It’s time to make supply chains more sustainable, but how? Learn from Supply Chain thought leader Ampy Aswin.

Ampy Aswin is Non Executive Director at Preferred by Nature , and Supply Chain Thought Leader ( 谷歌 | 联合利华 ). She has over 25 years of end to end worldwide supply chain experience, and has helped organizations solve transformation challenges and unlock opportunities at scale in their supply chains to drive business value and growth.

Ampy has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Leaders in Supply Chain (2021), Top 100 Women in Supply Chain (2021) by Supply Chain Digital and 100 Most Influential Women in Supply Chain (2020, 2022) by B2G Consulting.

What advice would you give to supply chain and procurement professionals who wish to get a deeper understanding of ESG and sustainability?

To gain a deeper understanding of ESG and sustainability, emerging leaders should embark on continuous learning journeys. Attend industry conferences, webinars, and workshops focused on sustainability trends and best practices.?

There are a lot of online platforms offering courses on ESG principles that you can engage with. If you are just starting to build your expertise in this area, you can also collaborate with sustainability-focused organizations and leverage their expertise, or look for sustainability forums where you can network with peers and exchange knowledge.?

To get started, I highly recommend reading basic resources such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for ESG reporting standards and The Sustainable Procurement Pledge for procurement-specific guidance.

How do you establish a good relationship with suppliers from the get-go, especially when it comes to requesting data?

When first engaging your suppliers on sustainability issues, and especially in the process of requesting sustainability data from suppliers, challenges are to be expected. These can range from low data accuracy, to reluctance in disclosure.?

This is why it’s so crucial to cultivate transparent relationships from the outset, by clearly communicating the shared benefits of sustainability. I find it extremely helpful to provide resources, guidelines, and ongoing support to suppliers - anything which can ease their reporting burden is welcome.?

This might look like a lot of work, but establishing a cooperative approach fosters long-term partnerships and will ultimately benefit you and your stakeholders in the long run. Do not forget to utilize supplier scorecards and performance metrics to ensure continuous monitoring, and to encourage improvement.

How do you manage resistance or hesitation from internal stakeholders?

Navigating internal resistance requires effective communication and alignment of sustainability goals with overall business objectives.?

Educate stakeholders on the long-term benefits of sustainability, emphasizing its positive impact on brand reputation and risk mitigation. You can develop a compelling business case by illustrating the financial advantages of sustainable practices. You can be even more concrete and effectively incentivize sustainable initiatives by showcasing success stories within the organization and industry.?

It’s very important to regularly communicate your progress - This will help you build confidence among stakeholders in the transition to a sustainable supply chain.

What do you think of the role of emerging tech in fostering sustainable supply chains??

The integration of technologies like blockchain, AI, and IoT in supply chains excites me deeply - I believe that they have a massive transformative potential in enhancing transparency and traceability!?

To be more specific, blockchain could be leveraged to ensure the integrity of sustainability data across the chain - however, one must ensure trustworthiness of its physical validation/authentication. AI can be harnessed to enable predictive analytics for proactive risk management and efficiency improvements. IoT will be used to facilitate real-time monitoring of environmental conditions, ensuring compliance with sustainability standards.?

These advancements will not only drive operational excellence but also empower organizations to make informed decisions, ultimately contributing to more sustainable and resilient supply chains.?

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Building truly sustainable supply chains is not a trivial exercise - keep this in mind before getting started?

Blooming regulations and the rise in popularity of voluntary ESG disclosures are both increasing the pressure on companies to collect a diverse set of ESG data across the supply chain.?

However, building truly sustainable supply chains is no easy feat.?

Organizations seeking to collect data across supply chains face challenges such as:

• Data complexity and low quality?
• Lack of standardization and disclosure discrepancies across different countries?
• The fact that smaller suppliers might struggle to report and comply with ESG issues, putting them at a competitive disadvantage.

To mitigate these challenges, it’s crucial to embed ESG considerations into existing processing, and make sure that it’s not viewed as a simple add-on. ESG is ultimately about organizational performance as a whole - so you need to make sure that this is communicated to your suppliers accordingly.?

Finally, remind yourself that engaging on ESG issues across supply chains is not only about measuring and monitoring, but it’s also about setting achievable targets with your suppliers and helping them become better. This is especially important if you work for a larger organization with more negotiating and lobbying power when it comes to ESG issues - if your suppliers are still lagging behind in ESG, it can be a good idea to understand how you can help them.?

Want to dive deeper?

• Watch our past webinar on best practices to collect ESG data across the supply chain, featuring experts from the supply chain and tech industry.?
• Join our next free session to learn how to leverage AI to build more sustainable supply chains.?

Hand-picked AI & tech news to level up your ESG journey - Will 2024 be the year of AI for B2B and ESG?

?? According to Forbes, AI and ESG will be key trends of 2024 in supply chains.?

• On one hand, suppliers that have spent 2023 preparing to deal with ESG regulations will inevitably be dealt a better hand when it comes to deal-making. Others will have to rush into getting ready. On the other, those who do not harness emerging technologies such as IoT and AI will risk lagging behind, as 2024 is on track to be the year of exponential growth of AI B2B applications.?

??Korean behemoth Samsung is prioritizing the sustainability and AI combo for long-term resilience.?

• The company led by Kwak No-jeong plans to harness AI not only to improve their users' experience, but also to radically level-up their internal productivity and efficiency. Moreover, they see sustainability as a key to overcome this era of “unprecented economic uncertainty” and build a “100 years company”.?

?? Are Large Graphical Models going to open the door for a new AI breakthrough that will revolutionize the sustainability industry?

• LGMs could impose themselves as a new AI technology that will dramatically take off in 2024. By enabling more efficient and scalable analysis of data stored in images and tabular format, they could be harnessed for accurate forecasts and analytical predictions around ESG topics.??

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