Environmentally responsible supply chains

Customer engagement. This issue takes a holistic view of sales and customer relationships. Customer relationships management and business analytics techniques are used to provide customized customer services on a global scale. From the supply chain perspective, it changes cost optimization focus to customer service focus implying not only high fill rates and responsiveness but also social responsibility, supply chain transparency, and environmental consciousness (Carter and Rogers 2008 Danese and Romano 2013). 

Sustainability and social responsibility. Supply chains are designed and operated with regard to social, cultural, and environmental issues. 

Over the course of time, chemical distributors have developed in the complex small-volume, rapid-response area of chemical distribution into playing an important role in the supply chain from chemical producers to consumers. In addition to fundamental delivery capabilities, distributors offer value-added services, skills in complying with environmental and safety standards, and economy of delivery to remote and small customers. 

Interviews number of interviewee A gap in towards the end-use of the supply chain - Retailers are playing an increasing role in chemicals policy - Chemical distributors may have specific views on chemicals policy and risk management - Geographical and temporal accessibility to interviewees - Choice of major actors in chemicals policy - Environmental and consumer NGO are likely to be involved in the activities of retailers - Regulators and industry trade associations are likely to be aware of the role and responsibilities of chemical distributors... 

There is then the challenging issue of how much of these costs can be passed on as a price rise in the supply chain, ultimately to the domestic consumer. The domestic consumer may not appreciate the environmental implications or accept the price rise as their contribution in overall responsibility for improving the environment. The implications here are for education throughout the supply chain. 

The Adidas sustainability report says As a global leader in the sporting goods industry and a responsible company, we declare our commitment to the implementation of sustainable business practices in our own company, as well as in our supply chain. We strive for all areas of our business— including our suppliers—to have consistent values and to implement them. Our aim is clear to raise the performance of our own sites and of those in our supply chain in the areas of social and environmental responsibility, and in this way to improve the lives of the people who manufacture our products, as well as the environment in which these products are manufactured. 

The RSPO multi-stakeholder process has gained recognition as a valid mechanism to develop and implement social and environmentally responsible management practices towards sustainable development and could eventually serve as a blueprint for multi-stakeholder production and supply-chain processes for other critical regionally or globally traded commodities. ... 

Salzmann et al. (2006, p. 15) have identified a broad range of possible stakeholder impacts, e.g. (1) impacts resulting in the innovation of processes, products and supply chains and (2) impacts on brand value and reputation and customer loyalty. Similarly, it has been claimed that shareholder value will be best realized if companies include environmental and social responsibility objectives in their value creating statements, processes and products (Dobers and Wolff 2000). Stakeholders of all types are interested in associating with organizations with whom they can identify, and with whom they perceive a match in values (Pirson and Malhotra 2008, p. 17). 

Shared Vision. Our products enable our customers to make sustainable choices and improve their environmental footprint. The requirement for transparency and responsibility of the supply chain comes also from our customers and other stakeholders ... 

The generic formulation can be extended to multi-objective setting in various ways. Objectives associated with environmental issues, responsiveness, and reliability including customer service are considered most frequently. The generic supply chain configuration optimization model is extended to incorporate these additional objectives and the objective function (8.1) is reformulated as... 

Mature risk management should also take the aspects of supply chains responsibility into account in social and environmental terms. At the same time, this type of management means the conscious identification and evaluation of risk, noticing the dependencies between risks and potential scenarios, concentration on transparent communication on risk in the whole company and in the supply chain (Deloitte 2011, p. 10). 

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