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How the NFL Would Accommodate a Spring College Season
2020 has been a wild year already in the football world. Would you believe 2021 could be … well, maybe not just as wild, but close?
Imagine this—the Big Ten launches a season Jan. 1, playing on Thursday and Friday nights during the first two rounds of the NFL playoffs, and on Saturdays otherwise. And they do it in some combination of the five indoor football stadiums (Syracuse, Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, St. Louis) within shouting distance of the league’s footprint. Meanwhile, on the more temperate West Coast, the Pac-12 launches with a similar plan.
In this scenario, an eight-game season, with a bye, could be wrapped up by the end of February, with some semblance of a postseason completed by mid-March.
Maybe the ACC, SEC and Big 12 join in, maybe they don’t. Either way, this shakes up the ’21 calendar for the NFL significantly. And if you want to know how the NFL would react to this, I’ve got news for you—these sorts of concepts aren’t just landing on their radar now.
I’m told these are ideas that have been discussed by college coaches already and, notably, NFL teams would be willing to help. The Lions, for one, were approached by a Big Ten school all the way back in the spring about using Ford Field in this way. NFL teams also have discussed what it would take to move the combine and the draft back a month (potentially having the combine in early April and draft in late May) to accommodate the college game.
Are there a lot of moving parts here? Sure. But there’s also reason for people involved to be motivated to get it done. For the Big Ten and Pac-12, this would be a shot—by playing a winter season rather than a spring season—to give their players the chance to play without totally firebombing their 2021 season, and maybe even create an option for other conferences to delay their seasons. For the NFL, it would mitigate what will certainly be a messy, messy situation for its ’21 draft class, in getting most top prospects on the field.
And then, there’s something simpler at play. The NFL needs college football to remain the force that it is for a multitude of reasons. Having all five power conferences play, in whatever form, between now and whenever the draft happens is, without question, the best way to get there.
Now, I don’t know exactly how likely this is to happen. But I do believe the idea—with some colleges playing in the winter, leading into a delayed draft season—is something you’re going to hear more about in coming weeks.
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The GamePlan’s here, and teams are practicing, and we’re now exactly one month away from the first Sunday of NFL action. Here’s what we have for you this week …
• A ranking of underrated camp story lines.
• The one position group that could really struggle with the COVID-19 circumstances.
• A lawsuit you might want to pay attention to.
But we’re starting with the mess that’s become of the college season, and how the NFL and college football will be working together to get through it.
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So here’s the potential calendar, if you want to lay it all the way out.
Jan. 1-2: Big Ten/Pac-12 opening weekend.
Jan. 7-8/Jan. 14-15: Big Ten/Pac-12 Thursday/Friday night games.
Jan. 23: Big Ten/Pac-12 schedule goes back to Saturday.
Feb. 6-7: Bye weekend for Super Bowl.
Feb. 28: Final week of regular season.
March 6: Big Ten title game.
March 13-20: Rose Bowl OR National playoff.
Late April: NFL combine.
Late May: NFL Draft.
Roger Goodell can, unilaterally, move the draft as far back as June 2, per the CBA. The hurdle they’d have to overcome is logistical—making sure they can stage the draft (and clear hotel rooms, public parks, etc.) a month after they’d planned to. I wouldn’t suggest that would be easy, but, remember, we have no clue if fans will even be able to attend, and this year’s draft is in Cleveland, a city full of Big Ten alums in the heart of Big Ten country.
That would make one more party motivated to get this done.
And that would make what promises to be the zaniest draft cycle in NFL history even crazier. In the lead up to last April’s draft, we all got fond of saying how there’d never be a year quite like that one ever again. The recent uptick in COVID-19 cases nationwide, and subsequent impact on the college season, looks like it’s going to prove that thought dead wrong.
“You’ll be drafting guys in May 2021 that haven’t buckled a chinstrap since December 2019,” said one AFC college scouting director. “And think about it—so many guys were drafted this year due, 90%, to what they did their junior or senior year. Without that, we’ll have guys overdrafted, underdrafted. This year, everyone kept saying that you’re gonna look back at that draft, and that’s going to be the draft that you’ll study.
“Well, last year, we got every piece of information as normal until the combine. We just didn’t get that last part. This year, every piece of information is going to be touched by COVID. You’re gonna have guys drafted in the second round that stink, and guys drafted in the seventh round that are studs. And the importance of your scouts? They’ve never been more important.”
No one needs to wait to see if the Big Ten and Pac-12 can pull off the above to figure that out. The wheels are already turning toward a really unusual fall. In a number of different ways.
The Zoom calls. All the major programs are staging them now—Auburn held one on Wednesday—to try and help college scouts make up what they’re missing. Rules are still being formulated on whether or not those guys will be able to visit schools at all, but teams know for sure it won’t be business as usual.
Usually, at this time of year, college scouts would be hitting the road and visiting fall camps to lay the foundation for fall, seeing their sources on campus, getting body types in practice, and figuring out which players should be on their radar for the months ahead. In place of that, the Zoom calls at least have given teams a chance to gather baseline information on prospects.
As you’d expect, schools are handling these in a variety of ways. Some of the bigger programs are doing 3-4-hour sessions, or a series of shorter sessions, and cycling their NFL liaisons, strength coaches, academic advisors and trainers through to disseminate information. Smaller schools that have only a couple standouts have brought position coaches on, too, to help on those specific guys—Western Michigan, for example, had their receivers and linebackers coaches on to talk Dwayne Eskridge and Treshaun Howard.
“There’s a reason we go to the school,” said an AFC exec. “You want to watch a player practice, his tempo, his mannerisms, how he competes and works, and see him do things you’d expect him to do when gets to your team. And being there enables you to reach out to contacts, and spend time with your network of people. So you’re not getting that exposure. But the Zoom calls have been effective as an initial background rundown of the players.”
And, really, it just gives teams an idea of what they’ll need to dig into.
Being dialed in counts. One team I spoke with on Wednesday is already working on getting younger scouts more dialed in—and asking older, more connected guys in the building to call schools and vouch for less-experienced counterparts. Normally, this time of year is great for those younger guys to go meet the grad assistant, trainer or position coach he’ll need in the months to come and establish relationships with them. Absent that face time, this sort of blind-date approach is one way to make up for what’s lost.
So as we’ve mentioned in a few places the last few weeks, this is a year that a scout’s Rolodex is gold. If the coordinator for a key prospect only has time to call, say, four people back, having one of the four scouts he calls back could prove a major advantage in 2020, even more so than it normally is.
“I’m on a Zoom with 20 or 25 other scouts, and the schools are doing a good job with the Zooms, but they’re not giving you all the info you need,” said the AFC scouting director. “And I don’t blame them. I’d never say, ‘He’s an a——,’ or ‘He doesn’t know football,’ on a Zoom with a bunch of people on there I don’t know. I wouldn’t put that on a Zoom. It’s hard to get that info. But if you have good scouts, they can.”
Another veteran scout reiterated, “When the guy on that Zoom makes three calls afterwards, this year, you gotta be one of those three calls he makes.”
Some guessing might be involved. Joe Burrow’s tweet on Sunday—“If this happened a year ago I may be looking for a job right now”—rang true with a lot of players. Burrow’s LSU teammate Clyde Edwards-Helaire rushed for 658 yards as a backup to Nick Brosette in 2018. Arizona State WR Brandon Aiyuk caught 33 passes for 474 yards and three scores in 2018, playing behind now-Patriot WR N’Keal Harry.
It’s safe to say without a 2019 season, those guys aren’t sniffing the first round. With one, Burrow wound up going first overall, Aiyuk 25th to the Niners, and Edwards-Helaire 32nd to the Chiefs. So maybe there’s a tackle at Georgia who was stuck behind Andrew Thomas and Isaiah Wilson, or a corner at Ohio State who was behind Jeff Okudah and Damon Arnette who was going to pull an Aiyuk—and now might or might not have the opportunity to.
“There are a lot of them that just haven’t gotten a chance at an Alabama or a Clemson, that have to bide their time to play,” said an NFC exec. “Or guys that have been injured, where there’s just not a lot of tape on them. The Purdue receiver [Rondale Moore] is like that. He’s a hard guy to evaluate, with his injury history. Those are the types that’ll be tough. And some quarterbacks like Burrow or [Dwayne] Haskins, they’re the ones that made the jump, they needed those throws. … That’s why if I’m a quarterback, I might not come out.”
If you need a good example to follow, here’s one: FAU RB B.J. Emmons. A former five-star recruit, Emmons got a little lost in a crowded backfield at Alabama, transferred to junior college, then landed at FAU. Then, in last year’s opener at Ohio State, he broke his ankle. He came back late in the season and, suddenly, all the talent that was there in the first place started to flash. Scouts were excited to see him play in 2020 as a result.
Now? Well, if FAU’s season gets canceled, he could enter the draft having logged just 86 carries at the Division I level.
“He showed some really good stuff, and he’s talented now,” said another scout. “This really could hurt a guy like that.”
The All-Star games. The Senior Bowl will be conducting a call with all 32 teams on Thursday to start to work on plans for its 2021 game, without a clue on whether or not it’ll be feasible to gather guys from different parts of the country in the early part of next year. They’ll brainstorm ideas and try to figure out how the event can serve the players and teams best in this most unusual year, while discussing contingencies for the uncertainty.
The game, I’m told, could be moved if there are major changes to the structure of the college season—like the Big Ten and Pac-12 moving their seasons to winter. And it could take on a different look, too, if COVID restrictions force that.
This much, I know: That game, and the other All-Star games, will take on added importance. Scouts need to eyeball prospects, and see who’s gotten bigger, faster and stronger, and the Mobile, Ala. event—and its counterparts—would give them their first chance to do that with players coming from conferences that don’t play in 2020.
But, again, the Senior Bowl folks want the number of guys that don’t play ahead of the 2021 draft to be as low as possible. So if that means moving their event so kids don’t have to choose between playing in the Senior Bowl and playing against Iowa or Oregon, then it’ll almost certainly be moved.
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There are some pieces to the scouting process that will be, of course, irreplaceable. And so teams won’t try.
No one’s expecting colleges to let NFL scouts into their football programs’ facilities this fall, given the circumstances, but if evaluators were permitted on the sidelines at practice, there’d be a lot of value in that, in simply getting body types. (One exec raised the examples of Vic Beasley and Brian Burns in recent years, guys who played in the 220s as collegiate pass-rushers, and bulked for the pre-draft process, to illustrate why that’d be important.)
If scouts are allowed at games, that would be another good point of reference—one scouting chief told me that if that happens, and the two teams are solid, he’d tell his scouts to spend one half behind one bench, and the other behind the other bench, to capture the stuff that won’t show up on tape (how a prospect carries himself, interacts with teammates, leads, etc.) but can be meaningful in the final analysis.
All this shows how every point of reference—and every resulting piece of information—is going to matter for these guys over the next eight months.
So if the Big Ten and Pac-12 can figure out a way to play? It’d totally make sense that the NFL would be trying to help them every step of the way. And based on what I know, I believe the NFL absolutely will.
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POWER RANKINGS
Camp’s here! And that means, normally, I’d be introducing you to some of the fresh storylines looming over the 2020 season. That’s not possible from the ground this year. So we’ll do this from 30,000 feet here (and mine these in the coming weeks)—here are my top-five underrated stories looming over the 2020 season (FYI: Nothing COVID-19-related is under-the-radar at this point).
