The urgency to operate more sustainable as a company has already been present for a longer period. Many companies have started this journey in different ways. Most of the times, the supply chain and logistics activities have not been the first areas of attention. However, currently, more and more focus is set to make the supply chain more sustainable.
Supply chain processes are interesting and can be innovated sustainably in many ways. However, just copy and paste what others do won’t probably work for your own company. A one size fits all approach is too easy. Operating towards a more sustainable supply chain is in most cases rather complex. Processes are detailed, planned and structured with many underlying dependencies. Your supply chain is simply not the same as the one of your neighbor.
Where to start?
We believe in starting with your ambition and your maturity level. What is the point on the horizon your company is aiming for and how is this translated into specific goals and objectives for the coming years? E.g. what is your CO2 reduction target for your supply chain activities for 2025? The ambition determines the needed maturity of your company to reach your goals. A high ambition will lead to a high maturity need of your company regarding sustainability related aspects.
Maturity comes on different levels. You can think of being able to monitor processes and steering on KPIs. But also your experience and usage of different transport modalities (since the rail, barge and ocean modality generally speaking are more sustainable) is a factor. Next to this, you should also think of more ‘soft’ areas like your company’s culture towards (sustainable) innovation. These are just a few examples, but many different elements do add up to your ability to realize a sustainable supply chain.
Sustain methodology
We have developed the Sustain methodology to assess your ambition versus your maturity. By interviews, supply chain key figures and an extensive survey we identify the key areas where your company should start to become more sustainable on, in order to enable you to reach your ambition. This leads to an overall score and a typical gap between your ambition and maturity.
Then, you are probably interested in the areas you should specifically focus on. This is plotted in the Sustain Matrix. Per evaluated aspect you can see your score. The areas highlighted in red/orange are typically the ones you should start improving to start working more sustainable. We have a set of multiple measures per aspect that a company can take to improve its maturity and herewith its sustainability performance. We can help to set your roadmap, enabling you to deliver your objectives.
Do you want to know more? Contact us at info@sustainingsupplychains.com or give us a call.
