2Sustain

BSR member companies are continuing with their sustainability programs in the year ahead, despite ongoing concerns about the world’s economy.

In fact, nearly all (94 percent) of the 377 respondents in the BSR/GlobeScan State of Sustainable Business Poll 2010 said that their companies plan to maintain or increase their budgets for CSR/sustainability programs 2011, and nearly three-quarters also anticipate increasing the amount of internal and external CSR/sustainability communications.

As you might expect, climate change remains an important focus of these efforts, with 63 percent of respondents selecting it more than any other issue as either a “significant” or “very significant” priority. However, it’s also with noting that the urgency around climate change appears to have decreased from last year, when the Copenhagen climate summit was approaching. The proportion of respondents who considered climate change a “very significant” priority declined from 41 percent in 2009 to 27 percent this year—a drop from first on the list to third.
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In Jason Busch’s recent posting on Spend Matters Your Supply Chain Carbon Footprint — Measuring it Ain’t Easy I think he really hits the nail on the head when he speaks to the need to "put science and process into measuring supplier practices." In my estimation, process standardization is the key to successful sustainable supply chain management.

Sustainable supply chain management is all about reporting data, monitoring compliance, and improving performance in areas ranging from toxics to emissions to packaging to logistics. But only by standardizing how we gather, analyze and report on this data can we begin to implement viable improvement programs and move up the maturity continuum.

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