SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAINS STRATEGIES

“For reducing environmental impact and increasing resilience”

Sustainable supply chains are becoming increasingly important in today's business landscape. Companies are recognizing that their supply chains play a critical role in their environmental impact, and that sustainable practices can not only reduce this impact but also increase resilience and improve profitability.

This article will explore strategies for reducing environmental impact and increasing resilience in supply chains. We will discuss the importance of sustainability in supply chains, the key challenges companies face in achieving sustainable supply chains, and best practices for achieving this goal.

The Importance Of Sustainability In Supply Chains:

Supply chains are complex networks of companies, people, and activities that are involved in the creation and delivery of products and services. As such, they can have a significant environmental impact, including greenhouse gas emissions, resource depletion, and pollution.

Sustainable supply chains are those that seek to reduce this impact through the adoption of environmentally responsible practices. This can involve a range of strategies, such as the use of renewable energy, waste reduction, and sustainable sourcing.

Sustainable Supply Chains Are Important For Several Reasons:

1. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: Sustainable supply chains can reduce the environmental impact of business operations, including greenhouse gas emissions, resource depletion, and pollution.

2. REPUTATION: Companies with sustainable supply chains can improve their reputation and attract more customers and investors who are looking for environmentally responsible products and services.

3. RISK MITIGATION: Sustainable supply chains can help mitigate the risks associated with climate change and other environmental issues, such as water scarcity and deforestation.

4. COST SAVINGS: Sustainable supply chains can provide cost savings in the long run by reducing waste, improving efficiency, and reducing energy costs.

use recycled materials whenever possible, and require their suppliers to adhere to strict environmental and social standards.

Fair labour practices: Patagonia has a strong commitment to fair labour practices, and requires their suppliers to pay workers a living wage and provide safe working conditions.

Environmental impact: Patagonia has made significant efforts to reduce their environmental impact, such as reducing their energy use and waste, and investing in renewable energy sources. They also encourage their customers to repair and recycle their products to reduce waste.

Achievement Through Patagonia’s Policies:

• Patagonia has been recognized as a leader in sustainability, receiving numerous awards for their efforts.

Companies Following Sustainable Policies

There are several companies that have made significant strides in implementing sustainable policies in their supply chain industry. Here are some examples:

1. PATAGONIA

Sustainable sourcing: Patagonia has implemented strict guidelines for the materials used in their products. They

2. UNILEVER:

Sustainable sourcing: Unilever has a commitment to sustainable agriculture and sourcing practices, and has set a target to source 100% of their agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020.

Reducing waste: Unilever has implemented several initiatives to reduce waste, such as reducing packaging materials and increasing the use of recycled materials.

Environmental impact: Unilever has set targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and water use, and has invested in renewable energy sources.

Achievement Through Unilever’s Policies:

• Unilever has made significant progress towards their goal of sourcing 100% of their agricultural raw materials sustainably, with 70% of their raw materials now sourced sustainably.

• They have also reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 40% since 2008, and have achieved zero waste to landfill across their manufacturing operations.

• They have reduced their energy use by 35% since 2015, and have implemented several renewable energy projects.

• Patagonia has also implemented a closed-loop system for some of their products, which allows them to recycle materials and reduce waste.

3. IKEA:

Sustainable sourcing: IKEA has a commitment to using sustainable materials in their products, and has set a target to source all their wood and cotton from more sustainable sources by 2020.

Renewable energy: IKEA has invested in renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, to reduce their environmental impact.

Reducing waste: IKEA has implemented several initiatives to reduce waste, such as reducing packaging materials and promoting the recycling of products.

Achievement Through

Ikea’s Policies:

• IKEA has exceeded their target of sourcing all their cotton from more sustainable sources, with 95% of their cotton now sourced sustainably.

• They have also achieved their target of sourcing all their wood from more sustainable sources, and have reduced their carbon footprint by 50% since 2010.