1) The Saints’ big shot. New Orleans’s roster is loaded. There’s not a more complete team in football. But the bills are coming due on the great draft classes that provided the foundation for that. Consider this: Marshon Lattimore, Alvin Kamara, Sheldon Rankins and Ryan Ramczyk are all eligible for second contracts but remain on rookie deals. So the construct of the team could change soon, and that’s before you consider that Drew Brees turns 42 in January. Which means the time for this group almost has to be now.
2) Prove-it time for the 2018 draft QBs. There’s still plenty of reason to be optimistic about Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Josh Allen. But as a football viewing public, a quarterback’s third year is, oftentimes, a dividing line, when tolerance for young-guy mistakes starts to wane and pressure to deliver rises (see: Trubisky, Mitchell). So this is an important year for those three guys.
3) The Chargers’ QB competition. It hit me during Hard Knocks—No one is talking about Tyrod Taylor vs. Justin Herbert. That’s a quarterback who led a team to the playoffs just three years ago, and a guy drafted sixth overall, and the winner gets to pilot a team that still has a lot of talent. I know the team’s fan base is, um, limited. But this still seems like a big deal, given that Joey Bosa, Derwin James, Melvin Ingram, Mike Williams, Keenan Allen, Hunter Henry and Casey Hayward are elsewhere on the roster.
4) Tampa’s defense! We’ve all been focused, and rightfully so, on how Tom Brady’s adjusting to life in Florida, and how the weapons around him compare to what he’s had in the past. Forgotten has been that Todd Bowles’s unit, particular on the back end, saw marked improvement in November and December. And with Ndamukong Suh, Jason Pierre-Paul, Shaq Barrett, Devin White and Lavonte David up front, if a young secondary can keep getting better, there’s a lot of potential here.
5) What Josh McDaniels can do with Cam Newton. I feel like, nationally at least, this has been an overlooked aspect of the Newton/Patriots marriage. Remember, McDaniels won with Matt Cassel and Jimmy Garoppolo, and flipped his offense upside down on three days’ notice to start a rookie Jacoby Brissett on a Thursday night in 2016. So I’d say we could see some pretty cool stuff from McDaniels with Newton taking snaps.
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THE BIG QUESTION
What should we be looking for when the pads go on next week?
I think I got my answer from Jordan Palmer on this week’s podcast (you should listen to the whole thing, if you haven’t). Palmer’s quarterback training group this offseason was a little smaller because of the pandemic, but he got more time with those who were in Orange County with him the last few months. And one thing he focused on with Darnold, Josh Allen and Kyle Allen, among others, in Palmer’s words, was off-platform throws and “getting to your shot.”
The reason why? Palmer thinks offensive line play is going to be a problem this year.
“I think O-line play across the board is going to be the worst we’ve ever seen,” Palmer said. “I think quarterbacks are going to be running for their lives at a rate that we’ve never seen before. The reason is this whole screwed up offseason, I don’t think, had very much of a negative effect on the defensive linemen. These guys still could work out, they still could work on their burst, getting out of their stand, they can still run that ‘hoop,’ where they work on keeping their hips low and leaning. They can still work on bending. They didn’t really lose anything out of this. …
“We had Andrew Whitworth on as a guest [on Sirius XM], and he was talking about how, and he’s a really good golfer, O-line play is getting a lot more like golf, where it’s very, very technical, it’s muscle memory. So those guys not having an offseason, that’s a major, major negative. So O-line gets hit by this whole COVID thing—not getting a chance to pass off twists, not getting a chance to work on full-speed bull rush, not getting a chance to work on switching things off and where your hands need to be.
“D-line is not affected. So I think quarterbacks are going to be running for their lives, so, literally, 60% of throws we did, they were not dropping back and throwing, they were being forced to move. That was the biggest thing right there.”
Definitely an interesting take, and something to keep an eye as we get closer to a season that’ll be preceded by just 14 padded practices per team, and zero preseason games for anyone.
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WHAT NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT
The St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Authority lawsuit against the NFL is moving forward, and the deposition list is bananas.
Under Missouri law, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, lawyers in a case like this need approval from the court to seek more than 10 depositions. These lawyers asked for 42, nearly 40 months after filing the suit.
Among those on the list: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Rams owner Stan Kroenke, Chargers owner Dean Spanos, Raiders owner Mark Davis, ex-Panthers owner Jerry Richardson (who was point man for a Raiders/Chargers plan for L.A. that would’ve kept the Rams in St. Louis) and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones (who was a driving force behind Kroenke’s L.A. plan); as well two other owners, Michael Bidwill of Arizona and Shad Khan of Jacksonville, with close ties to St. Louis.
In all, 30 owners/former owners/members of ownership families made the list, in addition to Packers president Mark Murphy. Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk was spared, as was her family, but Tennessee is represented in the group by ex-president Steve Underwood. Panthers owner David Tepper isn’t on there either, because he didn’t own the team when all this was going on.
The whole thing is pretty interesting, and happening just as the ribbon’s being cut on Kroenke’s gleaming $6 billion SoFi Stadium.
Should this be any football fan’s focus? Of course not. You don’t follow football to keep up with the legal troubles of a pack of billionaires. But given the depth of that deposition list, this could get a little more entertaining than your everyday court proceeding.
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THE FINAL WORD
We’re now four days away from the pads going on. So everyone who said to me, but this doesn’t feel like training camp! … you can sit tight.
We’re almost there.
• Question or comment? Email us.
Fashion
Fashion’s Sustainability Landscape: Who’s Investing in What?
Business as usual has come and gone, as far as sustainability advocates are concerned.
More companies are investing in sustainability and making it a broader business priority.
