The complex path to sustainability | Olivia Tyler | TED Institute

Do you know where everything you buy comes from? Olivia Tyler illuminates the daunting challenges companies face when enforcing sustainability across their supply chains.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Do you know where what you buy
or wear or eat comes from?

Do you know whose hands
what you've bought has passed through?

Do you think about it?

Do you care?

Now, I'm a consumer,
just like everyone else.

I buy things; I wear things; I eat things.

But these are questions that
have plagued me for a really long time.

Why?

Well, I work in very large
and very complex organizations,

the ones that are generally held to task
over everything they do or don't do.

And it's my role

to work across these organizations
and their supply chains

to reduce their impact on the environment
and the communities in which they operate.

So basically, I am a professional
sustainability person.

The good news is that so many of us
want to buy sustainable goods.

We want to know that the people
who made our clothes were paid fairly

and that the environment wasn't harmed
in producing the food we ate.

In fact, 66% of us even say we're willing
to pay more for sustainable goods.

And, of course, you and I want to know

that what we've bought
was sourced sustainably.

But how do we know this?

Well, we need to ask a whole bunch
of very important and valid questions.

There's just one teeny-tiny problem.

The supply chains of everything we buy
are really, really complex.

I know this because it's my job
to collect the data

and look at it from all the way
through the process.

It's incredibly important work.

But I've got to tell you, it's not easy.

Let me give you an example.

Okay, so here, this is a cake.

So for you, this might look
like celebratory goodness.

For me, this is a source
of potentially unsustainable palm oil.

Now, palm oil,
as I'm sure many of you know,

has been linked to pretty horrible
farming practices

and the destruction
of the orangutan habitat -

were not produced sustainably.

So this cake is a minefield

when it comes to thinking
about whether or not it's sustainable.

So let's start with the cake.

Is there oil in it? Is it palm oil?

If it's 8% by weight,
how much oil got in the cake?

The cream layers -
has that got palm oil in it as well

or did that fall below
the reportable threshold?

The icing.

So our manufacturer,
they get that from another manufacturer.

Oh, and they just changed
their manufacturer.

So did the new manufacturer
get the briefing from us on the palm oil?

For the palm oil that we know about,
is it sustainable?

Is it certified? And to what method?

And do we have the certificates on file?

Are there chocolate sprinkles on the cake?

Are you kidding me?

Did the supplier include the data
from the sprinkles in what they gave us?

I'm going to have to go and ring them.

And so it goes on.

In this example alone, just in whether
or not the palm oil is sustainable,

there's about 30 data points.

Oh, you want to know,
like, the conditions of the factory

or whether it's vegan,
GMO-free, organic, free range?

Well, you're going to need
a whole lot more data points.

All this from one really valid question.

So why is it that this is a question
we should be asking?

Well, we have a reported
40.3 million people

in some form of modern slavery

in the supply chains
of the products we buy.

It's estimated that 71% of them are women.

And we are in the midst
of the sixth great extinction -

the Anthropocene, or age of humans -

because it's us that's having the impact.

This is not okay.

The data that I collect,
it's a person, it's a habitat.

I've got to tell you, sometimes you can't
see that through the spreadsheets.

But I, really, I can't lose sight of this,

because it's my analysis of this data

that enables a company to make
a more sustainable decision.

But sometimes, companies
don't have the visibility that they need,

so whether it's through limitations
of information or ignorance

or sometimes deliberate avoidance.

And this lack of transparency
is a huge problem for everyone.

In fact, in a study done last year,
which was a global study,

54% of the manufacturers surveyed
said they had no visibility

into their supply chain
and sustainability related risks.

So we've got a bit of a problem.

A really big gap.

But what if there was a better way?

What if there was a way we could get
faster and more accurate data

to help us solve
these supply chain issues.

What if I could open up my cupboard
and scan everything in there

and get a full suite of information
about what was there?

From who made it, where it was from,
the country of origin,

the greenhouse gas emissions
along the supply chain,

the conditions of the factory.

What if technology could help us solve
and crack the sustainability code?

Well, industry is actually beginning
to deploy this type of technology.

So it enables people like me

to more readily act
on the information I've received.

So blockchain, combined
with mobile and smart tags,

has been used to trace
tuna provided to restaurants in Japan.

Blockchain has also been used to verify
fair paid workers for 1,000 coconuts.

What if we could actually train
our supply chains to self-check?

Or to identify whether there was a gap
or an anomaly in the sustainability data?

What if we could order continuously,
rather than just at a point in time?

What if we could combine machine learning

as an application
of artificial intelligence

and blockchain

to not just identify and trace

but to validate and assure
that the right thing,

from raw material to finished product,

was done correctly
all the way through the process?

I believe, and it's my firm belief,

that it's going to be this type of data

and accelerated process

through blockchain,
digital technology, and signatures,

and artificial intelligence
is going to be crucial

in enabling us to collect the data

to eradicate the issues
I mentioned earlier.

And we shouldn't be shying away from this;

we should embrace it
because sustainability affects us all.

And so we all need to fight.

It's your fight as consumers

to ask where what you've bought

has come from

and challenge the answers
that you're given.

It's the corporate fight
to work with like-minded suppliers

who are galvanized
towards making these changes.

And it's my fight

to continue to pore through
those wretched spreadsheets today

and analyzing and grinding the data

with a firm eye
on the technology of tomorrow.

And this should give you
a resounding sense of hope

that there are solutions,

that by challenging the status quo,

thinking creatively,

and changing our mindset
about how things have always been done

that we can adopt new and exciting ways

to change the game

on how we conduct ourselves
as corporates and consumers

across an increasingly smaller world.

Thank you.

[Applause]