Sustainable supply chains — why does it matter?
As the need to protect your supply chain was brought into sharp focus during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses have been forced to address their own partnerships to ensure they continue to offer robust and reliable delivery to their customers — wherever they are in the world.
The notion of supply chain sustainability centres around the impact a company’s network can have in promoting and protecting human rights, enlisting fair labour practices, and contributing towards environmental progress.
To foster a sustainable supply chain, businesses must address environmental, social, economic, and legal factors around its entire supply chain. In turn, this can help to reduce waste, boost environmental footprints, and improve labour conditions and health and safety. Focusing on these practices can protect the planet — and its inhabitants — while also supporting business growth.
Here are a number of ways a strong and sustainable supply chain can positively impact your business model…
- Enhancing supply continuity
Diversifying your supply chain will reduce over-dependence on a single, unreliable source link, which can have a knock-on effect on your customer satisfaction levels.
Establishing strong connections with multiple suppliers across various territories boosts continuity of your services — preventing costly downtime and a damaged reputation. Take the pandemic, for instance, when significant challenges were brought to the surface due to materials and labour shortages all over the world. Organisations that were resilient and responsive — with a protected network — weathered the storm quickly, while mitigating the damage to their customer relationships.
- Winning new business
Making your organisation’s green agenda known — and seeking credentials such as ISO 14001 — can help to establish strong professional connections with other likeminded organisations, potentially leading to more business opportunities.
Displaying accreditations which support your environmental policies helps to demonstrate to potential clients that you’re taking action to reduce your negative impact on the planet — not simply saying all the right things.
- Improving company culture
There’s no denying, the past couple of years have seen a real ‘shake up’ in people’s priorities —particularly when searching for their next career opportunity. In today’s society, job seekers look at much more than simply salary and progression opportunities when searching for the next organisation to call their own.
And so, businesses that clearly prioritise corporate social responsibility (CSR) — and particularly sustainability — will be viewed more favourably than those that merely focus on that bottom line.
- Reducing negative environmental impact
It’s a common misconception that reducing your business’ environmental impact comes at a cost to your outgoings. On the contrary, it can actually lead to huge savings — while reducing waste, boosting efficiency, and creating a positive culture within the organisation.
To find out about Agilité Solutions’ reliable, secure, and sustainable supply chain, head to our website. We are always on the lookout for construction specialists who care about our clients just as much as we do, so if you’d like to team up with a pan-European organisation that has quality at the heart of everything they do, get in touch today, or complete our supply chain enquiry form.
