WRI’s Green Supply Chain Project promotes corporate supply chains that minimize impact to the environment and build value for both buyers and suppliers.
The Green Supply Chain (GSC) project’s rationale is based on the idea that sustainable supply chains are good business—for companies, suppliers, and consumers. The drivers of business value include efficiency gains, waste reduction, risk avoidance, staying ahead of the curve with respect to regulations, new product opportunities that capitalize on consumer demand for eco-friendly products, and cost control.
The Green Supply Chain Project makes the financial case for greening supply chains while helping companies develop and strengthen environmentally preferable supply chain initiatives. The project promotes action in the near term—the “trying and doing”—while investigating the measurement and monitoring issues in greater detail for the longer-term. The work involves two inter-related tracks: convening and collaboration with a peer group of influential corporations with leading green supply chain programs through WRI’s “Green Supply Chain Group” and research and analysis on the financial case.
The three pillars of WRI’s GSC Project include:
- Gaining business value from green supply chains
- Simplifying and harmonizing standards and protocols
- Helping to build green supplier capacity
The Business Case
WRI’s GSC Project helps to build the business case for supply chain managers to implement informed strategies. Through research and publications WRI focuses on how supply chains will be impacted by resource constraints, new policies and regulation, climate change and other factors. WRI focuses on the economic value of these supply chain strategies, and how focusing on environmental responsibility in the supply chain can reduce risk, increase long-term profit potential, and improve market share and financial returns.
WRI partnered management consultants A.T. Kearney on the report Rattling Supply Chains, which quantifies the potential price impacts of environmental issues including climate change regulation, water scarcity, deforestation and biofuels on key commodities in the supply chains of food and beverage, household and consumer products companies. This work draws upon a large body of existing information and WRI expertise to develop future a baseline and future scenario in order to create price inflation factors to illustrate the potential magnitude of future environmental issues. Rattling the Supply Chains also outlines process for companies to develop a robust strategy around a company’s sustainability challenge and opportunities.
Standards and Protocols
Environmental concerns have lead to the development of many tools, standards, protocols and other initiatives to help companies address issues such as greenhouse gas accounting, sustainable forestry management, and so forth. The proliferation of standards has caused significant confusion in the marketplace, an understandable complaint among companies about “survey fatigue,” and an unmistakable demand by large companies and their suppliers for greater conformity around fewer, simpler approaches. The proliferation problem is particularly acute for the smaller companies that do not have the corporate resources for large environmental teams, and yet they are overwhelmed by a flood of information related to sustainability issues, policies, technologies, metrics, on so on.
Through the GSC Project, WRI is working with members to develop ideas to simplify and harmonize competing sustainability standards, protocols, and data collection methods. This process will be achieved by focusing on common needs and emphasize where collaboration can help to achieve greater economic efficiency in addressing these issues. The intended result of this work is improve the transparency of environmental data in the supply chain, reduce the burdens on suppliers, and ultimately work toward a more holistic understanding of “green” that brings together priority sustainability issues in a manner that is comprehensive and easily communicated.
Building Green Supplier Capacity
Large corporations are applying sustainability standards to their suppliers in increasing numbers, yet many of these suppliers face significant barriers to improved environmental performance. In order to help suppliers improve supplier environmental performance WRI’s GSC Project identifies best practices that lead to greater green supplier capacity. WRI helps to build the tools and education that will help supplier understand the areas of opportunity and identify where risks lie as well. WRI works with suppliers to develop the strategies of engagement that are desired from suppliers so that they do not become overburdened with supplier demands.