• IKEA has also achieved zero waste to landfill across their operations.

4. NESTLE:

Sustainable sourcing: Nestle has a commitment to responsible sourcing, and has set a target to source 100% of their coffee, cocoa, and palm oil sustainably by 2020.

Reducing waste: Nestle has implemented several initiatives to reduce waste, such as reducing packaging materials and increasing the use of recycled materials.

Environmental impact: Nestle has set targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and waste, and has invested in renewable energy sources.

Achievement Through Nestle’s

Policies:

• Nestle has made significant progress towards their goal of sourcing 100% of their coffee, cocoa, and palm oil sustainably, with 57% of their coffee and 53% of their cocoa now sourced sustainably.

• They have also reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 22% since 2010, and have achieved zero waste to landfill across their manufacturing operations.

5. ADIDAS:

Sustainable materials: Adidas has developed several innovative sustainable materials, such as recycled plastic and ocean plastic, and has set a target to use only recycled polyester in all their products by 2024.

Reducing waste: Adidas has implemented several initiatives to reduce waste, such as using recycled materials in their products and reducing packaging materials.

Environmental impact: Adidas has set targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and waste, and has invested in renewable energy sources.

Achievement Through Adidas’s Policies:

• Adidas has made significant progress towards their goal of using only recycled polyester in all their products, with 60% of their polyester now sourced sustainably.

• They have also reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 30% since 2017, and have achieved zero waste to landfill across their own operations.

• Adidas has also partnered with Parley for the Oceans to collect plastic waste from the ocean and turn it into sustainable materials for their products.

Conclusion:

Achieving sustainable supply chains is essential for companies looking to reduce their environmental impact, improve their reputation, and increase resilience. While there are challenges to achieving sustainable supply chains, companies can adopt best practices such as measuring and monitoring their impact, engaging with suppliers, adopting circular economy principles, using sustainable materials, and investing in renewable energy to achieve this goal.

By taking a proactive approach to sustainability in their supply chains, companies can not only reduce their environmental impact but also improve their profitability and ensure long-term success in a changing business landscape.

If you

What comes to our mind when we think of a controlling relationship? Perhaps a partner who is physically aggressive or abusive? Or someone who is dominating or intimidating? Or someone who dictates what can be done and what can’t? Isn’t it? While all these behaviours are dangerous, they are obvious, visible and evident. There are many other signs in a relationship that are harder to spot. Honestly, many a times, people do not even realise that they are in a controlling relationship, either as a controller or as a victim.

People try to assert power over others and control situations because they are anxious that things may go wrong if they do not maintain control. This anxiety is generally attributed to the controlling partners loving us and caring about us without bounds and their fear of losing us. This misconception further obscures recognising signs of controlling behaviour, their attempts to dominate, intimidate and exert authority.

As humans, we all try to control situations in our lives to an extent. Damaging is when one tries to control other person’s life. The point to note further is that controlling is not restricted to romantic or married relationships, it can happen in a friendship, parental relation, sibling relationship and even in an office relationship – manager and subordinate or between colleagues.

Is It Wrong To Want To Control Things?

Control and certainty makes us feel safe, then what’s wrong with trying to control? The issue here is most things in life are out of our control and trying to get hold on them only add on more stress, conflict, anxiety and resistance. Endlessly demanding perfection from self keeps adding physical and emotional stress which makes life difficult to live and enjoy. Our relationships too suffer when we are controlling. We can be difficult for others to handle as controlling people are bossy, critical, judgemental of other. Hurt, arguments, isolation are inevitable.

What Is A Controlling Relationship?

A controlling relationship is one where one partner dominates the other in an unhealthy, self-serving manner. If your partner constantly makes you feel intimidated, insecure, or guilty, you could be in a controlling relationship. And control in a relationship is a form of abuse.

Why are People Controlling?

4. Co-Dependency - The term refers to being “dependent” on another person and putting their needs before our own. A controlling partner may demand all of the attention, and a co-dependent partner may assume this control is love and be willing to give them that attention.

