COVID-19 Exposes Supply Chain Vulnerabilities that Cause Food Insecurity

The cornavirus pandemic has highlighted supply chain weaknesses that are causing food shortages. As explained in an FAO report, the global pandemic is threatening supply lines leading to concerns about food insecurity. "A protracted pandemic crisis could quickly put a strain on the food supply chains, a complex web of interactions involving farmers, agricultural inputs, processing plants, shipping, retailers and more," the report said. In a March paper the U.N. Committee on World Food Security (CFS) warned that Covid-19 will cause heightened instability in global food supply. The pandemic also prompted the Food and Land Use Coalition to issue a call to action for world leaders over what they describe as a humanitarian crisis requiring urgent coordinated action.

Get Ready for Supply Chain Sustainability Guidance and Standards

Sustainability is a large and expanding trend and procurement has been a major part of this trend. Efforts to adopt more sustainable supply chains have been around for years. We now have ample information to confidently make the claim that businesses practicing sustainability are leading the way forward. Procurement and supply chains are key components of sustainability.

However, a lack of standardization and guidance have made this transition difficult for some. That is rapidly changing as we have seen more guidance and now forthcoming standardization.

Webinar - Valuing Natural Capital Assets in the Supply Chain

This Webinar will take place on Thursday, April 10th 2014, 9:00am - 10:00am PDT/12:00pm - 1:00pm EDT/ 6:00pm - 7:00pm Paris- Brussels Online Meeting.

The 21st century has seen the rise of a globally connected community and with it comes additional layers of what will need to be measured and managed for all companies to succeed. Business leaders will still focus on the basics of profit, revenue and market share, but also required is broader visibility into how natural capital assets are consumed in the supply chain to build brand and manage risk.

Event - Responsible Sourcing Summit 2014

The Responsible Sourcing Summit 2014 will take place on March 5-6, 2014 at the Hotel Monaco, 501 Geary St., San Francisco, California. Listen to subject matter experts in the field of supply chain sustainability and network with other professionals.

Some of the topics that will be covered at this summit include:

Examining the Impact of Recruitment Practices on Human Rights
Taking a Management Systems Approach to Continuous Improvement
Providing Traceability within Supply Chains: Conflict Minerals and Other Raw Materials
Lean Manufacturing - Understanding the Benefits of Production Efficiencies
Implementing Sustainable Chemistry in Supply Chains Addressing Fire Safety in Facilities

Cyber Monday 2013: The Ongoing Growth of a More Eco-friendly Way to Shop

The term for online shopping on the Monday following Thanksgiving is known as Cyber Monday. Each year a growing number of people are going online to do their holiday shopping. Since the term was coined by the National Retail Foundation's Shop.org in 2005, Cyber Monday spending has more than tripled. By avoiding a trip to the mall, shoppers cut down on their environmental impacts including emissions associated with car travel.

According to a report by GigaOm, Black Friday is 50 times more carbon intensive than Cyber Monday shopping. While the report is imperfect, it shows how driving cars to the mall en masse is not an eco-friendly way to shop.

One suggestions to reduce the footprint (and cost) of online shopping is to avoid overnight shipping (air freight). According to The Daily Green ground transportation is better than rush delivery. Ground shipping is six times more energy efficient than air. Not only do airplanes release more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than terrestrial vehicles, they release these GHGs higher in the atmosphere, which has a greater adverse impact on global warming than gases emitted at ground level. Data from the Center for Energy Climate Solutions shows that even when using overnight shipping, the carbon impact of buying online is a fraction of driving to a mall or store.

Green Consumer Day 2013

Green Consumer Day is an annual event that encourages more responsible purchasing, it is also a day that highlights the problem of consumerism. In 2013 this day is being celebrated on Saturday, the 28th of September.

A green consumer is someone who is concerned about the environment. They seek to purchase products with minimal environmental impacts. In the most general terms, Green Consumer Day asks people to assess the items they purchase in light of the energy used to create it and the waste it generates, both during and after manufacturing. Green Consumer Day not only asks people to consider how a product is made, other variables are also important like the materials used, how it is packaged and whether it is recyclable.

