Read the full story at GreenBiz.
Finding innovation and inspiration in sustainable procurement is hard, but not impossible. Here are five steps to help companies chart a new path.
Category Archives: Supply chain
5 ways to reshape sustainable sourcing
How corporate reporting improved Microsoft’s supply chain
Read the full post at GreenBiz.
In the past two years we’ve reported on the growing number of organizations using the GRI Reporting Framework and Guidelines to gain better insight into their suppliers’ social and environmental performance.
Microsoft helped lead this wave in October 2011 when the company asked approximately 20 key hardware suppliers and service providers to use GRI’s Disclosure on Management Approach framework to report on how they meet the standards in Microsoft’s Vendor Code of Conduct. The code includes coverage of environmental and social issues such as business ethics, labor and human rights and respect for intellectual property.
These new reports supplement Microsoft’s existing onsite supplier auditing program by helping provide the multinational software corporation with additional information about the management systems key suppliers have in place to meet the standards set out in the Vendor Code of Conduct.
Microsoft has integrated these disclosure reports into its information management systems for these categories of suppliers. More important, it has begun using the data to help enhance some of its training and capacity-building programs to help ensure that suppliers meet the Vendor Code of Conduct requirements.
Nike, Adidas and others aim for less toxic supply chains
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In 2004, a group of forward-thinking fashion and athletic brands with restricted substances lists (RSLs) — featuring major players Adidas, C&A, Gap, Levi’s, Marks & Spencer and Nike — formed an industry working group with the aim of reducing the use and impact of harmful substances in the apparel and footwear supply chain.
Nine years later, the Apparel and Footwear International RSL Management Group (AFIRM) is 18 members strong and continuing its mission by creating and distributing new and innovative tools for supply chains around the globe and by hosting seminars to educate its global supplier base on ever-evolving best practices in chemical safety management.
An up-close assessment of Walmart’s sustainability index
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In Marc Gunther’s recent article about Walmart and its efforts to make toy production more sustainable, he calls the Walmart supplier Sustainability Index “the biggest environmental initiative in the company’s history,” and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) agrees. He also questions whether “Walmart is taking this too far””and “how the world’s largest retailer is exercising its market power.”
With a 25-year track record challenging companies to make decisions that are good for the environment and the economy, we at EDF are used to asking such tough questions.
That’s precisely why we have an EDF office based in Bentonville, Ark., dedicated solely to working together with Walmart to advance sustainability. Because we don’t take money from the company, we can push hard to achieve the kinds of transformational change of which it is capable.
When it comes to the Sustainability Index, we’re on board. And here’s why…
Sustainability ‘Highly Important’ to 42% of Supply Chains
Read the full story at Environmental Leader.
Less than half of executives say sustainability is highly important to their company’s supply chain, according to a PwC survey.
Of the 42 percent of respondents who rated sustainability as highly important, 87 percent named optimizing their carbon footprint as their top priority for green adherence in their supply chain, according to the PwC‘s 2013 global supply chain survey, Next-generation supply chains: Efficient, fast and tailored. An equal percentage said that it’s best to reach an agreement with their suppliers on adhering to the highest ethical standards.
How to Manage Scope 3 Emissions
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
Properly managing value chain, or Scope 3, emissions is a critical survival tool companies must use to gain competitive advantage in a resource-constrained future, the Carbon Trust says.
United Launches Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
United Airlines says it will measure and evaluate the sustainability of its suppliers’ products and operations and then set targets for improvements in 2014.
The survey is part of United’s sustainable supply chain initiative. United says it will also integrate environmentally focused questions into its request for proposal process.
Game on: Why Walmart is ranking suppliers on sustainability
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This is the first of a three-part series about Walmart’s supplier sustainability index.
Since launching its sustainability program in 2006, Walmart has reduced energy consumption in its stores, installed solar panels on its rooftops, curbed emissions from its trucks and recycled millions of tons of its trash. Now that the world’s biggest retailer has streamlined its own operations, it is turning its attention elsewhere — actually, almost everywhere.
Since last fall, Walmart has rolled out what it calls a supplier sustainability index to thousands of suppliers, asking them pointed questions about their operations and prodding them to better understand and manage their own supply chains.
Two new publications from the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center
The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center has published two new reports:
RR – 122 / Risks to Birds in the Lake Calumet Region from Contaminated Emergent Aquatic Insects / Soucek, David J.; Levengood; Levengood, Jeffrey M.; Gallo, Sue; Hill, Walter R.; Bordson, Gary O.; Talbott, Jonathan L. — Champaign, IL : Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, 2013. (Available at
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/43344
)
TR- 050 Efficiency Performance Contracting for Smaller Manufacturers: Progress in the Metalworking Industry / Bierma, Thomas J.– Champaign, IL : Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, 2013. (Available at
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/43345
).
New tool enables companies to zero in on sustainable supply chain
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The rising problem of illegal logging is responsible for much of the world’s loss of forests. Now, an important technology platform may help bring that to an end.
Global Forest Watch 2.0 will bring near-real-time mapping and social networking together to quickly spot where deforestation is taking place and alert networks to take action before it’s too late.
The system combines satellite data with remote sensing technology to bring high-resolution maps online in near real-time. It will also draw from crowd-sourced data, including from local communities.
To be launched this spring, Forest 2.0 is developed by a partnership convened by the World Resources Institute, which includes the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and businesses and NGOs from around the world.
