This is presentation I gave at the Canadian Purchasing Professional Annual conference on Greening your supply chain through collaboration

1. Greening your Supply-Chain
Rob Sinclair

2. Goals of Today
‣ Review corporate responsibility through the lens
of systems thinking.
‣ Review carbon footprint analysis of a supply
chain.
‣ Understand the Green Supply Chain (GSC)
‣ Understand the impact of collaboration on
efficiency and profitability
‣ A take-home of 10-steps of greening your office.

3. Who Am I
‣ A dad that travels too much
‣ Part of a sustainability collective that
specializes is CRS around systems thinking
‣ A Collaborateur that help businesses talk with
other business around supply chain and
sustainability issues

4. What we know
‣ everything we do has an impact on the
environment.
‣ Past, ‘back-page’ stories are now ‘front-page’
‣ collective efforts have more impact than
individual ones
‣ collaboration must become part of every
leader’s lexicon
‣ we need to think BIG!
‣ we need to start small

5. Current Situation
We have got into the predicament we
are in today because we have focused
on parts and neglected the whole.

6. The CO2 bathtub
5 billion
tons added
8 billion every year
tons go in
3 billion
tons go out
www.sustainer.org/tools_resources

7. Our Current CO2 bathtub
800 billion tons
380 ppm
www.350.org

8. Re-think
Climate change is but one thread in a
larger cloth; we cannot simply remove the
thread, but we must reweave the cloth.

9. Using Backcasting
2
Dec
lining
y
Res nom
our co
ve E
ces
rati
to
Res
Sustainable Supply
1
3
Vision
Current New
Reality Reality
Sustainable Demand Res
and tora
tive
Dem Eco
ce
our nom
Res y
g
in
eas
ncr Bridging
I
Gap
4

10. Our Old Thoughts
‣ Energy is infinite and cheap
‣ There will always be enough room to dispose of all our
waste,
‣ Humans are the primary species on earth; others are
less important, and many are irrelevant
‣ Basic resources such as water and topsoil are unlimited.
If limits or problems are encountered, markets and new
technologies will re-allocate financial resource so we can
continue with our current ways of living and workin.
‣ Productivity and standardization are keys to economic
progress,
‣ Economic growth and rising GDP are the best way to ‘lift
all boats’ and reduce social impact

11. New paradigm
‣ Surf the flux. Live within out energy income by relying
on forms of energy that come from renewable sources
such as solar, wind, tidal, and bio-based inputs
‣ Zero to landfill. Everything from cars and iPods to
office buildings and machines, is 100% recyclable,
remanufacturable or compostable.
‣ We are borrowing the future from our children; we
have to pay it back. Our first responsibility is to leave a
healthy global biosphere for our children - their children’s
children...
‣ In a global village, there is only one boat, and a hole
sinks us all.

12. consider the entire system

13. Seeing Systems
‣ Looking past the symptoms and into the cause
‣ We don’t need to know all the answers

14. Green supply-chain Overview

15. Benefits of a GSC
‣ Improves Agility—Green supply chain management
help mitigate risks and speed innovations.
‣ Increases Adaptability—Green supply chain analysis
often lead to innovative processes and continuous
improvements.
‣ Promotes Alignment—Green supply chain
management involves negotiating policies with suppliers
and customers which results in better alignment of
business processes and principles.

16. New Watchwords
‣Trust, Transparency and Traceability
The Food Marketing Institute’s survey, “U.S.
Grocery Shopper Trends 2007,” reported that
consumer confidence in the safety of the food
supply has dropped dramatically. Confidence
had consistently hovered in the 80th
percentile for years, but dropped to 66
percent, the lowest point since 1989.
Consumer confidence in the safety of
restaurant food is even lower, at 43 percent.

17. End Consumer Trends
‣

18. Industry Response
Goals of Green Supply Chain
Reduce overall business costs 56%
Enhance company social responsibility 51%
Improve profits 42%
Improve visibility into green supply chain drivers 49%
Reduce waste/improve disposal methods 38%
Source Aberdeen Group 2008

19. Checking In
‣Who is doing what?

20. GSC Best Practices
‣ Align green supply chain goals with
business goals
‣ Evaluate the supply chain as a single life
cycle system
‣ Use green supply chain analysis as a
catalyst for innovation
‣ Focus on source reduction to reduce waste

21. Collaboration (define)
The new promise of collaboration is that
with peer production we will harness
human skills, ingenuity, and intelligence
more efficiently and effectively than
anything we have witnessed previously

22. Current Trends

23. Current Trend(s)

24. The Whole System

25. Product LCA

26. The Whole System

27. Areas of focus
‣ Pollution and waste represent incomplete, ineffective,
or inefficient use of raw material.
‣ GS collaboration analysis provides an opportunity to
review processes, materials, and operational concepts.
‣ GS analysis targets:
‣ Wasted material
‣ Wasted energy or effort
‣ Under-utilized resources

28. Challenges
‣Trust
‣Cultural differences
‣Organizational barriers
‣Un-sustained executive commitment and
involvement
‣Technology differences
‣and others.