“In the past year, we have seen accelerated investment into the circular economy, which transitions us away from our current take, make, waste linear economy to one in which materials are shared, reused and continuously cycled,” said Kate Daly, managing director of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. “Brands and retailers are evaluating their business holistically through the lens of environmental, social and [corporate] governance factors, growing their investments in new materials, researching circular solutions and testing and piloting new business models like reusable packaging systems in store.”
Across the top value-creating companies analyzed by WWD, reuse was one area that saw significant investment across the board. Companies evaluated included Nike, Inditex, LVMH, TJX Companies, Kering, Hermès, Fast Retailing, Adidas, Ross, VF Corp., Pandora, Richemont, Anta Sports, Next, L Brands, HLA, H&M, Lululemon, Hanes and Burberry by economic value creation in McKinsey & Co.’s Global Fashion Index for 2018 (adjusted for 2021 due to financial fallout of the pandemic).
An GFN of the sustainability investments being made, across the top value-creating companies in fashion.
WWD
Reuse — Easiest to Implement
The majority, or 70 percent, of McKinsey & Co.’s top 20 companies by value outlined a reuse program (like Ross’ reuse-a-hanger or Nike’s Reuse-a-Shoe) in their annual sustainability reports, perhaps because of ease of entry and low spend.
Since launching in 1993, Nike’s Reuse-a-Shoe program has repurposed 30 million shoes, touting the title as one of the oldest reuse and take-back programs.
Recent efforts from VF-owned The North Face speak to the consumer-facing engagement of these programs. With a warranty program that is 50 years old, the average life of a North Face product is a little over seven years. When it comes to new metrics for reuse, “[The industry] is still trying to figure out how to measure e-commerce programs, end-of-life — we’re actually still trying to work on that,” said Carol Shu, global senior manager of sustainability at The North Face.
The Move on Materials
Select Stan Smiths are being reimagined in a bio-based leather for spring and summer 2021.
Courtesy
After reuse, more than half of the companies showed beginner moves to more innovative materials that help shift away from plastic over reliance and virgin materials. Efforts are evaluated by not solely a public commitment to increase the use of recycled material content but also the use of innovative plant-based dyes and material alternatives, innovation funding competitions and strategic alliances with biotechnology companies.
Last week, Adidas announced its Stan Smiths are the first footwear silhouette to take on Mylo mushroom-derived “leather” at scale. The shoe is slated for limited release later this year with the aim to scale up access to Stan Smith Mylos and integrate the material into other Adidas products and franchises (materials like Mylo are not biodegradable at present). A month prior, Stella McCartney (teaming with biotech company Bolt Threads) and Hermès (teaming with biotech company MycoWorks) similarly trialed new materials to positive public response.
Becoming akin to brand champions for new materials, the only kicker is the Stan Smith Mylo isn’t available yet, neither is the Hermès bag, and McCartney’s bustier and trousers are not for sale — as is the case with many innovative concept launches; Look, don’t touch.
That being said, progress is still being made in the move away from the virgin plastic-based norm, according to industry fiber benchmarks like Textile Exchange — it just isn’t happening at the pace or scale needed.
Polyester’s dominance alone captured 52 percent of the 111 million metric tons of fiber produced in 2019, far overshadowing the plant-based fibers of ancient origins (jute, linen and hemp) taking up 6 percent of the market share of natural protein fibers (silk, wool) each holding 1 percent of the market.
The latest material innovations wouldn’t even track on an industry benchmark at their current scale, so what is driving interest in the new materials?
“Quality is what drives adoption and ultimately impact,” said MycoWorks chief executive officer Matt Scullin. MycoWorks recently closed a $45 million Series B financing deal and worked with Hermès on its latest collaboration. “Brands and consumers are not going to sacrifice performance for sustainability. Leather is fundamentally a performance material. It’s highly durable. It has a sensuality. It evokes emotion that other materials do not. Our approach with Fine Mycelium materials has been to put performance first.”
The company is one of many seeking to edge out competition as veganism and concerns surrounding plastic-based materials continue to rise.
Recycling Gaps
Half of the companies — LVMH, TJX, Kering, Fast Retailing and H&M among them — are making investments in recycling infrastructure — akin to H&M’s Rube Goldberg-like garment-to-garment recycling machine and investments in chemical recycler Re:Newcell.
Amid some isolated efforts, investments in recovery infrastructure and incentives to enable recapture of material after use are lagging.
Speaking to the plastic crisis specifically, Daly suggests collections made with recycled polyester may be a red herring over larger-scale infrastructural investments. “At our current rate, 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in our oceans each year, in addition to the 150 million metric tons currently circulating in marine environments. We need greater investment in recovery infrastructure to help close the supply-and-demand gap for plastics and protect the environment. To effectively do so, alongside upstream innovations to stop waste from the outset, a suite of solutions downstream is necessary — from mechanical recycling to advanced recycling technologies that can break down our most difficult-to-recycle plastics and transform them into high-quality raw materials that can be funneled back into the system,” she said.
Plastics aside, industry-led initiatives like Accelerating Circularity are one of many aiming to tackle fashion’s infrastructure and supply streams to curb waste.
Few Have Jumped All-In on Resale
ThredUp claims to be the biggest apparel resale site.
Courtesy Photo
Despite reporting the strongest growth amid the pandemic, resale trailed all of the circular investments, at just 30 percent designating funds and efforts to it.
None of the players entering the resale space — VF Corp., H&M (majority stake in resale platform Sellpy), Kering (led a $216 million funding round in French luxury resale site Vestiaire Collective in March), Richemont (Watchfinder, Yoox Net-a-porter Group), Burberry (a recent partner to The RealReal) or as of this week, Lululemon (a re-commerce program with Trove) — have demonstrated a decoupling from volume-based growth.