Sustainable Supply Chain Transparency: Strategic Analysis and Best Practices

Download the Ethical Corporation's complimentary 10-page briefing that contains strategic analysis around key areas of sustainable supply chains.

In this document you will discover how to create a transparent supply chain that delivers results.

With wide-ranging perspectives from companies and NGOs across a variety of industries and countries this analysis will give you a great overview of best practice in supply chain transparency:

Event - Sustainable Supply Chain Summit

The 8th annual Sustainable Supply Chain Summit will take place on October 7-8, 2013, in London. Discover how to create a transparent supply chain that delivers results. Drive CR, transparency and cost efficiency down your value chain.

The event will be attended by 150 people including 25+ corporate top executives, sharing best practice and discussing the ways to address the biggest supply chain challenges in 2013.

Overview

•Make supply chain sustainability a priority throughout your value chain, by engaging internally with buyers functions, middle management through to top level decision makers

Event - Supply Chain Sustainability Forum & Networking Luncheon

The Supply Chain Sustainability event will take place on Tuesday, July 30, 2013 from 8:00 AM to 1:30 PM (EDT) at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Slaughter Hall – CIMS Conference Center, 111 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, New York. The event will address sustainability from a suppliers point of view. It will specifically address what customers want. The event is sponsored by the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute in partnership with Nixon Peabody LLP. 

Event - Sustainable Supply Chain Summit

The 8th Annual Sustainable Supply Chain Summit will take place on October 7-8, 2013 in London, UK. The summit will feature more than 30 expert speakers from the world’s leading brands in retail, apparel, food, cosmetics, electronics, pharmaceuticals, chemicals from the UK, all over Europe and North America Addressing the key issues that matter in 2013 - Successful internal and external engagement with buyers, middle management and top level decision makers; how to go beyond Tier 1 suppliers; introduce on-site factory training; reduce cost through applying resource efficiency programs in your supply chain and more Best practice from Unilever, IKEA, Sainsbury’s, AkzoNobel, Mitsubishi Electric, and BlackBerry.

This Summit offers a fully participatory experience: besides banning power-point, 70 percent of the event’s time is now devoted to round tables and working groups, to ensure YOU are at the centre of the debate and get your questions answered.

Whitepaper - Best Practices in Sustainable Procurement of Paperboard

This whitepaper focuses on global trends in sustainable measures related to paperboard packaging. It outlines different measures of sustainability and the various steps that have to be taken to ensure sustainable procurement of paperboard packaging.

To access this whitepaper click here.

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Webinar - Myths & Realities of Energy Purchasing

Energy Manager Today is offering a one-hour energy management webinar on Wednesday, February 13, 2013,11am PST/2:00 PM EST.  Titled "Myths & Realities of Energy Purchasing," this webinar will debunk common myths and show you how to engage with the best providers that offer flexible products and timely market insights to achieve the most for your energy spend.

The Days of Overconsumption

Everyone is well acquainted with the twelve days of Christmas, in the modern era, that is being replaced by 6 days of overconsumption. The period around Thanksgiving is the busiest U.S. shopping period of the year. Thanksgiving has long been a spectacle of consumer overindulgence, but now this rampant consumerism extends well beyond Black Friday. Marketers are finding more ways to entice consumers, but they ignore the fact that we cannot sustain our current rate of consumption.

Consumer Spending for a Greener World

It should be obvious that we cannot sustain our current trajectory of consumption. We simply cannot afford traditional consumerism. By putting their spending power to work on less environmentally harmful products and services, consumers can dramatically lessen their impacts on the Earth. To be green consumers we need to be more mindful of what we are purchasing and why.

Green Consumers

Consumers have tremendous power to improve our world. While buying less is always well advised, there are ways we can put consumer dollars to work to advance the green economy. Green shopping implies spending money on products that are less harmful to the environment. In the final analysis where we spend our money determines the type of world we create. When we make green purchases we are helping to build a more sustainable economy.

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