29. The 3-Steps
‣Internal Buy-in and systems
‣Evaluate Potential Peers
‣Work towards innovation
through collaboration

30. Step 1- Internal buy-in
‣ Get executive buy-in
‣ Form a sustainability team
‣ Explain the Mutual Benefits
‣ Set a sustainability vision and goals
‣ Keep it simple - Thinking big,
starting small.

31. Step 1- cont.
‣ Focus where Revenue and Profit are
greatest
‣ Map your supply chain
‣ Link Incentives to overarching vision
‣ Aim for Continuous Improvement
‣ Considering other areas of compliance that
you want to promote through supplier
selection.

32. Partner Criteria
‣ Both sides need to come to the table.
‣ 75% of the battle is simple communication, which
seems like it should be so easy but ends up being
the barrier; draft a MOU
‣ Focus on collaboration with companies that have
both the willingness and the capacity to collaborate.
‣ Funny how a true win-win seems to lead to more
rapid adoption and ultimate success.

33. Towards innovation
‣ Standardized content for industry supplier questionnaires
‣ Establishing good processes that are streamlined,
flexible and duplicatable.
‣ Recognizing and rewarding the true value in your supply
chain.
‣ Considering other areas of compliance that you want to
promote through supplier selection.
‣ what is the balance and what are the constraints?
‣ Extended vender responsibility
‣ Thinking big, starting small.

34. Overall Benefits
‣ Improve Brand Image
‣ Employee Productivity
& Morale
‣ Reduce Risk
‣ Increase Profits
‣ Identify New Markets
‣ Establish new best
practices in your
industry

35. 10 easy steps
‣ Be bright about light - Artificial lighting accounts for 44 percent of the electricity
use in office buildings.
‣ Maximize computer efficiency - Computers in the business sector unnecessarily
waste $1 billion worth of electricity a year.
‣ Print smarter - The average U.S. office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of copy
paper a year.
‣ Go paperless when possible - Make it a habit to think before you print: could this
be read or stored online instead?
‣ Ramp up your recycling - Make it a habit to recycle everything your company
collects.
‣ Close the loop - Make it a policy to purchase office supplies and furniture made
from recycled materials.
‣ Watch what (and how) you eat - Make it a habit to bring your own mug and
dishware for those meals you eat at the office.
‣ Rethink your travel - Make it a habit to take the train, bus, or subway when
feasible instead of a rental car when traveling on business.
‣ Reconsider your commute - Make it a habit to carpool, bike, or take transit to
work, and/or telecommute when possible.
‣ Create a healthy office environment - Make it a habit to use nontoxic cleaning
products. Brighten up your cubicle with plants, which absorb indoor pollution.

36. Collaborative Tools
‣Google Docs - www.docs.google.com
‣Net Suite - www.netsuite.com
‣Mind Meister - www.mindmeister.com
‣NING - www.Ning.com
‣LinkedIn - www.LinkedIn.com
‣Survey Monkey - www.surveymonkey.com
‣Write Board - www.writeboard.com
36

37. Resources
Web:
‣ www.Carbonlabels.org
‣ www.Consciousbrands.com
‣ www.wri.org
‣ www.environmentalleader.com
‣ Food Trade Sustainability Leadership Association -
www.ftsla.org
‣ Google Docs
‣ http://worldofgood.ebay.com/
Books:
‣ Living Supply Chains, John Gattorna
‣ Wikionomics, Don Tapscott
‣ Small Giants, Bo Burlingham
37

38. Thank-you
Q & A:

39. Contact info
Rob Sinclair
ph: 403.697.9314
e: rob@consciousbrands.com
39

40. Keys to success
“... you should only
collaborate with those
customers and (suppliers)
who genuinely want to
collaborate. For the rest,
you do whatever you have
to do, but don’t waste your
time trying to be
collaborative- it is too
wasteful on resources,”
Unilever’s former CEO,
Anthony Burgmans

41. Supply Change Systems

42. What others are doing
‣3PL - (Third Party Logistics) - Benefit
‣A seamless, 360-degree view of the supply chain.
‣Access to and knowledge about the global
marketplace.
‣Improved customer service
‣Enhanced business processes
‣Improved capacity during peak seasons or promotions
‣Higher service levels at lower cost.
‣Improved new product introduction and management of
new SKUs (product lifecycle management)
‣Reduced inventory and stockouts as a result of
collaborative forecasting activities
‣Navigating governmental regulations

43. Actions Required
‣Sustainable Food Industry standarization
‣Develop a set of questions to ask?
‣Know who to ask them to? medium?
‣How will they be rewarded?
‣What are two supply chain issues?

44. Benefits of working with GiG
• Protection from Greenwashing
• Staff involvement and incentive
programs that tie in with your overall
sustainability goals