Engaging and Understanding Your Supply Chain

Benchmarking and measurement is not limited to your own organization. As expressed in my previous posts and videos, understanding your supply chain is critical to integrating Corporate Responsibility into your company. Throughout the benchmarking process, tracking supplier data as well as your own allows you to evaluate impacts across the entire life cycle of your product or service.

One of the easiest ways to obtain this data is through supplier questionnaires or sustainability scorecards. We have seen these implemented by large organizations like Walmart, Kaiser Permanente, and Procter & Gamble. By engaging suppliers in this way, it opens a conversation that brings sustainability to the forefront. Understanding your supply chain and its impacts also allows you to reduce costs across the board.

Reducing supply chain impacts can be done in several ways. It is important to embed sustainability into the contract process. This gets the ball rolling from the start of the supplier relationship and allows you to select premier providers. By opening a dialogue with your supply chain and by communicating information transparently, you can collaborate with these suppliers to collectively reduce impacts, lower costs, and prepare for future demand. SSC’s Corporate Sustainability Manager, Jim Mellentine, wrote a great white paper on using Corporate Responsibility to strengthen your supply chain.Check it out here.

Next week, we will be presenting our November webinar, Benchmarking and Measurement – Evaluating Where You Are, Determining Where You’re Going to further discuss this and other November video topics. Make sure you register by clicking the link to reserve your spot now, and learn how to effectively organize and use benchmarking data and have your specific questions answered.

I will be attending Greenbuild this week, so if you are in Philadelphia attending the event, connect with me so we can set up a meeting. Also, this Friday I will be presenting my TEDx Talk at Villanova University on Closing the Loop – Manufacturing a Viable Future. The event is sold out, but if you would like to watch it live, you can stream the entire event here.

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 – Tad Radzinski, PE, LEED AP, SFP

Links:

1. Suppliers Set Out to Grade Products with Sustainability Scorecards
2. Webinar Registration