Are companies missing targets?

Supply-chain Sleuths missing targets?

The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, (CIPS) warns that the lack of involvement of procurement departments can lead to the majority of packaging companies missing their Net Zero targets.

With the advent of a new crackdown on misleading information in relation to sustainability, a new survey suggests that there is a surprising lack of involvement of procurement departments, when companies set out their corporate sustainability strategies. In fact, much of the UK’s carbon footprint is generated abroad, several tiers down the supply chain, as a result of the extraction of raw materials, overseas manufacturing and transportation.

The procurement function has a crucial role in understanding, measuring and addressing the sustainability of supply chains. However, 1 in 5 (19%) of UK supply chain managers said they were not involved at all in their organisation’s sustainability strategies, whilst 43% said they were only lightly involved. A further 18% said they were unaware of any corporate sustainability strategies at all.

Ripple effect

Malcolm Harrison, CIPS’ Group CEO, said, “The choices UK businesses make ripple through their supply chains to impact everything from water security and carbon emissions, to waste management and deforestation in other countries. Much of an organisation’s environmental impact will be outside their internal boundaries. Therefore, it is important that organisations understand this complexity so they can begin to track, communicate, and address the sustainability of their own unique supply chain.

“Collaboration is critical to tackling climate change. This includes internal collaboration, between marketing teams and the supply chain managers, and external collaboration between suppliers across the supply chain. Not one organisation can solve climate change on their own and there needs to be more initiatives encouraging competitors to collaborate together to improve the sustainability of common supply chains. “Sustainability strategy must be led by each company’s CEO, but it requires input from across the business and procurement is perhaps the most crucial ingredient of all. Supply chain managers can take a more active role by improving their skills in this area and being more vocal internally about the importance of supply chains in addressing sustainability issues. We all have a role to play to help meet our climate change goals and the time to act is now.”

“ there needs to be more initiatives encouraging competitors to collaborate together ”

UK set to miss 2050 deadline

In 2019 the UK set a goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, a target with particular importance given the UK’s role as host of the COP26 climate conference in November. However, two years on from the commitment only 59% of supply chain managers believe they will be able to deliver against the target. Worryingly, 1 in 10 (11%) of UK supply chain managers said their business has done nothing since 2019 to improve the sustainability of their supply chains.

There have, however, been some positive signs of progress with 53% stating that since 2019 they have begun taking sustainability into account when choosing suppliers and 36% saying they have redesigned products to reduce waste, increased the use of recyclables or introduced more sustainable materials.

About the survey : These findings were drawn from a survey of 318 UK supply chain managers, which ran from 28th July to 10th August 2021.