Anant Ahuja of Shahi Exports Joins the Board of the Better Buying Institute (BBI)
19 November 2022: Shahi Exports, India’s largest apparel manufacturer, announced that Anant Ahuja has joined the Board of Directors of the Better Buying Institute (BBI). BBI was set up in 2015 with a mission to enable buyers and suppliers to work together with responsible purchasing practices to achieve shared goals of profitability and social and environmental sustainability. As the first South Asian supplier to join the BBI Board, Anant’s appointment is a significant step towards the industry-wide transformation of buyer purchasing practices.
As the Head of Organizational Development at Shahi, Anant is primarily responsible for positive change across the business through innovation and strategy, aligning the company’s growth with the development of people, communities, and the environment. Anant is also the CEO and co-founder of the Good Business Lab, a not-for-profit labor innovation start-up that conducts research to find common ground between worker well-being and business interests. He was also a part of NITI Aayog’s ‘Champions of Change’ initiative.
Shahi Exports operates over 50 factories and three processing mills across nine states in India, employing over 113,000 people. Women workers constitute nearly 70% of Shahi’s workforce.
Anant Ahuja, Head of Organizational Development at Shahi Exports, said “Better Buying has led the way in measuring and raising awareness of the state of purchasing practices by driving transparency, and this is an exciting time to be joining the Board. There is growing awareness and acceptance in the industry that purchasing practices have a massive impact on workers’ wellbeing, environmental sustainability, and innovation. Buyers are significantly more open to working with suppliers to understand the pain points and develop win-win partnerships, and suppliers are increasingly aware of the knowledge and influence they hold in driving a sustainable future for the fashion industry.”
Ahuja joins fellow Board members Nina Smith, founding Chief Executive of GoodWeave International; Dr. Peter Cheng, Co-founder and Chairman of Hanbo Group; Tom Rausch, Global Lead, Agrostart – BASF and Michael Gilson, CEO and Founder of Cormac Advisors.
