Sustainable Supply Chain
The supply chain is a system of
organisations, people, technologies,
activities, information and resources
involved in moving a product from supplier
to customer. Corporates today, are
being driven by stakeholders to assess
how environmentally sustainable their
supply chain is. It pertains to addressing
environmental concerns in the entire
supply, production and delivery process.
In the process there may be several
instances of emissions, waste generation
and unsustainable water usage
(sustainability parameters). These may
be by assets owned by the company, by
its suppliers of raw materials (upstream)
or distributors of its finished products
(downstream). There may also be
instances of non adherence to industry
standards on employment of labour,
working conditions and exploitation of
natural resources. While, through the
supply chain, environmental parameters
can be measured, other social parameters
mainly pertaining to labour can be tracked
and reported.
Existing life cycle assessment tools do
help to track emissions for a product from
’cradle to grave.” The focus for such tools
is, however, more on product foot-printing
of emissions and less on understanding
the wider concept of sustainability, (which
includes social parameters as well)
and supply chain risks.
It may be argued that the impact of such
macro factors would lie outside the scope
of a sustainable supply chain. However,
these factors have a significant bearing
on the energy use and emissions of a
supply chain. Corporates may be able to
monitor the above factors for the part of
the chain they control. But they rarely have
visibility when it comes to tier two or three
suppliers and distributors.
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