“Circularity is at such a nascent stage…investment is relatively small in a vacuum. One shoe does not circular make a company,” said Michelle Gabriel, an educator at Glasgow Caledonian University in New York. “We’re not seeing the changes we want to see with circularity because one, it can’t solve our problems and two because it’s [a negligible amount] of the operation of these companies.”
Gabriel finds investments to be a drop in the bucket, infrastructure lacking and labor infringements or lived experiences to be more telling of sustainability progress with reports from labor groups being a key reference.
Pandemic Fallout With Suppliers, A ‘North Star’
An GFN of the labor infringements seen by the top value-generating companies in the apparel space.
WWD
Humanity has equal footing in the sustainability conversation.
Investments in human rights due diligence can take the form of published supplier lists (past tier-1), supply chain technologies that aid transparency, third-party auditing and membership in responsible business initiatives or sensibly — living wages.
With the harsh blow dealt to the apparel industry by the pandemic, incidents of wage theft and unmet supplier commitments upstream can be a more human pulse of industry sustainability.
“When we keep the social components as the North Star, we will inherently embed the other things…I am excited about the conversations that are taking place around inclusion and diversity and what a safe industry looks like,” said Gabriel emphasizing the impact to the 75 million people — mostly young women of color — making our clothes today. Gabriel is engaging in an ongoing research project to collect the lived experiences of individuals who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color or LGBTQIA+ within fashion.
Using data available from labor organizations like the Worker Rights Consortium and Remake, some companies (30 percent) that publicly resolved payments to suppliers on canceled or delayed orders at the start of the pandemic were later buyers implicated in severance theft in an April report titled “Fired, Then Robbed” from the WRC. Although the companies paid out in the #PayUp campaign, Nike, Inditex, Next, Fast Retailing, Adidas and H&M were among those buyers implicated in severance cases, as by WRC reports.
Kering, VF and Lululemon remain in the clear for resolved COVID-19-related payments to suppliers. Other companies remain unaccounted for in the pandemic supplier fallout, with public visibility into supply chains lacking.
Going forward, labor rights advocates and watchdogs believe full public transparency will be the ultimate testament to industry-wide progress.
Climate, Chemicals, Biodiversity Reporting — Getting There
Across the board, reporting on sustainability efforts has come a long way — and fast at that within the past year — especially with the rising interest in Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance metrics.
Where applicable, 45 percent of the analyzed companies have set or “committed” to setting science-based targets according to the Science Based Targets Initiative; 65 percent have achieved certification with chemical management programs (including Bluesign or Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals; and 40 percent have invested in some sort of regenerative agriculture project or “restoration” as per sustainability reports.
Some companies are going a step further to disclose material risks to investors.
Standards like the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board Standards identify the subset of environmental, social and governance issues most relevant to financial performance in each of 77 industries. The standards are developed based on feedback from companies, investors and other market participants “as part of a transparent, publicly documented process,” according to the website.
A handful of companies Nike, VF Corp., Pandora and Hanesbrands report by SASB Standards to communicate financially material sustainability information to investors to make bleeding externalities not typically accounted for in apparel, more visible.
When probed on whether companies, across the industry, are indeed holistically re-evaluating their sustainability strategies, Gabriel said: “Maybe not — but I think they’re realizing they can’t afford not to.”
For More, See:
Just a Mere $20B to $30B a Year to Transform the Industry, According to Report
What 2020 Taught Fashion About Sustainability and Where to Go From Here
What Comes After Single-Use Retail Bags?
Business
ESG Strategies for Small Business and Private Companies | JD Supra
As a violinist, I was interested to learn that Irish violinist Patricia Treacy performed at President Biden’s inaugural mass held at 7:30 AM on Inauguration Day at a Washington cathedral. For the occasion, Ms. Treacy performed on a Stradivari violin worth around $4 million.
This Stradivari wasn’t made by the famous 17th century Cremonese luthier Antonio Stradivari whose instruments have become the gold standard for violin makers ever since. Instead, the violin Ms. Treacy played was made by Antonio’s son, Omobono Stradivari.
Omobono likely was primarily assigned repair work in Antonio’s shop. Compared to Antonio, few surviving violins are attributed to Omobono, and those are considered “clumsy” compared to his father’s work. And there is speculation that Omobono’s business interests primarily laid outside violin making.
Omobono might not have kept up with the productivity or workmanship of his illustrious father. But his instruments still reflect considerable artistry compared to other makers of his day and are not to be overlooked.
The same comparison might be made of large, publicly-traded corporations and their small, privately-held business counterparts. Although the former may generate more news reports and generate more revenue and government regulation, privately-held businesses far outstrip public companies in number. And small business is the backbone of many local communities.
On March 4, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it was creating a Climate and ESG Task Force to focus on disclosure and ESG-related misconduct. Although the SEC’s focus likely primarily will be on disclosures by reporting companies and ESG funds, small businesses and privately-held companies also can create a significant impact with ESG programs.
This article provides a basic primer on ESG principles and discusses how small businesses and privately-held companies can positively affect their communities and stakeholders with ESG initiatives.
What is ESG?
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) focuses on a company’s efforts in those three areas. ESG is used by investors when considering where to invest. ESG also should be a factor in developing a company’s policies and products.
ESG requires a holistic evaluation of the business to determine how it serves its stakeholders inside and outside of the company and the environment where it has influence. The relative focus on environment, social, and governance will vary by company.
Focus on environmental should include the company’s use of natural resources, conservation efforts, and recycling and sustainability. Companies also may evaluate their carbon footprint and energy use. If the business involves the use of chemicals, the company might determine if there is a more environmentally friendly option.
Social issues require evaluation of the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts from the boardroom to entry-level employees. Wellness programs and work environment must be evaluated to assure that employees are treated fairly and can work safely and without harassment. Companies also should consider their opportunities for social impact to make the world a better, safer, and more just place where all people can thrive.
