In a new episode of Global Connections, CNN explores how three companies are using sustainable practices and newly created supply chains to create new opportunities for growth and prosperity.
Inside one of the world’s largest clothing dumps in Accra, Ghana, the Or Foundation is fighting fast fashion on multiple fronts. From prototyping new products, to using new materials, the company are finding new solutions for clothing cast-offs. Kennie MacCarthy, Product Development Coordinator at the Or Foundation explains, "We’re looking for, what are the ways we can reuse cotton t-shirts or what are the things we can make out of them, so that we increase their lifecycle and put it back into circularity."
She continues, "It takes all of us to make the problem and it will take all of us to kind of solve the problem. So, we were trying to push something that everybody can be involved in. Everybody can have a hand in helping to correct this thing in their own little way."
At the same time, the Or foundation’s senior leadership is lobbying for long-term change to European retail policies, expected to pass later this year. Co-founder Liz Ricketts says, "You have to be looking at short-term, mid-term, long-term. If we’re asking for justice for a community like Kantamanto [Ghana], the people who have the power, the brands, the policymakers in the global north, they want proof that the money will be put to good use."
In the UK, high rents have ravaged high streets and shopping malls. Sook is transforming empty retail locations into customisable pop-ups that can be rented by the week, day, or even hour for businesses both big and small. Global companies, like Uber, OPI and Jägermeister, test out different places before committing to an expensive physical presence. And small retailers get the chance to sell in prime locations that they could never have dreamed of affording. John Hoyle founder & CEO of Sook explains, "There’s a broken business model where big asset managers want to do really long-term deals like 10 years, which means that it’s incredibly risky for a small brand to take a shop, you know, talking hundreds of thousands of pounds if not millions."
Sook currently operates 12 locations in the UK and is planning to open in South Africa later this year. Hoyle tells CNN, "We’ve been a corona testing centre, we’ve been an art gallery. We have even been used by one guy who turned our space into a shrine to his girlfriend and then proposed to her. So, it’s a complete re-imagining of space and our customers come in all different shapes and sizes."
The coronavirus pandemic transformed how goods get around, specifically medical goods, strengthening a bond between industries dedicated to life-saving products. In Germany, Qiagen specialises in clinical diagnostics – producing hundreds of different testing kits for 500,000 customers worldwide. Production must be contamination-free and temperature controlled at all times.
The cold chain means maintaining that exact temperature throughout the kit’s entire life cycle – from the moment it’s made to the moment it’s used. Daniel Gruenebaum, Head of Global Supply Chain at Qiagen, talks about this process, "We need to have a lot of trust in our logistics partner. There are not many partners that can fulfil those requirements, storing products at different temperature levels, shipping products at different temperature levels. And at the end of the day, we decided that UPS is a perfect match for us."
Anouk Hesen, Operations Director at UPS Healthcare West Europe, says that the unprecedented speed of covid vaccine development created an unparalleled need for cold storage. Hesen tells CNN that by utilising UPS Healthcare, medical companies can focus on producing quality products, "There’s really a strong need to support and take away the complexity from the pharmaceutical industry or the medical device industry, so they can focus on what they’re really good at, making the best products. I think that’s really something that we can help the industry with."
Global Connections sees how the global manufacturing and delivery systems that supply us with our everyday goods are key to worldwide prosperity, and how these trading networks can be powerful engines for economic growth and be key to creating a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient world.
Global Connections airs in association with DP World on CNN International.