Engaging With Suppliers to Meet Supply Chain Sustainability Goals

As companies advance their sustainable development initiatives into the extended supply chain, their suppliers become a crucial source of information and market expertise. Consequently, suppliers are under increasing pressure to participate in these programs. How best to involve trading partners in green supply chain projects and develop mutually beneficial relationships is an urgent challenge for enterprises worldwide.

According to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in its 2012 Supply Chain Report , “suppliers that do not measure, quantify, and manage their greenhouse gas emissions will soon see their business move to competitors that can provide better information and clearer evidence of change.”

Of the 50 CDP Supply Chain member enterprises surveyed in the report, some 62% reward suppliers with good carbon management practices, up from 28% in 2010. Moreover, 39% of these member organizations “will soon begin deselecting suppliers that do not adopt such measures,” says CDP. This compares to 23% of member organizations in the previous report. Even though the CDP sample is biased toward environmentally aware organizations, there is “growing momentum for supply chain engagement,” CDP asserts.