New GreenBiz Report Explores the Tools and Travails of Greener Supply Chains Greening the Supply Chain has been the topic of many conversations with IBM clients and peers in recent months… What keeps coming up for me is that greening the supply chain is hard, valuable work with no shortcuts or silver bullets. It’s hard because it requires training, cultural change, new information, new parameters for optimization, and because, perhaps most importantly, because supply chains are complex systems of systems – more like webs than chains!

So where is the value? Why bother? Well, there’s the whole “planet” thing, of course. This report from GreenBiz cites the following benefits – based on 8 projects over the last 4 years that were worked by World Environment Center (WEC). WEC is an independent non-profit, non-advocacy organization whose mission is to advance the implementation of sustainable development in the business strategies and operations of global companies in partnership with national governments, multi-lateral institutions, nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders.

Here are the types of benefits associated with “greening” the supply chain, according to WEC.
• Mitigating business risks
• Reducing costs
• Motivating better performing suppliers
• Preserving business continuity
• Enhancing market access and degrees of business strategy freedom
Critical success factors are also discussed in more detail in the report – which is worth browsing…

In general, I urge supply chain strategists and leaders that understand the sustainability imperative (and the long road ahead of us to address this imperative) to join together with other thought leaders, and get started! It is hardwork, but NOT rocket science! We have some “simple” suggestions to help these leaders get started. Join this webcast to learn more, or download this whitepaper.

Let’s get started here folks!