In recent years, employers, governments, consumers and even investors have started to put more pressure on corporates to drive sustainability efforts and social responsibility. Sustainable supply chain management has been a goal for many companies, especially since the increasing numbers of companies are being thrown under the spotlight for unethical business practices in the supply chain. Many controversies have caused giant uproars and answers were demanded by the authorities and consumers. It was also proved in many cases that having a sustainable supply chain can help reduce resources and money spent, reducing unnecessary waste. As such, different supply chain practices can either make or break a company when leveraged strategically.
What Is A Sustainable Supply Chain?
Having a sustainable supply chain is when a company has taken steps to lower emissions, reduce waste and improve labour conditions, considering the environmental and human impact of their products’ journey through the supply chain. The goal is to minimize environmental harm, reducing energy usage, water consumption and waste production while having a positive impact on the people and communities in and around their operations.
Showing eco-awareness in your business practices also improves brand reputation and shows credibility. This could in turn become a competitive advantage for your business as consumers who are environmentally conscious may opt to only support companies that have values aligned with theirs.
Why Is Sustainability Important In Supply Chain?
The supply chain is often extremely energy-consuming due to the nature of production and transportation of products. The carbon emission and the huge amount of natural resources use inevitably harms the environment, especially when speed, cost and reliability are crucial factors of the supply chain. For us to not compromise the well-being of future generations, efforts are required to drive sustainability into every aspect of the supply chain. A sustainable supply chain also helps improve productivity while saving money at the same time. By using sustainable techniques and resources, companies are able to increase the efficiency of buildings, vehicles and machinery, significantly saving costs.
Benefits Of Sustainable Supply Chain Management
Reduced Environmental Impact
Having a sustainable supply chain reduces negative impact on the environment due to the fact that there will be better waste management, more efficient use of resources and less energy consumption leading to reduced emissions.
Reduced costs
Through stewarding sustainability into the supply chain management, resources used can be reduced and processes can also be streamlined to improve productivity. This can help companies to save on excessive costs.
Partnerships Opportunities
Companies may start partnering with external parties. One example is Sainsbury’s where they partner with veterinarians to educate dairy farmers on the common health problems that cows face. This has led to the cows having more milk supply than the national average.
Improved Brand Reputation
Consumers are more concerned than ever about where products come from and how they’re produced. Many customers are also willing to pay more for sustainable products.
Steps To Starting A Sustainable Supply Chain
Companies can choose to start with procurement practices. Most companies start sustainability programs by looking at what they can procure to make their products sustainable such as energy and water procurement, sustainable materials to incorporate or to replace in their products.
Secondly, a business tends to have many operational processes for different departments. Looking at the operational processes or practices across the supply chain can allow us to streamline processes and use resources more efficiently.
Thirdly, we can avoid excess waste by designing products for upcycling and reuse. With upcycling and reusing, we avoid taking up more landfill space, lessening the impact on agriculture as well.
Lastly, with the world being taken over by technology, it is important that we embed data into the decision-making process. Using data, we can then check how to benchmark sustainability performance and compare it to the past year’s performance to see how else to improve and measure progress. Such information can be communicated to the customers, supply chain partners, investors and other stakeholders.
In Conclusion
Urgent actions are needed for us to salvage the damage done to this world. In order to not compromise the well-being of our future generations, we should and can do more to reverse the environmental impact. With only limited natural resources on our impact, it is important that all businesses contribute to this movement and mends their practices, processes and even their human resources. Start small by drawing up a sustainability developmental plan and implementing it step by step, communicating the importance of being sustainable to all stakeholders.
At Aventis, we provide Sustainable Procurement and Supply Chain Management workshops. Come meet our industry expert, Mr Kavickumar Muruganathan for the following course:
Responsible Sourcing, Supply Chain Management & Sustainable Procurement.
We also have the following sustainability courses:
Starting & Managing Corporate Sustainability & ESG Strategy
Effective Guide To Sustainability Reporting
Discounts are available when you sign up in groups of 3 or more! Feel free to reach out to Ms Germaine at 6720 3333 for more details!
Sources
Supply Chain Sustainability: Why It Is Important & Best Practices | NetSuite
A More Sustainable Supply Chain
Five benefits of a sustainable supply chain – Supply Management
