AllChiefs attends Sustainability LIVE New York 2024

On the 3rd and 4th of June, 2024, AllChiefs was present at the virtual Sustainability LIVE event hosted in New York, United States, with many participating speakers at the fore of combating the current sustainability challenges faced by both large and small businesses.

Experts hailing from different industries such as Dave Rimkus from Schneider Electric , Deborah Dull from Genpact , Angela Baker from Qualcomm , Heather Herndon Wright from Vistra Corp. , Helene V Gagnon, APR, FCPRS from CAE , Jim Andrew from PepsiCo and Madge Thomas from the American Express Foundation shared insights on the most important practices and obstacles faced in the transition towards a more sustainable future.

One notable message is that the move from a take-make-waste economy towards a more circular one, begins with a smarter, more integrated, and more transparent supply chain. Among the many interesting takeaways that followed, the key points are as follows:

Key challenges for supply chain sustainability

• Supplier maturity: Many suppliers, especially SMEs, lack the resources, expertise, and infrastructure to implement advanced sustainability practices. This immaturity can lead to inconsistent sustainability efforts across the supply chain, hindering overall progress and effectiveness.
• Lack of standardisation: The absence of unified sustainability standards and metrics makes it difficult to measure and compare efforts across different suppliers and industries. This inconsistency can create confusion, reduce accountability, and impede the adoption of best practices.
• Policy and alignment: Divergent policies and misalignment between government regulations, industry standards, and corporate strategies can create obstacles for companies trying to implement sustainable practices. This lack of cohesion can lead to inefficiencies and slow down the adoption of necessary sustainability initiatives.

Key actions to tackle challenges presented

• Training Programs and collaborative platforms: Develop and deliver targeted training for suppliers and procurement teams to build their capacity in sustainability practices, provide platforms for industry players to foster collaboration.
• Unified Standards, benchmarking and certification: Work towards establishing industry-wide standards for sustainability metrics and reporting. This not only provides a clear set of expectations but also incentivises suppliers to improve their practices, achieve certification and gain a competitive edge.
• Cross-Sector Collaboration, Policy Advocacy and Alignment: Partake in a cohesive approach to sustainability, ensuring that policies are consistent, industry suitable, and supportive of supply chain sustainability goals.

The event concluded with several further presentations on the importance of AI, data insights, sustainable consumption, transport, energy and ESG initiatives across many industry groups. The message: Embedding sustainability into all elements of business practices is critical. Stakeholder engagement at all levels is necessary to guide a sustainable transformation and we, as a society, are going to need to collaborate to realise this future.

At AllChiefs, we uphold this commitment by fostering collaborative efforts that lead to lasting impact. We prioritise knowledge sharing as a mean to enhance our expertise and drive meaningful change alongside our clients. Witnessing such interesting conversations from experts in the industry has provided us valuable insights to share with our Chiefs.

What about you? We’re curious to hear are your key insights regarding sustainable business and supply chain transformation. Leave them in the comments below and let’s share knowledge 👇

Author: PJ Recordon , Young & Bright Consultant in Sustainable Logistics