Supply chain efficiency

Working together is essential to maintaining an environmentally sustainable supply chain, with good communication leading to closer collaboration. By partnering and developing good working relationships, suppliers can be encouraged to adapt their offering - products, packaging and services - to deliver improved environmental performance.

Improving supply chain performance through partnership

Improving the environmental performance of supply chains - whether as a customer or supplier - is a partnership that benefits from the following principles:

• commitment to the environmental objectives of the partnership from senior management and employees
• someone in authority appointed as the business' champion for the partnership
• a team established to implement improvements arising from the partnership
• a detailed review of environmental performance to identify key issues that the supply chain partnership should focus on
• a planned programme of environmental improvements
• objectives and targets established to ensure that the improvements can be measured to assess progress
• regular review of progress, with changes made when necessary

Operating an environmental management system will help you embed these principles and monitor performance improvement.

Feedback is essential on all sides, as is providing information about the importance of environmental considerations.