Environmental Policy means nothing if the supply chain aren't playing

Environmental sustainability is not just about doing the right thing, it’s also about reputation. What some businesses need to realize is that it might not just be their reputation.

If you’re a supplier to a major brand, or you’re a supplier to a supplier of a major brand, then you need to think about your future and how you protect it.

Major brands around the world have been making commitments to the environment and developing corporate and social responsibility policies for a number of years. Many of these well-known brands now use their achievements in these areas to generate publicity, attract talent, and win more customers.

So what does all this mean for the supply chain?

What is certain is that at some point in the future you, as a supplier, are going to be a part of the policy and promise being made by the brand to its stakeholders, which means you too need to start thinking about the environment and your impact.

No brand, that is winning the trust of its customers, is going to want its reputation tarnished by a rogue supplier who isn’t doing their bit.

The smart suppliers will be the ones anticipating what their customers will require of them in the next 5-10 years and be willing to change. The suppliers that will develop lasting relationships will be those that make it their business to understand their customers environmental, sustainable and CSR commitments and be willing to stand alongside them and help them achieve their targets.

Big business is going to realize, or maybe even be told by government, that it has a responsibility to the environment.

Businesses are easy targets for governments. Reducing carbon emissions, halting biodiversity loss, and managing our natural resources sustainably can simply become taxes. But businesses are full of creative, intelligent and determined people who can find ways to achieve these things, and in doing so turn them into a competitive advantage.

If you’re a supplier you are part of the process, which means at some point in not too distant future you will either be part of the solution or a problem.

What's it to be?