By promoting organisational activism and building on the energy and passion of the individuals, each organisation can make a big difference. From a supply chain planning perspective, every stakeholder involved could positively contribute to the company’s sustainability journey, creating change not only at an organisational level but also on a more personal level.
Where to get started?
Supply chain planning is generally driven by profitability, customer satisfaction and efficiency. We believe that environmental impact must be added to the equation, playing an important role for the decision-making process as part of the supply chain planning activities. We think that carbon measurement is the foundation for accelerating your climate journey, prioritising decisions that really matter and understanding the impact of those.
Transparency is key when it comes to supply chain planning and sustainability in the same manner that cost or profit transparency has driven planning decisions up until today. Being able to assess the CO2 impact of your planning decisions from an end-to-end perspective and having visibility across supplier tiers, stock levels and customers are the starting point for greener planning. Companies need to look at the supply chain environmental impact not only within the boundaries of their own organisation (Scope 1 – Greenhouse Gas Protocol), but they also need to include upstream and downstream activities that have an impact on the planet (Scope 2 and 3 – Greenhouse Gas Protocol). Supply chains today need to be aligned and consolidated across the entire value chain.
Supply chain planning means also cooperating across boundaries by having a dialogue with your suppliers and customers to move towards greener solutions. Prioritising suppliers with green strategies such as green innovation efforts and product development or engaging with clients about how to contribute to their climate goals.
We have seen that transparency is necessary to understand the CO2 impact of the supply chain and to plan accordingly, but how can this be enabled? We need to have systems and tools in place that help us understand how CO2 is associated with our supply chain planning decisions. Digitalisation of the supply chain is needed, and today we have technology available that can help with that.
Technology can enable greener supply chain planning
So, how can we measure how well organisations are doing on their sustainability journey?
In sustainability reporting, a KPI is referred to as a sustainability performance indicator (SPI). SPIs can be used by organisations as a tool to track their business’ sustainability performance to monitor and report on future progress.
The selection of the right and balanced set of SPIs should be a focus for organisations that have sustainability high up on the agenda. In fact, if on the one hand, appropriately selected indicators offer an aid in assessing and tracking an organisation’s sustainability performance, they, on the other hand, help companies communicate and implement their strategies at different levels. Therefore, SPIs must be designed carefully as they can deeply affect the organisation’s strategic, tactical and operational planning.
Once the appropriate set of SPIs is defined, companies need to track them, report on them and follow up on them. This naturally requires technological support.