” and “human capital.” One that has compelled us to consider all the unintended consequences of our actions, and make changes that go beyond the walls of our businesses.

We are, because of you, taking responsibility for every single individual in our supply chain. Farmer, spinner, dyer, weaver, sewer, presser, washer and packer.

Thank you, Alice, for your courage to stand up against the non-believers, the multi-nationals, Wall Street and Main Street.

Thank you, Alice, for staying true to your values 50 years ago.

And most importantly, thank you, Alice, for giving voice to the most vulnerable. It is for them that we honor you tonight and hope that we can continue to fight for what is right and just. Friends and colleagues, I am deeply humbled to present to you my idol, Alice Tepper Marlin.

Response by Alice Tepper Marlin, Founder and President of Social Accountability International

Alice Tepper Marlin addresses her fans. Photo by Alicia Mara.

Thank you Amy, Loida, Joe, Bruce and Laura! You have heard people say, when they are honored: "I keep looking over my shoulder to see who you are talking about". Well, in this case, it is absolutely true!

Your accolades are a tribute to the extraordinary dedication & support of so many people gathered in this room. I’d like to recognize all of you here. I’d love to do it one by one, but I’d be talking till midnight. We’d all prefer to dance I bet, so we’ll do this collectively.

First, the brilliant, distinguished members of our Governing & Advisory Boards. Please stand! All of you. Thank you! You are a remarkable multi-stakeholder group, dedicated to our mission: Human Rights at Work. You come from heavyweight, storied brands & civil society organizations. From companies active in a wide variety of industries: The Walt Disney Company, Eileen Fisher, Tchibo, Tata Steel, Gap Inc. Gucci & HP. You represent leading civil society actors: CARE, National Child Labor Committee, Rainforest Alliance, The Business Social Compliance Initiative, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and CGIL - the largest Italian trade union confederation with 6 million members.

We are all joined by a common mission. Together we created the leading worldwide standard for decent work: SA8000. We draw on vastly different perspectives & experiences. Together we have devised ground-breaking ways to inform & empower workers. We help to protect and add to the value of the brands & retailers that participate in our work. We have made a big difference for millions of people working in factories, on farms and in service jobs. And for their families. The 2 million working in SA8000 factories & farms benefit from basic decent working conditions and respect for their human rights.

Our corporate members commit and endeavor to embed human rights & labor standards throughout their supply chains, implementing effective, collaborative, ethical management systems. Our member brands and retailers seek to contribute through due diligence in their supply chains and with their franchisees, through stable supplier relationships, and with fair purchasing practices such as minimizing last minute spec & volume changes. The impact can be substantial: lower accident rates, lower turnover, fewer rejects, higher productivity and better quality. Still, old challenges persist even as new challenges arise in a world where the pace of change accelerates faster every day.

The multi-stakeholder cooperation that SAI pioneered remains key to building a future where everyone has the right to work and live in dignity. And it continues to be a bedrock of sustainable economic systems that benefit both people and the bottom line. Working with all of you on the board has been the most exhilarating part of my job. Thank you.

Now, the staff. Would the SAI and SAAS staff and those who worked with CEP in those heady early years all please stand. Thank you! I assure you that these are the people who make it all happen day, in and day out.

You are a remarkable group - absolutely dedicated, insightful, hard working and dear to my heart. Partnering with the Rapid Results Institute, you created the TenSquared program - proven highly effective at the factory floor level. TenSquared teams up 5 managers with 5 elected workers in an innovative and fun process. Each team sets an ambitious goal to improve OHS in their factory in only 100 days. Over 90 percent of the teams make those goals! You made the Social Fingerprint program a benchmark and a tool to measure & improve supply chain management. You added decisively to the credibility and reliability of social auditing by linking workplace certification to management systems. As of this September, Social Fingerprint is also the first step in the SA8000 audit process.

You planned this very wonderful evening, you created the exhibits, you took on all the details on top of your regular programs. I thank you for your dedication, for your excellent work, for making my last two decades of work such a great pleasure.

Next, my husband John and our children - Caroline & Jay. Thank you for putting up with my often-frenetic work pace and travel schedule. John, thank you for the immensely important work you have always done as an author, editor, blogger and fund-raiser for both CEP and SAI. And for putting up with me for the 44 years of our marriage! All three of you have supported and inspired me every step of the way! Thank you.

Last, but far from the least the financial contributions of many of you here tonight have been the wind beneath our wings. We could never have done it without you! Thank you all. Friends here this evening have come around the world - from India, Belgium, Costa Rica, Switzerland, Dubai, Italy, Germany, China, and Mexico. That should make for fascinating dinner conversations. At each table, there is at least one SAI staff member and most tables have a board member as well. I hope you will ask them about their work and why they devote their hearts and minds to it.

