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Our firn's mission is to help companies throughout the product supply chain create environmentally-sustainable businesses. Our consulting services include: creating enterprise-level environmental sustainability visions, goals and strategies; re-engineering internal processes to reflect environmentally-sustainable best practices; and maximizing the environmental sustainability of product supply chains through the design and implentation of supplier assessment mechanisms.
We are particularly interested in working with small- and medium-sized enterprises. We work nationwide in a variety of industries. We are extremely sensitive to clients' budgets and their capacity for change.
Whether it's an energy, water, chemicals or solid waste issue, our team of professionals is ready to help your business. Please contact us to learn how we can help you.
Call 212-343-1006 today.
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Greetings!
This Spring has brought with it some optimism on financial fronts. Moreover, business investments in sustainable practices continue, arguably with more urgency than ever before. This Newsletter provides valuable information on the relationship between business and environmental sustainability, one of the hottest topics in business today. Happy reading! |
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Feature Article: Driving Sustainability Through the Supply Chain |
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Experts agree that in order to really "green" the supply chain in a meaningful and dynamic way, it will take more than just the actions of individual companies. In addition to discrete efforts, a green supply chain will require innovation, collaboration, rewards, penalties and know-how going back and forth between suppliers and customers. Aware of this fact, companies are now designing and implementing programs to drive sustainability back up their supply chains, just as they designed and used similar programs to drive lean, quality and diversity programs into supplier bases in the 1980s and 1990s. As one expert put it, "In the end, you want to buy sustainable materials, products and services from companies with sustainable practices."
Supplier-oriented sustainability initiatives being rolled out right now include:
- redesigns of RFP language to include sustainability-related criteria that can disqualify suppliers who do not meet certain standards
- additions of new provisions in supplier contracts that require adherence to sustainability criteria over the life of the contract
- implementations of supplier sustainability "scorecard" programs as tools to periodically assess existing suppliers as to their efforts and achievements in sustainability
- sustainability "audits" of key suppiers to verify scorecard information and ensure compliance with contract policies.
As was the case when these methods were introduced to drive quality, efficiency and diversity through the supply chain, companies must initially be very mindful of the tension between pushing suppliers to get on board quickly and, on the other hand, being sensitive to the newness of the sustainability topic to most companies. Somewhere between pushing and sensitivity is the right point at which companies can get visibility into their suppy chain, drive behavior change and avoid saddling key supply chain partners with unfunded program mandates. It's likely that this point is different for every company, perhaps every supplier-customer relationship, but this fact alone should not deter companies from starting to use these tools ... and others ... as a way to reduce the supply chain's environmental footprint. The point is to start somewhere, get a few successes in hand and then add more complexity as time goes on.
Do you have a story about a successful supplier-oriented sustainability program? If so, we'd love to hear from you!
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Ideas You Can Use Now! |
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The article above suggests the use of supplier scorecard programs to help drive sustainability through the supply chain. Here are a few tips about designing and implementing such a "supplier sustainability scorecarding" program:
- assemble a team to design the scorecard and work out implementation details; consider including representatives of a few key suppliers on the team
- the scorecard should include questions related to the environmental impacts of the supplier's people, places, products and processes
- keep in mind that sustainability is still new to many companies; don't expect a lot of hard data or metrics
- one good way to design a scorecard is to ask the supplier to indicate whether it has "considered," "begun" or "has results from" various sustainability initiatives (e.g., reducing energy consumption in its manufacturing facilities); if the supplier has results from a program, then it can provide data in a separate area of the scorecard - don't ask questions of your suppliers that you're not prepared to answer about your own company; beware of saddling your suppliers with an "unfunded mandate"
- test the program in a pilot phase before rolling it out to all suppliers
- make one person (with an alternate) the go-to person for suppliers who have questions about the program; avoid the pitfall of having suppliers getting different answers from different people in your company
- distribute an internal "FAQ" document about the program to key internal stakeholders
- be prepared to refine the program over time to reflect changes in the world of sustainability and to drive deeper into your suppliers' activities
Think through the specific sustainability actions and achievements you want to measure and use these tips to create an effective scorecard program to add to your arsenal of tools to drive sustainability through your company's supply chain.
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Calendar of Events |
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Here are some sustainability-related events occuring in the coming months that we suggest might interest to you:
June 8 - 9, Savannah, GA ... Attend the "Lean and Green Summit" to learn about how lean principles merge with green practices to create sustainable business models. For more information, visit www.leanandgreensummit.com.
June 11 - 12, Miami, FL ... Sustainability comes to the "Big Orange," in the form of the Miami Green Conference and Expo 2009. Visit www.miagreen.com.
July 20 - 21, Philadelphia, PA ... Pharmaceuticals industry manufacturers, suppliers and other stakeholders will want to attend the "GreenPharma Summit." Visit www.iirusa.com/greenpharma.
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Thanks for reading! Please contact us today to discuss anything you've read here, suggest a topic for a future edition or learn how we can help you build a more sustainable business.
Sincerely,
Robert W. Kuhn, President
Kuhn Associates Management Advisors LLC |
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