Governance focuses on a company’s leadership and how it guides the company to have a positive impact. Governance also will include evaluating the board, executive, and management composition for diversity and inclusion. It also focuses on equity in compensation, transparency with investors and other stakeholders, and integrity.
Why is ESG Important?
Not only is it important that companies use their resources to make the world a better place, but ESG also is good business. For example, conserving energy, using renewable energy, and recycling can reduce costs and help the environment. Creating a diverse workforce where employees are valued and treated fairly will attract top talent, improve morale, and reduce turnover.
Millennial job hunters, consumers, and investors value ESG and may bypass a company that doesn’t. And Gen Z, which are entering adulthood, is the most diverse generation ever, with only 52%. For Gen Z, addressing climate change, equity, and social justice aren’t optional for Gen Z. With Millennials and Gen Z becoming important stakeholders, companies that ignore ESG initiatives aren’t likely to survive.
Eight of the top ten global risks to business identified by the World Economic Form are ESG-related. Further, according to McKinsey & Company, ESG can improve the bottom line. ESG can lead a company to new markets and business opportunities since consumers may seek companies dedicated to ESG.
Conservation efforts can lead to significant cost savings, for instance, in energy costs. And creating an ESG program can help a company futureproof its operations by anticipating changes (eg, carbon credits, bans on plastic bags, etc.).
Finally, employees who are treated well and enjoy a workplace free of discrimination and harassment are likely to be more productive and less likely to leave their jobs. And employees who are treated fairly are less likely to leave their jobs or file regulatory complaints.
Why Should Small Businesses and Privately-Held Companies Care about ESG?
In March, Acting SEC Chair Allison Herren Lee spoke about the SEC’s enhanced focus on ESG, which she said was driven by a “shift in investor focus.” She noted that “ESG risks and metrics now underpin many traditional investment analyses on investments of all types–a dynamic sometimes referred to as ‘ESG integration.’”
According to Lee, the “perceived barrier between social value and market value is breaking down. This change is driven by investors, lenders, asset managers, and ultimately consumers, making it an essential consideration for every business, whether or not under SEC regulation.
Further, the SEC now has set the expectation that reporting companies accurately disclose ESG information and programs. Investors and other stakeholders naturally will come to expect similar information from private businesses. Indeed, Lee Gardella, head of Investment Risk and Monitoring at private equity asset manager Schroder Adveq believes “private markets are a better place for an investor to apply their sustainable goals than the public markets.”
The Process of Developing an ESG Strategy
The first step in developing an ESG program is self-reflection. Every business needs to ask difficult questions such as:
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Is there diverse leadership and employees at every level in the company? What effort is the business making to recruit a diverse workforce?
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Is the work environment free from discrimination and harassment? What does the company do to foster employees’ mental and physical health? Do employees receive a fair, living wage?
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How does the company use natural resources? Does it use renewable energy sources and conserve water? What is the company’s carbon footprint? Does the company recycle and purchase recycled goods where possible? How do the company’s operations impact the land, water, and plant and animal life?
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Do leadership and management deal fairly and transparently with stakeholders, including employees, customers, vendors, and investors?
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What governmental regulation is the business subject to? Is the business in compliance with equal opportunity, wage hour, environmental, and ethical requirements?
After a business identifies its ESG successes and areas for improvement, it should develop strategies to address areas needing improvement. That ESG strategy should be integrated into the business’ culture and operations.
Key Elements of an ESG Strategy
Although contents of a business’ ESG strategy will depend upon its industry and the business’ unique circumstances, every ESG strategy should include these considerations:
360-Degree Engagement
A successful ESG strategy will involve all of a business’ stakeholders, including the board, executives, staff, investors, and consumers. The board may adopt the ESG strategy, but only after seeking information from other stakeholders. In addition to involving management and employees, a business may also seek customer or investor input through surveys.
Address All Three ESG Components
Balance is essential in business and in ESG strategies. An effective ESG strategy will not emphasize one or two of the areas to the neglect or exclusion of the other(s).
Many businesses may find it easier to have a strategy for one or two of the three ESG components (environmental, social, governance) than the others. Frequently the area where the business finds it most challenging to develop a strategy will be the one where the business needs to place the most focus.
For example, a business whose C-suite and board comprised of white men may find it difficult to attract women, people of color, and LGBTQ persons. Or the company may be in an industry where such individuals are underrepresented. Yet, a strong diversity program might be the best way for the business to demonstrate its commitment to ESG. A diversity initiative also may help futureproof the business by bringing new ideas and opportunities to the table.
Or on the social side, it may be difficult for a business to obtain management or owner approval for initiatives that increase employee or worker safety costs above minimum required levels at the expense of owner profit. Yet, in the long run, a happy and healthy workforce may lead to improved financial results.
Top to Bottom Education and Commitment
360-degree engagement doesn’t end when the ESG strategy is developed. Instead, all business personnel, from the board chair to the entry-level employee who started yesterday, needs to be educated about and engaged in carrying out the business’ ESG strategy.
Board, management, and staff must be educated about and committed to the business’ ESG strategy. And ESG should become a consideration in every business decision.
Asset Allocation
The book of Matthew in the Christian Bible says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” As with a person, a business’ “treasure” might not refer just to money but also time and focus.
The business that adopts a strong ESG strategy but continues to place the lion’s share of its funds or employee time on practices that undermine that strategy isn’t likely to succeed. The business’ allocation of time and money and choices for community involvement should support its ESG strategy.
Disclosure and Marketing
Usually, it is a good idea for a business to promote its ESG strategy, even if it isn’t legally obligated to do so. By publicly committing to its ESG strategy, the business is more likely to follow through. Plus, public discussion shows customers, investors, and competitors of the business’ commitment to ESG and could encourage those stakeholders to make similar commitments.
