Sustainable Supply Chain

The classical supply chain approach is evolving with the developments of the era and sustainability concerns, shaping the way companies do business under the umbrella of today's modern sustainable supply chain approach. As global trade giants put sustainability sanctions on the agenda, the need for integration in business practices increases, while traditional priorities such as product quality, operational efficiency and price are now being replaced by sustainability priorities such as working conditions and environmental impact. Companies are looking for ways to integrate sustainability into every stage of their operations, as sustainability investments not only reduce some costs, but also bring a form of business management based on responsibility to humanity and the planet.

What is a Sustainable Supply Chain?

Sustainable supply chain management is the various policies and their effects that a company's supply chain implements in order to produce sustainability impacts in environmental, social and economic dimensions. While the supply chain is a multidimensional issue by its nature, it requires activities in areas such as employment, logistics, communication and economy at various layers. Sustainability in the supply chain is achieved when the activities carried out in these areas are related to a wide range of sustainability issues such as promoting human rights, fair labor practices in the long term, low carbon emissions, environmental progress and anti-corruption policies.

Sustainability policies can be applied in various processes of the supply chain, such as product modelling and development, raw material extraction or production, all aspects of production, storage, transport and after-sales processes.

Importance of Sustainability in Supply Chain

The concept of climate change is not limited to product production and sales, but creates critical risks for all operations in supply chain processes. According to research, it has been determined that the operations of suppliers account for a high percentage of a company's total carbon emissions, ranging from 65 to 95 per cent. Changing weather conditions with climate change can disrupt agriculture. In this case, for example, the production of raw materials such as cotton and spike is also disrupted. This, in turn, creates problems such as an industrial contraction with a chain effect and supply not meeting demand in the supply chain. Therefore, sustainability policies should be followed in order to strengthen the availability of natural resources.

Benefits of Sustainability in the Supply Chain

Sustainability policies enable cost reductions by optimizing end-to-end operations in supply chain processes, leading to savings and profitability. Methods that offer benefits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in nature offer a long-term reduction in costs by using certain products or materials more economically or by completely eliminating them from use. Sustainable procurement processes, not just the production of a product, also contribute to commercial sustainability by protecting the interests of the environment, the economy, the planet and people in processes such as transport, distribution, return, etc. This, in turn, brings about a development in which the entire commercial chain will be positively affected, as it will affect the welfare of the global economy in the long term.

What can be done for a Sustainable Supply Chain?

Although sustainability is a detailed and comprehensive field, determining, protecting and developing long-term environmental, social and economic values constitutes the main action area in sustainable supply chain management. Adopting business policies where organisations working with sustainability principles are preferred or rewarded in the commercial arena, reviewing the management processes of companies and adapting to innovations are among the most important actions in sustainability transformation.

Renewing business methods within the framework of sustainability brings along some strategic steps. In terms of environmental sustainability, for example, actions such as preparing awareness-raising campaigns by mobilising internal communication on waste management can be carried out. Regulations can be introduced for less or recyclable waste in production processes. Business processes such as warehousing and transport can be planned in a way that supports sustainability, for example by combining logistics and storage methods such as loading goods into containers. Ensuring low carbon emissions through EDI, which is based on the standardised and systematic transfer of commercial documents in the form of data, brings with it the advantages of electronic data transfer as well as its contribution to environmental sustainability. In addition to these, many solutions such as renewing employment management according to sustainability principles, offering improvements to working conditions and job satisfaction and employee loyalty, applying strategic communication methods for long-term business relationships, increasing audits and sanctions are among the most important things that companies can do to achieve more sustainable work in the supply chain.

Sources: *https://youmatter.world/en/sustainability-supply-chain-27935/ Sate of access: 20. 04. 2022 *