Supply chain sustainability (SCS) is an holistic view of supply chain processes, logistics and technologies that addresses the environmental, social, economic and legal aspects of a supply chain's components.
Driven by legislation and increasing environmental awareness, sustainability has become an important issue among companies, research institutions and policy-makers at national and international levels. Within organisations, sustainability issues sit with strategic level decision-making on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and carry serious implications for purchasing and supply chain management.
Sustainability efforts are also aimed at enhancing fairness and positive benefits for suppliers, workers, customers, end-users and any other stakeholders. Sustainability presents companies with an opportunity to forge new commercial relationships and build stronger core competencies. In addition, sustainable procurement practices can maximise business security by ensuring that robustness of supply chains regarding sudden changes in price, availability and quality.
Sustainable supply chains have become a cornerstone to any company that seeks to achieve sustainable goals. A company's image is no longer related to the old paradigm of being sustainable in its own activities, but instead is associated with a strong collaboration between all supply chain stakeholders, towards a sustainable activity. Considering supply chains are responsible for up to four times the greenhouse gas emissions of a company’s direct operations and many suppliers operate in water-stressed areas of the globe, this makes sense from an environmental savings standpoint.
As transparency and accountability become increasingly important to investors, consumers and other shareholders, sustainable supply chain shortcomings can also be a blow to a corporation’s sustainability credibility.
According to the UN Global Compact Management Model, which is a flexible framework for continuous improvement regarding the mainstreaming of the UNGC into strategies and operations, the process of building a sustainable supply chain is not linear. The steps represent complementary actions that companies should follow, always keeping in mind that governance, transparency and engagement are essential for every step.
Recommended steps to achieve supply chain sustainability (source UNGC)
Over the past four months ASL Global has launched its latest CSR initiative One World. Part of this initiative is enhancing the transparency and sustainability of our supply chain. Our suppliers help to ensure that we provide inspiring and innovative solutions for our customers by delivering quality products. We depend on them to adhere to the highest standards for quality, safety and sustainability. At ASL, we manage our entire QA / QC / Compliance process through an industry-leading in-house designed Total Quality Management (TQM) program that defines a systematic and structured approach to:
All ASL suppliers and factories are subjected to our robust Factory Audit Program which covers a detailed Technical Audit (based on ISO9001 framework) and Social Compliance Audit (based on SA8000 standard). One of the ASL’s One World targets is to build an environmentally friendly & socially responsible supply chain through the development of related checklists that will categorize our existing vendor list, help with the on-boarding of new suppliers and proactively encourage more sustainable suppliers on board.
At ASL Global, we are committed to creating a more sustainable business, through a variety of proactive activities.
Discover more about our ONE WORLD initiative
Are you looking for innovative, sustainable marketing services support? Contact us to discover how ASL can help your marketing campaigns become more environmentally sustainable and socially responsible.