Richard Bank and Lisa Harrington, directors of the Sustainable Supply Chain Foundation, bring us up to date on the group's efforts to introduce third-party verification of companies' sustainability programs.

Hennes & Mauritz, selling under the brand H&M, is the world's second-largest apparel company and the biggest buyer of clothes made in Bangladesh. That has put the Swedish retailer in an uncomfortable position after the death of a prominent labor activist a year ago and a garment factory fire that killed more than 100 workers in November.

A crisis is a wonderful opportunity to overhaul inadequate or ineffective business processes and systems. We have seen examples where adverse events have led to improvements in everything from the way in which we obtain a credit card to the security practices at schools and public buildings. The furor that started last month over the discovery of horse and pig DNA in products labeled as "containing beef" in the European food supply chain is gathering as much speed, momentum and breadth as the proverbial snowball rolling downhill. Smart supply chain practitioners and companies will harness this energy to implement changes that will ensure a safer food supply.

Regardless of the goods that are being shipped - from electronics to pharmaceuticals to fruit - once released into the supply chain, they are immediately at risk. And the longer they are in transit, the more vulnerable those goods become - facing threats of terrorism, of theft, or even of a natural disaster. Until the cargo arrives safely at its final destination, there are an inordinate number of things that could jeopardize the supply chain from running smoothly.

The U.S. Supreme Court has removed a major barricade for cross-border e-commerce, ruling that so long as a product isn't pirated, U.S. retailers can import it without violating copyright law. In practice, that means an online retailer can sell U.S. customers many products that are lower priced"”and were never intended to be sold in the U.S."”without breaking the law.

Congress and the Administration do not understand the relationship between the U.S. merchant fleet, the military and trade. This lack of understanding has created haphazard policies that are gutting the fleet and inhibiting the private sector's ability to recapitalize our aging maritime industry. The time for action is now. Congress and the Administration are considering budget proposals that, if unopposed, would destroy the U.S. maritime industry and hand over our maritime supremacy to foreign carriers.