HomeEngageNew York Schedule 2023

LRQA Leadership Series 2023
New York — Schedule

Join us and our industry peers at the LRQA Leadership Series 2023 for a day of provocative discussion and joining reality to the theory. Walk away from the Leadership Series with new ideas, practical frameworks, and most importantly, solutions that can transform your program.

The LRQA Leadership Series
Monday, October 23, 2023

RILA Responsible Sourcing Committee
Tuesday, October 24, 2023


Schedule — Monday, October 23rd, 2023

8:00 – 08:45 | Registration and continental breakfast / coffee / tea

8:45 – 09:15 | Welcome and overview of the day

9:15 – 10:00 | Top trends in responsible sourcing

Listen to Ian Spaulding, CEO, LRQA, review the top trends in responsible sourcing and discuss his candid view on their implications on the ESG environment and how they are influencing your programs.

10:00 – 10:40 | Supply chain due diligence regulations around the world

More stringent enforcement policies at the US border have changed the playing field in the sourcing community. Since last year, US Customs & Border Protection has detained at least $960 million in imported goods for suspected ties to forced labor. This volume and the unpredictability of detentions have forced many companies that are traditionally free from import scrutiny to reconsider their approach to supply chain management. Listen as the LRQA team breaks down due diligence regulations around the world – from the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) to the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) – offering a dynamic perspective on what companies should do to respond. (in-room survey)

10:40 – 11:00 | Coffee and networking break

11:00 – 11:45 | Reimagining your responsible sourcing program

Change can occur with small incremental adjustments each year or cathartic developments over a very short period. After Rana Plaza, industry mobilized and acted, building a whole new ecosystem to monitor and manage building, electrical and fire safety risk. Forced labor legislation presents a different but equally defining moment. In the absence of a detailed roadmap from CBP or clear definition of what the new standard of due diligence is, corporations regardless of industry, are being left to figure it out…and there are so many questions. Are we going to see the mutual recognition trend reversed? Will there be a new monitoring paradigm that increases the number of in-factory visits?
Join Meghan and Suzanne as they review what they have seen through LRQA engagements over the past two years and what it may mean.

11:45 – 12:30 | Investors and lenders

New regulations and enforcement are changing the investor approach to evaluating their investments. This is happening quietly, but quickly. Investment playbooks with much more detailed analysis of supply chain risk are being developed. Both publicly traded and privately held companies will be forced to respond to an ever more knowledgeable group of investment professionals. Join LRQA in a discussion with investors and lenders to better understand this change.

12:30 – 1:30 | Networking luncheon – NYSE trading floor tour

1:30 – 2:15 | (US) Due diligence and monitoring

LRQA will facilitate a table-top exercise to discuss individual approaches being adopted in response to specific challenges in monitoring US companies and suppliers. Each table will help solve a critical piece of the puzzle and together the combined solutions will provide insight into overall program design.

Facilitators:

2:15 – 2:45 | Responsible sourcing: reporting

Corporates are longing for an alignment of meaningful global sustainability disclosure standards. The recent pushback from major companies regarding the EU-Taxonomy bring the challenges to the point: divergent interpretations, non-comparability and questionable relevance for investors are recurring criticisms. Join LRQA’s Erin Lyon through an interactive tabletop exercise on where the gaps lay and how companies can best report on their program’s impact.

Internal reporting is what we would like to build this session around. To share a pre-event survey to cover existing reporting that clients are doing.

2:45 – 3:30 | The role of worker voice in the new model

As NGO’s have done for years, regulators seem to placing a great deal of emphasis on worker voice as a critical element in supplier due diligence. Worker surveys have always been seen as an effective tool, but discretionary in nature. The trend appears to be suggesting that is needs to be more seriously integrated into the standard due diligence model.

3:30 – 3:50 | Networking break

3:50 – 4:30 | Integrating carbon and climate into supply chain programs: navigating the challenges

Join LRQA’s distinguished panel of industry experts as they delve into the intricacies of integrating environmental considerations within programs, particularly in the value or supply chain. Through insightful discussions, the panelists will provide valuable perspectives on the current state of environmental disclosure and data gathering, with particular emphasis on climate related aspects, exploring anticipated future trends and expectations of various stakeholders, including investors, regulators, and consumers. By examining the issues and opportunities associated with data collection, this panel aims to help with approaches for integrating carbon and climate concerns into supply chain programs.

4:30 – 5:00 | Lightning round: Initiatives in 2023

LRQA has been partnering with The US Department of Labor’s International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB) to implement the Global Trace Protocol Project, which seeks to increase downstream tracing of goods made by child labor and forced labor. The project is designed to address the barriers in supply chain traceability, and result in the development and sharing of open, accessible and replicable tools that can advance the knowledge base on supply chain tracing and scale the adoption of traceability solutions by various actors in different sectors.

In this session, we’ll provide an overview of tools that have been successfully piloted and let companies know how they can engage with this initiative as it scales up.

