2Sustain

Recent high-profile recalls (milk, peanut butter products) have put global food industry supply chains in the spotlight. So, the timing couldn’t be better for Aberdeen Group’s new research on sustainability initiatives in the food and beverage sector.

Aberdeen’s report, “Sustaining the Global Food Supply Chain: Three Keys to Gaining Competitive Advantage,” was conducted in support of the Marrakech Process of the United Nations on Sustainable Consumption and Production, and it takes an in-depth look at how successful food and beverage companies are integrating sustainability into their overall corporate strategies.

Interestingly, 56% of respondents in the survey ranked “the need for competitive advantage” as the leading driver of sustainability initiatives. This may explain why, for 89% of top performing companies (versus 44% of all others) sustainability goals and initiatives remain as strong, or stronger, than before, despite the current economic downturn.

In addition, Aberdeen found that industry leaders are able to leverage sustainability and corporate responsibility to achieve a variety of performance improvements, including:

• 19% decrease in energy costs

• 17% decrease in waste / disposal costs

• 13% decrease in defects / non-conforming goods over last 12 months

• 5% decrease in year-over-year overall operational costs relative to changes in volume of business

• 15% increase in customer acquisition rate

The report concludes that in order to achieve top performance, companies must:

• adopt a lifecycle approach for processes, assets, and materials

• integrate triple bottom line goals into day-to-day planning and practice

• expand stakeholder collaboration and performance management

• systematically track and quantify the impacts and outcomes of sustainability initiatives on the business

Specifically, top performing companies reported that managing their suppliers (in terms of aligning standards, apprising impacts, and adjusting practices) has added to overall agility, efficiency, quality, and safety — more proof that comprehensive supply chain management is becoming more and more critical as global supply chains become increasingly complex.

This 33-page report is definitely worth a few minutes of your time. For a free copy, visit http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/benchmark/5368-RA-global-food-supply.asp (registration required).