{"id":4028,"date":"2019-07-25T09:59:44","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T06:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=4028"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:26","slug":"supply-chains-must-join-the-sustainability-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/07\/25\/supply-chains-must-join-the-sustainability-train\/","title":{"rendered":"Supply Chains Must Join The Sustainability Train"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the great book, \u2018the living company\u2019 <\/em><\/a> published in 1997,\nArie de Geus described a study conducted by Shell in the early 1980s on\ncompanies that had survived for more than 200 years. What those organizations\nhad in common was an understanding of themselves first as being part of a\ncommunity and second as a money-making machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past few decades, we have lost a lot of the\ncommunity approach. However, a business is a group of people working together.\nYou cannot build a new vision without a strong community-oriented\nculture-which, by the way, is rare. It sounds good, everybody nods their heads,\nbut the gap between that idea and how most companies are managed is enormous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With each passing year, sustainability becomes a focus in\neveryday life. 2019 is no exception. From metal and paper straws replacing\nplastic ones to the heightened awareness of the plastics waste in our oceans\nmany businesses are making sustainability part of their company\u2019s culture. Most\nbusinesses have streamlined their supply chain to not only become\neco-friendlier in each step of the process but also reduce costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustainability is a big culprit in any supply chain.\nEffecting change across a supply chain needs more focus on the nature of the\nrelationships involved. A big manufacturer or retailer who pressures upstream\nsuppliers to get their costs down creates room for very little trust and very\nlittle ability to innovate together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Embracing partnerships with NGOs and other non-business\nentities gives access to expertise that a company cannot grow fast internally.\nA classic example is water: for instance, a few years ago Coca-Cola decided to\ncut their water usage for making a litre of coke from more than 3 litres to 2.5\nlitres. However, it overlooked the 200 plus litres it took to grow the sugar\nthat went into making that coke. This was later found out when Coca-Cola\npartnered with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) which knew how to analyze the\nwater footprint of the value chain. Today Coca-Cola knows the difference\nbetween drip-irrigated sugarcane and flood irrigated sugarcane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sustainable supply chain plays a huge role in making a company\ngreener. It goes beyond storage, logistics, manufacturing, and production. Of\ncourse, the ultimate benefit of sustainability is to aide the environment, but\nthere are also more tangible benefits as well. Often times, implementing\nsustainable practices in the business\u2019s supply chain will come with an up-front\nfee that will prove somewhat costly in the short term but sustainable in the\nlong run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offering wider margins for profit, while helping to keep a\nbusiness running for the foreseeable future is the exact goal for any company\nand aiding this through sustainability is a brilliant strategy. Henceforth,\nimplementing a sustainable system will streamline business processes, increase\nefficiency, lower operating costs and increase revenues. These sustainable\npractices are overlooked too often- forgetting that you get what you pay for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boosting a sustainable supply chain resonates with customers\nand end-users making the companies\u2019 internal and external business processes\ntransparent. Instead of trying to cover up, showcase innovation. Some of\nAfrica\u2019s biggest companies are open about their sustainability practices and\nare gaining recognition for it; consider Safaricom and Dangote groups whose\ngoals are aligned to the UN\u2019s 2030 agenda for sustainable development. They are\nboth good examples of huge companies renowned for implementing sustainable\npractices in their supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only does a sustainable supply chain improve short term\nefficiency but also helps the organization\u2019s plan for the long term. Implementing\na reliable system affords a company a much more accurate scope for the future.\nUnderstanding long term needs allows the organization to better realize new\nopportunities, which would help the company to grow in a more efficient manner.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The demand for sustainability in business is a trend that\nhas become increasingly prominent on an industry-wide level. No longer is it\njust enough for a company to just talk about sustainability, they now have to\nturn words into actions and ensure it extends throughout their supply chain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next decade belongs to smart firms!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the great book, \u2018the living company\u2019  published in 1997, Arie de Geus described a study conducted by Shell in the early 1980s on companies that had survived for more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}