5 Top Strategies To Improve Sustainable Supply Chain Management

A Sustainable Supply Chain takes into account every step of the manufacturing, packaging, storage, and transportation process.

It can be achieved by prioritizing, monitoring, and tracking the process to ensure it is conducted in an ethically sustainable way according to the environmental, social, and financial elements.

Different Types of SSC

There are 3 main types of sustainable supply chains, environmental, social and economic.

Here are a few ways to improve sustainability within these 3 main components:

• Environment: Improvement in energy efficiency, ensure minimal waste is generated, minimize pollution from your own and vendor’s as well as carbon footprint, recycling/disposal of waste.
• Social: Positive social impact Collaborate with vendors that follow fair labor practices & meet safety regulations, good stance on CSR
• Economic: lower costs using digitization & automation tools, implement an option to go paperless, lower operational cost, implement logistic assessments.

Sustainable supply chains are supply chains that are designed to minimize the negative social, environmental, and economic impacts of production and distribution processes while maximizing benefits for all stakeholders. There are different types of sustainable supply chains; understanding them is essential for companies to adopt and implement effective sustainability strategies.

Closed-Loop Supply Chains: These supply chains aim to reduce waste and minimize the use of natural resources by reusing, recycling, and recovering materials and products. In a closed-loop supply chain, the end-of-life products are collected, disassembled, and their components are either recycled or repurposed to create new products.

Green Supply Chains: These supply chains prioritize environmental sustainability by reducing the carbon footprint, minimizing waste, and conserving natural resources. Green supply chains often involve the use of renewable energy sources, the adoption of eco-friendly manufacturing processes, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Ethical Supply Chains: These chains prioritize social sustainability by promoting fair labor practices and workers' and human rights. Ethical supply chains often involve using certified honest trade materials, compliance with labor standards and regulations, and promoting diversity, inclusion, and equality.

Lean Supply Chains: These supply chains aim to reduce waste, minimize inventory levels, and increase efficiency by streamlining processes, eliminating non-value-added activities, and improving flow. Lean supply chains often involve using just-in-time (JIT) inventory management, continuous improvement methodologies, and adopting digital technologies to optimize processes.

Resilient Supply Chains: These supply chains prioritize risk management and preparedness by building redundancy, flexibility, and agility into the supply chain design. Resilient supply chains often involve contingency plans, scenario planning, and the development of alternative supply chain networks to mitigate the impact of disruptive events.

By understanding the different types of sustainable supply chains, companies can identify the most appropriate strategies to implement in their supply chains to achieve their sustainability goals. Sustainable supply chain practices can lead to improved environmental performance, enhanced social responsibility, increased efficiency, and reduced risks and costs, thereby creating value for all stakeholders.

Ways to Improve Sustainability in The Supply Chain Management

• Diversify vendors, improve reputation & brand image by following ethical values in production, storage and delivery.
• Being responsible for your ethical practices & monitoring your vendor’s sustainable policies to ensure equitable business relationships.
• Implement educational training programs to instill positive behavior towards sustainability, along with ‘success stories of sustainable chains to drive motivation and inspire innovative ideas
• identify the important environmental and social challenges they have, & prioritize working on them with suppliers
• Communicate your expectations and values to suppliers so you can involve them in your sustainability goals: This can be done through a code of conduct or policy report.

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About The Author

Noor is a second-year business student at Tredu. She is also studying for Diploma in International Smart Industry at Tampere University. She is passionate about marketing and content creation. She recently launched her YouTube channel specializing in holistic healing.