The study "Establishing Sustainability Initiatives in Supply Chains", conducted by the Chair of Logistics Management at the University St.Gallen and the Group for Sustainability and Technology at the ETH Zurich.
270 companies from over 20 countries worldwide, including different industry sectors and supply chain levels, have responded to our online survey. The answers show how companies establish effective sustainability initiatives throughout their supply chains (e.g., supplier codes of conduct, collaborative environmental/social management systems). Beyond, key success factors needed to efficiently set up such initiatives had been identified.
Key results of the study:
Key elements of sustainability initiatives that increase performance:
· Counter to common belief in business practice, operative control over the supply chain has substantially higher importance than the involvement of external stakeholders to achieve the overreaching goal of improving business performance.
· Understanding and continuously improving directly controllable supply chain processes allows companies to find and implement hands-on solutions.
· Commonly applied means are process standards, continuous improvement schemes as well as the definition of a clear governance structure.
· Involving multiple external stakeholders such as NGOs or governmental agencies, the application of intensive 3rd-party monitoring regimes, and the use of labels generally lead to external acceptance but have minor impact on the ultimate objective of economic performance.
Capabilities that enable the efficient establishment of sustainability initiatives:
· Companies capable of implementing environmental / social criteria throughout supply chains are more successful in the efficient establishment of sustainability initiatives.
· Operational excellence helps to implement sustainability standards throughout supply chains more efficiently.
· Commonly applied means of operational excellence are process improvement techniques and standards such as the ISO process standard family and cross-functional planning.
· It is useful to emphasize different aspects of the sustainability approach depending on which interest group to inform.
· A mean for the communication is to install gate keepers that systematically segment external stakeholders and build the interface between these constituencies and the affected corporate functions.
· This leads to greater acceptance among the relevant stakeholders and allows a much quicker establishment of sustainability initiatives.
Further Information:
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Stölzle
Lehrstuhl für Logistikmanagement
Universität St.Gallen
Dufourstrasse 40 a
CH-9000 St. Gallen
Tel.: +41 (0)71 224 72 81
Fax: +41 (0)71 224 73 15
wolfgang.stoelzle@unisg.ch