Continued Self-Reflection and Evaluation
Businesses should develop metrics so they can continuously evaluate the effectiveness of their ESG strategies. If ESG strategy isn’t effective in one or more areas, the business should make changes designed to increase impact
Futurecasting
ESG is dynamic. Yesterday’s social and environmental concerns different from today’s concerns, and tomorrow’s concerns will be different yet. The most effective ESG strategies will proactively anticipate and be ready for future industry ESG concerns. And the business should make the investments necessary, so it isn’t left behind when those ESG concerns become reality.
This series draws from Elizabeth Whitman’s background in and passion for classical music to illustrate creative solutions for legal challenges experienced by businesses and real estate investors.
Business
These Are the Most Influential People in the DC-Area Weed Business
Caroline Phillips
Founder, National Cannabis Festival and National Cannabis Policy Summit
As a kid growing up in 16th Street Heights during the ’90s and early 2000s, she’d watch her neighbors’ residences being raided for pot offenses. As an adult, she has turned her hometown into a destination for weed stans, organizing the area’s first cannabis festival in 2016. Nearly 20,000 people attended the last in-person event, at RFK; it now includes a policy component, too.
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Andras Kirschner and Ed Weidenfeld
Co-owners, Phyto Management and Maryland Cultivation and Processing
When longtime lawyer and Reagan campaign counsel Ed Weidenfeld was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, his son introduced him to farmer and Landon alum Andras Kirschner. The pair became partners in pot-growing ventures in Hagerstown and DC. The latter, Phyto, was DC’s highest-grossing in 2019, with $3.2 million in revenue. “I once thought cannabis would put users on the path to inevitable addiction,” Weidenfeld says. Now it “keeps me close to the beauty of life.”
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Jeffrey Kahn and Stephanie Reifkind Kahn
Owners, Takoma Wellness Center
After decades working in healthcare (Stephanie) and using his rabbinate to help families face illness (Jeffrey), the couple opened their dispensary in 2013, making it one of the longest-running in DC. It was also the city’s top-grossing in 2019, with $7.6 million in revenue. Pot is a family business: Son Josh works with his parents, and his brother, James, has worked for other local weed outfits.
Chanda macias
Owner/CEO, National Holistic Healing Center; CEO, Women Grow; first vice chair, National Cannabis Roundtable
The former director of STEM education at Howard University runs a six-year-old dispensary in Dupont Circle, the second-highest-grossing outfit in DC in 2019. She has national sway, too, mentoring people through the networking organization Women Grow and working to influence US policy as a leader in the cannabis-reform group chaired by former House speaker John Boehner.
Linda Greene Market
Owner/CEO, Anacostia Organics; chair, DC Cannabis Trade Association
A former chief of staff to Marion Barry saw opportunity when DC paused its dispensary licensing and no licenses had been granted east of the Anacostia River. She convinced the city to resume licensing and subsequently set up her dispensary in early 2019, just up from the Big Chair on MLK Avenue. On the side, she heads the advocacy group for the city’s growers and sellers.
Hope Wiseman
Owner/CEO, Mary & Main
When Wiseman—the former Falcons cheerleader who starred on the E! reality show WAGS Atlanta—opened her dispensary in Prince George’s County in 2018 at age 26, she became the youngest Black female dispensary owner in the US. This year, she plans to begin franchising to other minority entrepreneurs while organizing a canna-centric conference, “The 420 Experience.” Weed, she says, is “a great opportunity for minorities to build wealth.”
Bill Askinazi
Owner, Potomac Holistics
His Rockville dispensary was the first in Maryland, selling out every day for two months after it opened in 2017. As a former top official at the state’s economic-development agency, he worked with small businesses—his is now one of the only mom-and-pop pot shops left in Montgomery County.
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Josh Genderson
CEO, Holistic Industries
He learned about heavily regulated industries while working at his family’s longtime liquor store, Schneider’s of Capitol Hill, and made the leap to pot in 2010. His company now operates two of the eight cultivation centers in the District. Holistic has also opened a dispensary division (it runs Liberty Cannabis in Rockville), has expanded to seven states, and is projected to gross $200 million in sales this year.
Corey Barnette
Owner/CEO, District Growers and Kinfolk
This MBA and former finance guy is the only person to head both a dispensary and a growing operation in DC: He founded a cultivation center in the Langdon neighborhood and acquired Kinfolk, formerly Metropolitan Wellness Center, a dispensary that’s relocating from Eastern Market to Mount Vernon Triangle. Barnette is often a spokesman for the local industry, testifying on the Hill and advocating for inclusivity within the business.
Erich Mauff
Cofounder/president, Jushi
Mauff is used to the competitive world of Big Cannabis: Before working at Deutsche Bank for nearly two decades, he rowed in the Olympics. Last year, his company acquired one of five licensees in Virginia’s inaugural class of “pharmaceutical processors”—facilities that house every step of the medical-cannabis process, from seed to sale. With a dispensary open in Manassas (called Beyond/Hello) and five more slated to open by mid-2022, Jushi-operated storefronts will be the only places to get medical marijuana in Northern Virginia.
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Jamila Hogan
Founder, the Green Life Learning Center and Pass the Jay
A cannabis judge who anoints prize-winning “strain hunters” at international contests—“When I say it’s good, it’s good”—Mills is to weed what a master somm is to wine. She may be the most erudite kush critic in DC, using her background as a former grower to review dispensary products and locally grown flowers on her website, Pass the Jay. Mills also consults and teaches, schooling growers and consumers in the olfactory elements that differentiate pot strains and their effects. Her pitch: More education + more discerning buyers = better bud.
