Quickstart to sustainable supply chains

Sustainability is an important issue as we face more of our impact. More and more leaders and employees want to actively contribute to climate goals. Customers, government and partners are also demanding that you produce and deliver sustainably as a company. Europe has public accountability requirements from 2023. Banks operate bonus-malus schemes on green investments. In addition, the UN has calculated that sustainability is a $12 trillion business opportunity. But how do you capitalise on this development? Where do you start and how do you tackle it? How do you deal with dependencies in your chain? How do you make it a shared ambition? Who do you involve?

Starting together

Often, the complexity of a problem leads to procrastination. But by involving different experts from your own organisation and using existing models, design thinking and enthusiasm, you can make quick strides. This is how we started with a customer.

Step 1: what is your sustainability ambition?

Based on a R3.0 publication we discussed our current and desired ambition on sustainability. Do we only want to follow laws & regulations or do we see a clear responsibility as a company? Where are we now and how far do we want to go?

Step 2: what are defining themes in your supply chain?

You then discuss with each other the relevant sustainability themes in your supply chain. For this, we used the ESG framework. Which themes make a lot of impact? Are CO2 emissions a big issue? Are working conditions under pressure? How do suppliers take into account the social context? In this discussion, you choose 1-3 key themes you want to improve in your supply chain.

Step 3: what improvement actions will we start?

With an ambition and a number of key themes, you can look for targeted improvement actions. To do this, start by getting a feel for the impact your suppliers are making on the themes. Which suppliers are important to your company? Both in size and critical role in your business model. And for which suppliers is your company an important customer? You should start with this list of suppliers, because that is where the impact may be greatest. Then do some backward planning: (1) start with your ambition (what do you want to have achieved by 2030?), (2) what are the key challenges/thresholds to achieve that goal and (3) what are the 3-5 concrete actions we will start tomorrow?

It's as simple as that. Invite your procurement, sustainability, category management, finance colleagues and start this week. The conversation is the most important thing. Have the discussion, discuss the different topics, make choices and start making it sustainable.

Feedback from previous participants: "We should do this with all our procurement colleagues. It gives us very quick insight into how we can add value as procurement", "Very effective workshop that we will do with our suppliers. It accelerates our learning on sustainability".