Creating competitive and conscience supply chains
There is mounting pressure on global supply chain professionals to not only to increase supply chain performance for commercial gain but also to ensure that their supply chains are having a positive environmental and social impact.
Major catastrophes such as the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, and evidence of child labor and unsafe working conditions in the extended supply chains of multinationals, have put significant pressure on corporations to ensure responsible supply chain practices.
A recently released report from Accenture and the World Economic Forum titled Beyond Supply Chains: Empowering Responsible Value Chains identifies 31 practices that help supply chains achieve competitive business advantage as they strive to maintain socio-economic and environmental benefits.
The report calls this the “triple supply chain advantage.”
As examples of this, the report identifies firms that are implementing best-in-class supply chain practices from a commercial perspective while also having a positive impact on the environment and local economic conditions. These firms excel at building “ethical supply chains.”
The report shows that companies applying the 31 proven supply chain practices identified in the report can increase revenue by up to 20% for responsible products, reduce supply chain costs from 9%-16% and increase brand value by 15%-30%.
Adopting the triple advantage can also shrink carbon footprint by up to 22% while enabling companies to contribute to local development.
