Sustainable Supply

The global economic,social and political background is changing, with the emergence of the concept of sustainable development - “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

This applies also to global supply chains, and procurement professionals must now integrate a new set of environmental and social criteria’s in their sourcing decisions. Organizations are at risk if they do not systematically identify those potential risks and manage them responsibly and adequately.

Leading organizations have since long, established Supply Management, as a key process to make suppliers a key competitive advantage: this involves tight collaboration of procurement, engineering and suppliers, to ensure that cost, quality and delivery are constantly optimized.

Sustainable Supply Management is the new process which brings together the principles of supply management and corporate social responsibility to make suppliers a sustainable source of value, anticipating environmental issues rather than reacting to it, and improving the labour standards throughout the supply chain.