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Achieving ROI on Supply Chain Sustainability Initiatives

Bob Trebilcock in Supply Chain Management Review notes the on-going evolution of role of sustainability objectives in the supply chain from “nice to do” to “business critical”. Citing examples of four companies who have successfully made this transition, he outlines four practices essential to achieving sustainability goals:

1. Adopt rigorous, defensible reporting methodology to track the costs and benefits from an economic, environmental, and social perspective.
2. Conduct “Life Cycle Assessments” to evaluate impact from cradle to grave. The second best practice we’ve found among successful companies is that they conduct Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) to determine the environment impact of their products or services from cradle to grave.
3. Follow ISO 14000 environmental management standards http://www.iso.org/iso/iso14000
4. Follow the 5 Level Framework. The Framework was developed by scientist Karl-Henrik Robert which includes ascertaining the scope of the system, defining success, setting strategy, determining actions to take, and identifying the tools to use.

Of all these, #1 (the scorekeeping) may be the single most critical, because at the end of the day, if an activity can’t be justified, it won’t be sustainable.


Harry Haney, Assistant Director, Supply & Value Chain Center

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