Supply Chain Management For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 19

Boosting Supply Chain Sustainability

IN THIS CHAPTER

Selecting sustainability goals

Examining sustainability strategies

Setting sustainability metrics

Over the past several years, companies, consumers, and governments have become more concerned about where are products come from and what happens to products after they have been sold to a customer. This means supply chain managers need to think about product life cycles. Supply chains begin with raw materials from the Earth and end with used products that are returned to the Earth — ideally, in a way that doesn’t harm the planet.

Supply chains can improve our quality of life in the short term, but they can also do significant long-term damage. In this chapter, I describe environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues that pertain to the global supply chain and the role that supply chains can play in enabling sustainable development around the world.

For supply chain professionals, it is often useful to look at ESG in terms of inputs (the things we consume to create value) and outputs (the things that we create, including any waste that is left over). Applying metrics to our inputs and outputs makes it easier to understand ...