5. Low Self-Esteem - Controlling people perhaps were never paid enough attention in their past and just to come out of that frustration, they become controlling and dominant. Since they can’t believe anyone would truly care about them, so they try to control or buy love.

6. Perfectionism - Perfectionists mainly try to control themselves and hold themselves and others to impossibly high standards as they crave predictability.

7. Personality Disorder - Some personality disorders like borderline personality disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder may increase the chances of controlling behaviour.

Controlling behavior may actually be a defence mechanism for some people — an attempt to cope with a troubled inner world.

1. Anxiety, Insecurity & Fear - To feel safe, we want to control the situation but when we can’t, we are engulfed with anxiety and insecurity which makes us feel frustrated and stressed out.

2. Learned Behaviour - People learn controlling behaviour from the family they have grown up in where power is exerted over partner. A significant loss or wound in the past can also lead them to develop this mindset that now they will not let anything or anyone hurt them so they chose to take control of their life and others to ensure nothing goes wrong again.

3. Difficult Childhood - We are the product of our childhood learnings. People tend to develop controlling behaviour if they were being controlled or if they had very controlling parents. For them then, controlling others is normal.

Understanding the origin of controlling behaviours does not make it any less frustrating, it helps to understand the controlling person a little better.

Signs of a Controlling Personality

When a person expects, demands and compels the other to cater to his/her needs, that’s a controlling behaviour. The controller dominates and intimidates others in an unhealthy and selfish manner. Some critical signs of controlling behaviour -

1. Criticism - Controlling people will blame others for almost everything. Whenever something goes wrong, they take on the role of victim and make others believe they’re responsible for things even beyond their control. “It’s all your fault” or “you shouldn’t have done this” are their phrases used in conversation.

2. Isolation From Friends, Family Or Loved OnesDemanding attention constantly and gradually isolating partner from friends and family is a method of their having control.

3. Keeping Scores - Controllers keep a constant count of who did what for whom. They always expect something in return and make others feel guilty if they don’t do what is desired. Keeping track, is controller’s way of having the edge over others.

4. Intimidation - Another strategy of a controller is to make others feel that they are not good enough for them. Controllers always make the partner cave in or relent in an argument, may force the partner to share information they ask for regardless of the willingness of the partner.

5. Belittling Or Embarrassing Others - Controllers may make the partner feel ridiculed and then make them believe that they misunderstood the whole situation. One will be made to feel inadequate, dumb, low so that the controller can overpower. Controller will attempt to undermine partners’ confidence by making digs at them.

6. Undermining Perspectives - Controllers do not leave much room for others’ voice and opinion. There is neither any understanding nor an honest attempt to hear others’ perspective. Controllers subtly manipulate their partners’ progress and growth to retain them in their life too.

7. Micromanaging - Controller habitually make decisions for their partners, they don’t accept healthy boundaries and persuade or pressure people to change their viewpoints. They may control finances, and would attempt to limit their partner’s choices in life to the bare minimum in order to prevent them from enjoying life.

8. Unreasonable Jealousy - Controllers always want undivided attention and become upset when others do not provide it. They may resort to making negative comments, interrogate and get overly jealous. Accusing others of flirting or cheating with other people without reason or evidence is controllers’ normal behaviour.

9. Over protectiveness - There is a thin line between caring and controlling. Controller does not consider the partner’s interest, opinions and needs. In the name of love, care, safety and security, if someone hovers around our wellbeing, this certainly is controlling behaviour.

There is no single answer on how to stop being controlling in a relationship. It takes efforts to understand why a person acts this way and what can they replace it with.

How to control being controlling in nature?

1. Identify The Need For Control - Two needs –“Certainty and Significance” drive control. When these needs are not met in healthy ways, we resort to unhealthy means like controlling because this creates a temporary illusion of safety, security and certainty.