SAI will have a new CEO as of January 1. The board, after an 8-month search of both internal & external candidates, chose our internal candidate Jane Hwang. A graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Business School, Jane has been with SAI for a decade. She currently serves as our Chief Operating Officer. I could not be happier with this choice.

Jane Hwang, the incoming CEO of Social Accountability
starting January 2016, with her husband Gus.

Jane... This evening we have heard what SAI has accomplished, and we can all savor it. But our mission is immensely ambitious, the work of more than one generation. I am so glad you have chosen to devote your life to it! The notion of CSR was viewed as a radical concept when CEP began. I savor it as a victory that CSR has become an almost universal requirement for global business and a strategic priority of business for so many companies. Still, we have taken only the first steps in the journey of a thousand miles.

• One billion people have risen from extreme poverty during the first 15 years of this millennium. 
• But another billion men, women & children are still destitute. Many of these people work in factories and on farms yet earn less that $1.90 a day. More than 150 million children are still working as laborers. Half of these are in hazardous work, as defined by the UN’s International Labour Organization. Most are deprived of even a basic education to offer a path out of the cycle of poverty. Numerous countries lack both the resources and the will to enforce their labor & environmental laws. 
• What will be the employment prospects for the avalanche of refugees who risk their lives to escape the ravages of civil war in Syria and other crisis areas? How will Europe cope? What will the role of business be in this vast human tragedy? 
• The people who produce our consumer goods and build at a dizzying pace for the fast-growing emerging economies may live on the other side of the globe, but make no mistake – they are here. [Holds up iPhone.] Visit a factory in Asia or Latin America, and you’ll see nearly every worker has a cell phone, and many of them are cameras as well. This little gadget keeps us in touch, enables much of our global work, and brings dramatic messages from distant places we may have never been to. 
• SAI, together with Good World Solutions, is applying cell phone technology to ask workers how they perceive the impact of our TenSquared projects: Has TenSquared improved your manager’s commitment to your health & safety at work? 98 percent said yes. Did you participate in the TenSquared project? Not only the team of ten, but 89 percent of workers in these factories said yes -- some of these factories have thousands of workers. This confirms what our metrics-based assessment showed: Over 90 percent of our TenSquared teams reached their ambitious OHS goals within only 100 days. For example, evacuation was cut from 15 to 2 minutes, making it highly likely everyone would escape unhurt in case of a fire. At one factory, limb trauma accidents were reduced 70 percent. ​ 

Jane, I was fortunate to come of age when Martin Luther King marched in Selma, Birmingham, and Washington DC. We live in a much better world because of King. Still, much of what he envisioned not only for civil rights but also for fair wages and for peace – remains a dream. It is a dream that still can inspire us today…a dream that your generation can take giant steps to realize.

SAI has a meaningful part to play in realizing that dream, in practical ways, in the global context, with our business and civil society allies. A dream for a dramatic reduction in workplace fatalities, accidents and illnesses A dream for an end to poverty among working people and their children. A dream for an end to trafficking, to discrimination, and to child labor – in every corner of the world. A dream for consumers to find reliable information at the point of purchase, enabling us to reach for the brands and patronize the retailers that deliver on human rights.

The dance floor filled quickly between courses.

What marks global progress towards that dream? In the last 15 years since the UN’s Millennium Development Goals were agreed, extreme poverty has been cut in half. That’s awesome! That’s a victory. I count it as another victory that on September 25, decent work made its appearance among the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals for the next 15 years. SAI is aligning our strategy and goals with these new Sustainable Development Goals. I look to the entire SAI team with our multi-stakeholder boards, and members, to do our modest but still important part to contribute to reaching these global goals, ideally in public-private partnership with government. To envision, design and successfully implement practical new & more effective ways to realize our dreams …in ways that I cannot even imagine but hope to live to see. Know that I will be here cheering you all the way. And now it’s time to dance!

Messages after the Dinner

Molly Channing: Alice and John - Last night's celebration was one of the nicest occasions I have ever attended. First and foremost, the outpouring of love and admiration for you, Alice, was so beautiful. The work you have done, and continue to do, has clearly changed lives around the world and those who have witnessed it feel compelled to share their gratitude and appreciation. It was a very special night. Thank you so much for including me at your table and for getting us all up on the dance floor. I can't remember the last time I danced between courses! I am lucky to know you both. You are inspirational.

More messages here.