What you should do to green your supply chain

Filed in archive Green supply chains on November 8, 2007

These days that greening supply chains have found their way to the top of the agenda specially in industries such as electronics and semi-conductors, the related media also covered some of the aspects and practices in sustainability of the value chain. Among them, I liked one article in Electronics Supply and Manufacturing with the title of "Ten steps to a green supply chain".




The steps which are proposed by the article are a bit general but give a sense of direction to what we need to do. Apart from some general steps like "Know where you are standing in respect to sustainability" I like the 9th step said 9. Do the "easy stuff" first. Actually that`s a key point that we don't need to overhaul our supply chain to see gains from sustainability efforts. Instead, we can identify "quick wins" such as simple improvements in energy efficiency that can both deliver bottom line results and kick-start our green initiative. As an example from electronics industry, Negotiate leasing or buy back options into the contracts to make sure that hardware goes back to the manufacturer for recycling instead of heading for landfills. Or, simply label material types of all components, so consumers know how to group materials when it comes time for disposal.