2. Challenge Fears - Identifying our fears and ascertaining if they are realistic, helps. Unrealistic and distorted fears can be replaced with calmer and grounded thoughts. Its then easier to work on the realistic fears in life.

3. Acceptance - We all, intellectually, know that we can only control ourselves but still persist in trying to control others. We must stop giving unsolicited advice, must not attempt to control the outcome and allow people to make their own choices. We must free ourselves with the pressure to always be in control.

4. Flexibility - We must stay focused on the problems that are ours to solve. Trust people that they can make good decisions; and if they can’t, those aren’t our problems to solve. Detaching from other people’s problems does not label us as uncaring. Allowing people to figure things out for themselves is a loving and trusting act.

5. Embrace imperfection - We must accept that none of us are perfect, we all make mistakes, take wrong decisions. We need to expect and accept that sometimes plans fall through, accidents happens and people disappoint us. Micromanaging people and situations isn’t going to prevent things from happening, rather, it may push people away.

6. Mange Stress and Anxiety – We must consciously stop thinking about the worst that can happen in a situation or being terrified of the unknowns. We must learn to calm our nerves, mind and body in order to manage the stress and anxiety which forces us to get on to the controlling seat.

7. All Unexpected Is Not Bad - We assume that all unexpected change is bad which is not true. We must try to stay open to the possibility that unexpected change can be positive even if it doesn’t feel that way in the beginning.

8. Delegate – Believe that others are as competent, honest, hardworking and intelligent as we are. Learn to delegate tasks to people rather than taking everything upon yourself. Once we believe in others’ capacities, help automatically starts flowing towards us which in turn reduces the unnecessary stress and anxiety.

How Do We Deal With A Controlling Person

The best strategy for dealing with controlling people is through an upfront discussion. Below pointers can help –

1. Communicate - We must let the controller know how we are affected by their behaviour. Many a times the person is not even cognizant of how we are feeling. It is essential to communicate the impact of their behaviour in a way that reduces feelings of blame by using “I” statements.

2. Alternative Actions - Discussing ways to divide responsibilities or share control helps. Offering alternative courses of action to replace the behavior, such as making plans together rather than the controller making plans is a good strategy.

3. Establish Boundaries - It is impossible to influence or control how others behave, but we can be clear about the treatment we expect and control how we will respond if someone crosses the line. We need to set boundaries, assertively state the desired and undesired.

4. Choose A Response - When someone is controlling, we can respond in various ways to diffuse the situation -

▪• Ignore them and walk away from the situation

• Create a distraction or change the subject

• Counteract with reason

▪• Acknowledge their fear

5. Don’t Debate - Making our choices, being firm, and not wasting energy in trying to change the controller’s mind is the best way.

Arguments/debates are likely to lead to a power struggle about who is right and who is not and can turn ugly. Politely agree to disagree and then end — or exit — the conversation.

Summary

To an extent, we all have controlling propensity. It is only human to try and shape things to ensure that they turn out the way we like, to know beforehand the outcomes. We all want to protect, persuade and convince others to do what we feel will benefit them.

Some controlling behaviours are subtle too e.g. insisting on doing all the chores. It might seem like a favour, but in reality, the controller wants things done his or her way. Lack of flexibility or openness to feedback too is a sign of controlling behaviour. Hence, many of us have controlling moments and behaviours inside of us.

Having controlling tendencies does not make a person bad. It means that the controller has struggles with factors that have contributed to exercising controlling behaviours. Controlling behaviour can be critical to relationships if resulting in emotional and mental abuse. The behaviour will be considered as abuse after a limit.

Important is to create a safety plan to protect ourselves if we are living or working with a controlling person to protect our dignity, respect and well-being.

On the other hand, if we are the control freak and we want every event in our life to be a certain way, it is time to take a step back and accept that we can’t control everything. We must stop micromanaging; and once we are able to do that, we will realise that there is more satisfaction in giving up some control than in taking it.