Companies are now requiring their suppliers to address carbon management as a core business issue. A plan to deselect some suppliers in the future for failing to meet carbon management criteria set by the companies. These organizations are increasinigly developing strategies for engaging with suppliers on carbon related issues amd have emissions or energy reduction plans in place.
LCA Sustainable Supply Chain USA 2010 (‘Measuring and Addressing Environmental & Social Impacts Throughout the Entire Life Cycle and Supply Chain’), the 7th event in the International Carbon Footprinting conference series, will be held on April 28-29 2010 in Chicago. The event will address sustainability and CSR issues pertaining to product life cycle assessment and supply chain with a focus on the consumer products industry sector.
Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) is gaining much importance in many industries due to pressure from the government and environmental consciousness among the customers, to gain competitive advantage. We have compiled a list of Green Supply Chain studies to assist you in your efforts to address these issues. The green supply chain studies we spotlight cover the following topics: the role that the logistics and transport sector plays in reducing emissions; the effects of ISO 14001 certification on the promotion of green supply chain management (GSCM), research on interest and implementation of green supply chain initiatives; a quantitative picture of current sustainable supply chain practices and plans; a measurement and quantification of how companies are managing the complexities of supply chain demands, distribution costs and environmental concerns; key drivers of sustainable supply chains;a new integrated supply chain model that takes into account sustainability parameters such as CO2 emissions reduction, reduced energy consumption, better traceability and reduced traffic congestion;best practices for companies looking to green their supply chains ; an outline of the supply chain green initiatives currently implemented or planned in manufacturing, warehousing and distribution;survey of sustainable packaging policies ;a look at the growing role of procurement organizations within sustainability efforts institutions of higher learning; a categorization of research and practice in purchasing, manufacturing, outbound, and reverse logistics dimensions;a framework for measuring the “green-ness”of green supply chain initiatives, the business case for green supply management initiavies, research on the debate by empirically evaluating the relationship between EMS and GSCM practices.
Elaine reviews the procurement section of the Ethical Corporation’s latest research publication on How to embed Corporate Responsibility across different parts of your Company and how issues of sustainability and ethics are embedded in the supply chain.
A recent post, Exploring Sustainability Risk Management, we discussed how current market forces are affecting business sustainability. The post, in particular, focused on business reputation as a component of sustainability risk. To further build on the discussion, today’s leaders are also focusing greater attention on supply chain risks as a key factor in business sustainability.
The movement to adopt sustainability practices in the corporate world can trace its roots back to the environmental movement; however it is not just a synonym for or re-branding of environmentalism. Sustainability is best understood as being its own thing; grasped in its own terms. What sets it apart is the growing realization within the executive decision making centers of corporations, governmental, educational and other organizational bodies across the world is that there is a powerful win-win dynamic that can be harnessed by adopting sustainable practices and that sustainability is not a zero sum game with winners and losers. The public wins, the environment wins, those cute animals win, but shareholders also win as well because sustainability makes excellent sense purely from a bottom line perspective.
In the September issue of Harvard Business Review, authors Ram Nidumolu, C.K. Prahalad, and M.R. Rangaswami provide a framework for adopting sustainable practices to bring about technological and organizational innovations that will ultimately yield top-line and bottom-line returns, providing a competitive advantage when the recession ends. They feel that sustainable companies will emerge from the recession ahead of their competitors, who will face difficulties trying to catch up.
Despite the enthusiasm regarding sustainability expressed by the global business community, these organizations have been slow to address these issues when it comes to sustainable supply chain management, says a new study by the Business Performance Management (BPM) Forum and E2open that was conducted in the second quarter of this year. Operations, logistics and supply chain executives also lack the understanding of how to go green and save green across complex, global, multi-tiered supply and distribution networks. The study, titled “Acceleration of ECO-Operation: Achieving Success & Sustainability in the Supply Chain,” gained insights from more than 125 supply chain, operations, finance, and executive professionals around the world across multiple industries. It set out to measure and quantify how companies are managing the complexities of supply chain demands, distribution costs and environmental concerns. The study has major implications for supply chain, finance, operations, logistics, and procurement professionals and underscores the need for better ECO-Operation, sustainability measurement, and operations insight into multi-tiered supply chain networks.
National Association of Educational Procurement (NAEP) and SciQuest, Inc., a procurement automation organization recently announced the findings of “The Current State of Green Procurement Trends within Higher Education” survey. The survey, which garnered responses from procurement professionals at more than 100 colleges and universities in the U.S., sought to provide a benchmark from which the profession can gauge the growing role of procurement organizations within sustainability efforts, from the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment–an effort to address global warming by garnering institutional commitments to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions–to higher education’s efforts to contain costs and do more with less. This is the first year the survey was conducted.