5:00 – 5:10 | Closing remarks

5:10 – 6:40 | Networking reception

 

RILA’s in-person meeting of the Responsible Sourcing Committee will take place on October 24th in New York, NY following The LRQA Leadership Series on October 23rd, 2023. Registration can be found here

 

The LRQA Leadership Series
Monday, October 23, 2023


Schedule — Monday, October 23rd, 2023

8:00 – 08:45 | Registration and continental breakfast / coffee / tea

8:45 – 09:15 | Welcome and overview of the day

9:15 – 10:00 | Top trends in responsible sourcing

Listen to Ian Spaulding, CEO, LRQA, review the top trends in responsible sourcing and discuss his candid view on their implications on the ESG environment and how they are influencing your programs.

10:00 – 10:40 | Supply chain due diligence regulations around the world

More stringent enforcement policies at the US border have changed the playing field in the sourcing community. Since last year, US Customs & Border Protection has detained at least $960 million in imported goods for suspected ties to forced labor. This volume and the unpredictability of detentions have forced many companies that are traditionally free from import scrutiny to reconsider their approach to supply chain management. Listen as the LRQA team breaks down due diligence regulations around the world – from the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) to the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) – offering a dynamic perspective on what companies should do to respond. (in-room survey)

10:40 – 11:00 | Coffee and networking break

11:00 – 11:45 | Reimagining your responsible sourcing program

Change can occur with small incremental adjustments each year or cathartic developments over a very short period. After Rana Plaza, industry mobilized and acted, building a whole new ecosystem to monitor and manage building, electrical and fire safety risk. Forced labor legislation presents a different but equally defining moment. In the absence of a detailed roadmap from CBP or clear definition of what the new standard of due diligence is, corporations regardless of industry, are being left to figure it out…and there are so many questions. Are we going to see the mutual recognition trend reversed? Will there be a new monitoring paradigm that increases the number of in-factory visits?
Join Meghan and Suzanne as they review what they have seen through LRQA engagements over the past two years and what it may mean.

11:45 – 12:30 | Investors and lenders

New regulations and enforcement are changing the investor approach to evaluating their investments. This is happening quietly, but quickly. Investment playbooks with much more detailed analysis of supply chain risk are being developed. Both publicly traded and privately held companies will be forced to respond to an ever more knowledgeable group of investment professionals. Join LRQA in a discussion with investors and lenders to better understand this change.

12:30 – 1:30 | Networking luncheon – NYSE trading floor tour

1:30 – 2:15 | (US) Due diligence and monitoring

LRQA will facilitate a table-top exercise to discuss individual approaches being adopted in response to specific challenges in monitoring US companies and suppliers. Each table will help solve a critical piece of the puzzle and together the combined solutions will provide insight into overall program design.

Facilitators:

2:15 – 2:45 | Responsible sourcing: reporting

Corporates are longing for an alignment of meaningful global sustainability disclosure standards. The recent pushback from major companies regarding the EU-Taxonomy bring the challenges to the point: divergent interpretations, non-comparability and questionable relevance for investors are recurring criticisms. Join LRQA’s Erin Lyon through an interactive tabletop exercise on where the gaps lay and how companies can best report on their program’s impact.

Internal reporting is what we would like to build this session around. To share a pre-event survey to cover existing reporting that clients are doing.

2:45 – 3:30 | The role of worker voice in the new model

As NGO’s have done for years, regulators seem to placing a great deal of emphasis on worker voice as a critical element in supplier due diligence. Worker surveys have always been seen as an effective tool, but discretionary in nature. The trend appears to be suggesting that is needs to be more seriously integrated into the standard due diligence model.

3:30 – 3:50 | Networking break

3:50 – 4:30 | Integrating carbon and climate into supply chain programs: navigating the challenges

Join LRQA’s distinguished panel of industry experts as they delve into the intricacies of integrating environmental considerations within programs, particularly in the value or supply chain. Through insightful discussions, the panelists will provide valuable perspectives on the current state of environmental disclosure and data gathering, with particular emphasis on climate related aspects, exploring anticipated future trends and expectations of various stakeholders, including investors, regulators, and consumers. By examining the issues and opportunities associated with data collection, this panel aims to help with approaches for integrating carbon and climate concerns into supply chain programs.

4:30 – 5:00 | Lightning round: Initiatives in 2023

LRQA has been partnering with The US Department of Labor’s International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB) to implement the Global Trace Protocol Project, which seeks to increase downstream tracing of goods made by child labor and forced labor. The project is designed to address the barriers in supply chain traceability, and result in the development and sharing of open, accessible and replicable tools that can advance the knowledge base on supply chain tracing and scale the adoption of traceability solutions by various actors in different sectors.

In this session, we’ll provide an overview of tools that have been successfully piloted and let companies know how they can engage with this initiative as it scales up.

5:00 – 5:10 | Closing remarks

5:10 – 6:40 | Networking reception

 

RILA Responsible Sourcing Committee
Tuesday, October 24, 2023

RILA’s in-person meeting of the Responsible Sourcing Committee will take place on October 24th in New York, NY following The LRQA Leadership Series on October 23rd, 2023. Registration can be found here