Supply chains in tech businesses are crucial for a more sustainable future.

Understanding Your Supply Chain Footprint

Businesses exist in a connected world, and many are reliant on external suppliers to function effectively. During the pandemic, supply chains began to creak demonstrating just how reliant businesses are on them. In a similar vein, businesses are dependent on their supply chains to help them be more sustainable, so it’s important to understand their supply chain footprint. The CDP has found that supply chain emissions are on average more than 11 times higher than operational emissions, so businesses need to look beyond their emissions to that of their supply chains.

Supply chains are complex but with the help of technology, understanding them - and thus improving them - can be made easier by having greater visibility. Technologies that can help with supply chain sustainability include IoT, 3D printing and blockchain. IoT sensors within a supply chain can help share data back to central control and monitoring points, to better inform sustainable decision-making. 3D printing can further help to reduce costs and wastage by being able to more easily make prototypes and products on demand. Furthermore, transparency issues have long been a problem with supply chains and blockchain can alleviate some of that by recording transactions across an entire supply chain. Technology really can be a powerful enabler for understanding and boosting a supply chain’s sustainability credentials.

The Benefits Of A Greener Supply Chain

Businesses can benefit from having a greener supply chain in a multitude of ways. Supply chains are a reflection of a business’s overall carbon footprint and many countries have enacted net zero legislation, so businesses will have to play a part in that by reducing their emissions. Legal actions will only become more common against businesses that will fall short of future duties and legal obligations. This also has an impact on reputation as some legal actions could receive significant media attention. Supply chains, despite being external, can have positive effects on a business internally when they are sustainable, as employees want to know that they work for sustainable businesses. Attracting talent is also easier as prospective employees look to work for businesses that align with their own goals and beliefs. Another benefit of greener supply chains is that they help to reduce the overall consumption of resources, better for the protection of the environment and also the bottom line of a business. Companies can save costs by having more sustainable supply chains as a result of the reduced use of resources, so there’s also an economic benefit to reducing the use of resources.