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Giadha A. DeCarcer
Founder, New Frontier Data
She honed her Big Data skills working in the intelligence field and at JP Morgan Chase. Now she churns out GFN and market forecasts for weed investors and business owners. Her seven-year-old firm expanded its stake in the industry in 2018 when it bought Hemp Business Journal and again last year when it acquired Higher Data, an industry database.
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“DC Scroger”
@dcscroger
His alias derives from “scrogging,” a growing technique that maximizes yield per plant—helpful for pot growers in DC, where residents are restricted to six flowering plants apiece. He teaches classes for serious homegrowers, throws Bring Your Own Bucket soil-mixing parties, and preaches the virtues of self-sufficiency on his Instagram.
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Leah Sera
Director, MS Program in Medical Cannabis Science and Therapeutics, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy
Sera oversees the first medical-marijuana master’s degree in the country, helping train the next generation of cannabis professionals. The two-year-old program covers the scientific, cultural, and political aspects of weed—from a distance. Because of federal laws, neither Sera nor her 400 students can actually touch what they’re studying.
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Mark Nagib
Co-owner/creative director, Pink Fox
After being laid off from their lobbying-firm gigs a few years ago, Nagib and his partner, who goes by “Keo,” started developing DC-centric designs for their high-end gifting company. (Gifters sell token items and give pot away for free, a workaround of District law.) Instead of cheap stickers or trinkets, Pink Fox sells limited-edition loungewear, vibing weed-as-your-best-life. Naturally, Nagib and Keo also host a podcast.
Davis Clayton Kiyo
Owner/CEO, Myster and Octave
His two local storefronts shuttered after a 2016 police raid at one of them, but the Bethesda native continues to sell Myster’s high-end hardware online. The accessories—including the best-known all-in-one Stashtray, inspired by minimalist and modern design—are crafted to be cool enough for the Insta generation but also appeal to the clean-cut sensibilities of a corporate type. Octave, a new venture launched last year, makes high-tech smoking ware for the techy stoner crowd.
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Michael J. Correia
Director of government relations, National Cannabis Industry Association
Before becoming Big Pot’s head lobbyist in 2013, he worked for its prototypical enemy: Republicans. He spent a decade-plus on the Hill and was director of federal affairs at ALEC, the clearinghouse for conservative legislation. Today at NCIA he represents more than 1,000 cannabusinesses.
Queen Adesuyi
Policy manager, Drug Policy Alliance
The 26-year-old Bronx native saw the disparate impacts of pot policing on her hometown versus at her alma mater, Georgetown. Now she lobbies for racial justice in weed policy, pushing for federal criminal-justice reform in Congress and for equity in how the District regulates the industry.
Jenn Michelle Pedini
Executive director, Virginia NORML; development director, NORML
A veteran of Disney World and corporate marketing, Pedini has a background in storytelling, which has been useful at NORML’s chapter in the Old Dominion. During the 2021 legislative session, Pedini’s years-long effort to get Virginia to legalize recreational marijuana was successful—a first among Southern states.
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Diamond Riley
Founder, DC Bake Shop
The former pop-up player has been an innovator in edibles. She gifts Milk Bar–inspired treats and pizzas with sativa-infused sauce to people who make top-dollar donations; a half dozen cupcakes go to a donor of $110, for instance. Pre-pandemic, Riley brought cannabis programming to the Wing coworking club.
Jazmine Moore
Owner/CEO, Green Panther Chef
Diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 2007, the chef weighed 84 pounds and was desperate for relief, which she found by infusing juice with cannabis. Today Moore caters spreads of edibles for patients and parties, dosing niçoise salads and coq au vin for up to $10,000 per spread. She also has a line of CBD condiments designed to aid gut health.
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Adam Eidinger and Nikolas Schiller
Founders, DC Marijuana Justice
Their fame in local pot circles goes back to 2011, when police raided the Capitol Hemp store that Eidinger then co-owned. (He avoided prosecution by closing the shop.) Schiller and Eidinger later formed their advocacy group, helping craft and pass Initiative 71, the ballot measure that legalized pot possession in the District. When it became law in 2015, Mayor Bowser awarded Eidinger a “420” license plate. Now that the city is debating full legalization, expect to see more of their joint effort—Eidinger getting handcuffed for the cause (he’s currently at 26 arrests) and Schiller staying behind to tell the story.
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Meredith Kinner and Johnny McGowan
Partners, Kinner & McGowan
They opened their litigation practice in 2015, becoming one of the first firms to dedicate themselves to DC’s cannabis market. The Capitol Hill–based duo help cannabusinesses unravel the Gordian knot of banking, zoning, and licensing regulations in a shifting legal landscape.
Lonny Bramzon
Owner, Street Lawyer Services
A Miami-raised criminal-defense attorney with a weed side hustle, Bramzon started an H Street gifting operation to market his Silver Spring law firm: The shop sells coupons for legal services, and the weed is free. His “budtenders,” a fleet of young women who work the counters (and call themselves SLS Women), help market the shop to their own micro-influencer followings and are at work with Bramzon to develop a women-focused pot line. He also just launched an expungement-advocacy campaign to get DC-area courts to wipe records clean of weed-related convictions.
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Natalie done
Reporter, Politico
When Politico launched its pot vertical a year and a halfago, it became the first mainstream publication with a cannabis team. Fertig, its federal-policy reporter, covers everything pot-related on Capitol Hill, from financial regulation to agriculture and criminal justice. It’s “the ultimate policy-reporting job,” she says, “because it’s completely new.”
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7 dispensaries
8 cultivation centers
9,276 patients registered
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19 dispensaries
0 cultivation centers
22,455 patients registered
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8 dispensaries
1 cultivation center
12,952 patients registered
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4 pharmaceutical processors
0 Pounds of flower sold. That’s because the Commonwealth’s current medical program is limited to non-combustible forms such as oils, creams, and capsules.
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