Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Sustainable supply chain management

Sustainability or corporate social responsibility has become an extremely important aspect in businesses world-wide and in South Africa. The crux of sustainability or corporate social responsibility in South Africa is found in the King III Report.

King III points out that the economic value of a company can no longer be based on the balance sheet only. Rather, the economic value will be impacted by a range of non-financial issues such as brand and reputation, stakeholder relationships and goodwill, an evolving and forward-looking strategy, environmental sustainability, social responsibility and quality of governance.

Sustainable supply chain management is a process whereby organisations in the supply chain meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis in terms of generating benefits not only for the organisation or the supply chain, but also for society and the economy, while minimising damage to the environment. Corporate social responsibilities, and for that matter also purchasing and supply social responsibilities (PSSR), can be defined as meeting the discretionary responsibilities expected by society. Although the other aspects of social responsibility in procurement and supply chain management are also important, the most prominent aspect in business in South Africa today is Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE).