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By Steven Wilding, Conference Director, Ethical Corporation


Steven Wilding is a Conference Director at Ethical Corporation. A keen advocate of corporate social responsibility Steven is working on sustainability events for the supply chain and extractives industry. 

For more information, http://j.mp/Supply-Chain-Conference.

Supply Chain Comment

By Steven Wilding, Conference Director, Ethical Corporation

November 3, 2011



Supply Chain CSR Under the Spotlight

Effective Auditing Helps Mitigate Against the Risk Irresponsible Suppliers Pose


Consumer backlash, NGO and government pressure have placed supply chain issues firmly in the spotlight. It is now widely accepted that a company’s responsibility extends beyond the factories, mines, offices and shops it owns right down to its suppliers. Ignorance about supplier behavior is no longer a palatable excuse to customers or regulators.

For PepsiCo cleaning up its supply chain has meant getting down in the dirt (literally) by increasing chickpea yields in Ethiopian farms. It’s not an exercise in philanthropy. Chickpeas are central to PepsiCo’s efforts to grow revenues from healthy foods and beverages to $30bn by 2020. Increased chickpea yields not only helps build PepsiCo’s corporate responsibility reputation but will ultimately help meet its revenue targets.

Wilding Says:

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Effective supplier engagement saves the time, cost and reputational damage suffered by having to take corrective action against underperforming suppliers.
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Engagement with suppliers is a complex and at times daunting task. Nike for example has 600 supplier factories based in 50 countries across the globe.  In spite of the difficulties Nike and Adidas have taken steps to measure supplier performance. German sportswear giant Adidas with over 1,100 factories in 68 countries has developed a comprehensive set of KPI’s( key performance indicators)  to measure the social and environmental performance of its suppliers.  The results provide business value by helping inform sourcing decisions and allowing Adidas to recognize and reward responsible suppliers.

Effective auditing helps mitigate against the risk irresponsible suppliers pose. Poor supply chain practice risks not just reputational damage but ultimately a company’s bottom line if consumers reject the brand.

For Nestlé high profile campaigns focusing on the emotive issues surrounding the destruction of the rainforest forced it to take the unprecedented step of banning one of its key strategic suppliers. Through superior engagement and improved performance Nestlé reinstated Smart and its parent company Golden Agri-Resources as a palm oil supplier.

 

The business case for responsible supply chain management is clear. Effective supplier engagement saves the time, cost and reputational damage suffered by having to take corrective action against underperforming suppliers.

 

With this in mind there is a best practice briefing on embedding sustainability into the supply chain. It contains ten pages of practical case studies and valuable insight drawing on the real world experience of Nestlé, Nike, Levi Strauss, Marks & Spencer and Adidas.


To grab a free copy now click here
http://bit.ly/Supply-ChainBriefing.

Nestlé has a representative sharing powerful techniques to overcome supplier push back at an upcoming supply chain conference in London November 28th and 29th. The session will cover how to handle situations where suppliers fail to properly complete audit questionnaires or where insufficient information is provided.


For further advice and best practice on working with suppliers for sustainability take a look at the conference on "How to manage supplier social and environmental performance". With 25+ expert speakers and about 100 corporate attendees expected, it's the leading conference dealing with this topic in Europe.

Click here for more info: http://j.mp/Supply-Chain-Conference.


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