NEWS

12 May
Our ‘Viewpoint‘ contribution to the Good Clothes Fair Pay legislative proposal has been published.  Building on our Trade Realities research, we  explore which countries will benefit the most from the proposal and how, combined with good data, it can help create the long-sought-after ‘level playing field’ for living wages. 
19 March
We met this week with with Professor Lukas Linsi’s International Relations & International Organization students at the University of Groningen about supply chain governance for human rights. Some great questions and observations from the next generation of policymakers!
 
16 February
Katalyst participated in the OECD Garment Forum in Paris this week.  Great to catch up with our civil society friends and colleagues from around the world in person, in many cases for the first time since before COVID. 

Also an opportunity to hear where industry thinking has – and has not – moved on over the last few years, particularly in light of the impending EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.
14 February
Higher Ground + Trade Realities OECD Side Session
This official online side session to the OECD Garment Forum  brings together the lessons of two new research studies:
Trade Realities is Katalyst Initiative’s new study detailing how trade flows are likely to impact the effectiveness of supply chain governance efforts like HRDD, now and into the future.
Cornell University Global Labour Institute’s forthcoming Higher Ground paper presents original projections of impacts for workers, suppliers and national economies of climate breakdown in four case study production zones in Asia.
Watch the webinar here
23 November
Katalyst’s Martin Curley was recently invited to be a guest speaker at Cornell University’s Industrial & Labor Relations School’s ‘Labor Practices in Global Supply Chains’ course. 
He joined Professor Sarosh Kuruvilla and students to discuss the role of NGOs in efforts to secure responsible business behaviour and human rights in global supply chains. Topics included the range of strategies employed by NGOs; challenges of shrinking civil society space; the complexities of cooperation across NGOs and between NGOs and trade unions; and the important role NGOs have in speaking truth to power.
11 November 2022
We were greatly saddened to learn of the passing of Klaus Hohenegger, a longtime friend and colleague to many involved with Katalyst Initiative.  Our thoughts go out to his family, as we remember his contributions, both personal and professional, to making the world a better place.

Klaus Hohenegger, Managing Director of Sourcing Solutions and Co-founder and Director of Thrive Collaborative, Switzerland, died suddenly of natural causes on 25 October 2022. Klaus was 51 years old. 

A native of Austria and a resident of Switzerland, Klaus spent much of his adult life travelling and working abroad. After living and working in Asia in the late 1990s with his wife Angie, Klaus acquired a command of the inner workings of the garment industry from nearly every angle. At companies including KTC (Laos), Eybl International (Romania), Skins and Odlo (Switzerland), Klaus managed garment factories, coordinated brands’ supply chains, and oversaw quality assurance. In his consulting roles since 2010, he worked closely with many brands to upgrade their business practices to align with their values.  

A major focus for Klaus was human rights in the workplace. Klaus’ experiences both as a buyer and as a supplier in countless price negotiations (a claim few in the world of human rights due diligence can make) positioned him to create unique, practical solutions to persistent human rights problems – including inadequate wages, forced overtime, and, notably, the low prices that threaten nearly all human rights in global supply chains.   

Klaus sparked a series of innovations that would jumpstart brand action on living wages. With his 2011 presentation at the Annual Conference of the Fair Wear Foundation, he shared detailed living wage calculations for a t-shirt, based on his own factory data, and advanced new thinking in the field. In ensuing years, for organisations including Fair Wear, GIZ, ACT and Clean Clothes Campaign, Klaus and his collaborators produced numerous publications, trainings, and pilot projects. Klaus’ co-creations (including the Thrive Methodology, Fact-based Costing, and Klaus’ “baby”, the Fair Price App) are cutting-edge tools with the potential to upend business practices that lie at the root of human rights violations in the garment industry – and with the potential to offer clear benefits to workers around the world.  

Yet for those who worked with Klaus, his greatest impact was on us as people. Klaus was not one to shy away from working long hours or diving deep into numbers and concepts. Yet his work ethic never stopped him from connecting with the people around him. Regardless of the seniority, background, age, or experience of the person Klaus worked with, he approached them with openness and curiosity. No question was too basic, despite the depth of his expertise and the range of his creative practicality. Not surprisingly, the most common refrain among his colleagues is: “I’ve learned so much from Klaus.”  

Klaus loved a good joke and would find the perfect moment (for example, in the middle of a long presentation) for a funny image to pop up on co-workers’ screens. And during COVID, he would find little moments to delight colleagues’ children who were stuck at home due to lockdowns. An avid sailor, paraglider, SCUBA diver, and skier, Klaus loved the freedom he found in the mountains and the sea. His favourite place to be, however, was always with his wife Angie and three children Sidney, Quentin, and Liam.  

Indeed, despite the lasting impact Klaus’ innovations will have on the global garment industry, it is his strong, tight-knit family that is Klaus’ greatest legacy. At this time, our hearts and energies go out to them.    

Through all that Klaus gave to us, he will always be present in what we do and how we do it.  

In lieu of flowers, Klaus’s close colleagues are organizing a collection to support Klaus’s family at this difficult time. If you would like to learn how to make a contribution in Klaus’ memory, please contact anne@thrive-collab.com.

16 September 2022
Katalyst’s Martin Curley shared recent and forthcoming research at the University of St. Gallen’s conference Enforceable Brand Agreements:  What role in the Future of Transnational Governance and In Ongoing Labour Campaigns?
Hosted by the Competence Center for African Research at the Institute for Business Ethics, the conference brought together experts from around the world to explore what roles enforceable brand agreements, such as the Bangladesh Accord and Lesotho agreement on gender-based violence and harassment can play in the development of supply chain governance going forwards.
9 July 2022
Katalyst was pleased to be invited to the Clean Clothes Campaign and Novi Sindikat conference Living Wage is Possible in Zagreb. 
In addition to participating on the panel “What does due diligence have to do with wages, transparency, gender, and purchasing practices?” Katalyst had a chance to catch up with staff from many trade unions and civil society organisations, and to help identify  areas where future research can help answer outstanding questions.
30 June 2022
Katalyst shared the findings from our recent Building Blocks papers with the Cornell ILR New Conversations Project Advisory Board as part of NCP’s 2022 Annual Conference in New York.  
It was a fantastic opportunity to discuss the implications of the research with this very  experienced group who work with our partners at NCP, and to gain further insights into how future work can be shaped to help support better governance design.
21 February 2022
The first two working papers in Katalyst’s Building Blocks for Governing the Garment Industry series have been published. 
Sizing Up the Garment Industry provides analysis to help estimate how many brands would need to change behaviour to reach a critical mass for change in the industry – and what that means for governance design. The companion paper Garment Industry Structure identifies five challenges related to industry structure that we believe governance designers will need to consider as they develop new laws, regulations, collective bargaining systems and other forms of governance.
23 February 2021
Our colleagues at the New Conversations Project at the Cornell ILR School have published the Social Dialogue in the 21st Century report series, designed to provide a root-cause analysis of barriers to impactful social dialogue in 10 major garment-producing countries.  Published in cooperation with the Strategic Partnership for Garment Supply Chain Transformation, the reports provide a detailed look at similarities and differences in collective bargaining situations across a significant portion of the garment industry.
16 October 2020
Katalyst was pleased to contribute to the Platform Living Wage Financials Annual Conference, sharing some of our thinking about risk-shifting in supply chains. PLWF is an alliance of 15 financial institutions that encourages and monitors investee companies to address the non-payment of living wages in global supply chains.    
10 August 2020
KI’s Martin Curley in Board Agenda on weaknesses in common human rights risk monitoring efforts and what boards need to consider going forwards.  Read more here.
20 July 2020
Business & Human Rights Resource Center shared KI’s article on who should define ‘Good’ human rights due diligence.  Read more here.
10 July 2020
Katalyst was interviewed for an article in Board Agenda on due diligence in the garment industry.  Read the full post here.
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6 July 2020
A new publication from KI’s Martin Curley on the EUIdeas Blog at the European University Institute argues that creating a central role for labour and civil society in deciding what ‘good’ due diligence looks like is critical as efforts to make human rights due diligence mandatory gather speed.  Read the full post here.
Katalyst Initiative