Tag Archives: circular economy

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The role and future of green supplier networks

On my last blog post, I was talking about the role of circular economy in managing the future supply networks. The topic today, green supplier networks, is more valid than ever. The past year was not the golden year for the ecologically friendly companies due to lack of strong decisions in the main Climate change panels. So, is it all over for us? Not at all – it is just the beginning!

The world is changing faster than ever and the tricks of yesterday don’t work anymore so we need innovative ways to develop our green supplier networks more than ever! We in WOIMA Corporation see that the trend in supplier networks development is focusing on sustainability and increasing the flexibility in the overall value chain. We must be able to respond to immediate changes in business environments.

We see a future where the green is already built into the supply network and we don’t need to even boost the green values as they become the dominant force of supply chains globally. We believe that by making the right sustainable supply chain decisions in each part of the value chain, the carbon footprint becomes smaller and when the flexibility is built-in, the end-customer will pay less. Strong words and this is not happening by itself. We need everyone on board and keep focus in the doing rather than in the talking.

New supply chain tools provide us with a valuable helping hand and much-needed speed but that it is not the driver. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a vital element of the agile supply chain of the future but the main drivers are coming from the new generation supply chain managers who demand change and see the change as an opportunity and not a cost.

Do you see the green future the same way as we do? Ask more about turning Your waste into wellbeing with WOIMA Circular Economy Solutions and green supplier networks.

 

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Circular economy, new aspect to managing supply chains?

The world gets more complex each year that passes, and we need strong leadership in the supply chains more than ever. But what if we bring yet another new aspect to the picture, circular economy? Circular economy is raising its importance which is excellent news for companies, who can bring vital value in the end-to-end circular economy supply chain. I would like to highlight a few ideas on how to enhance the green supply chain in an economical way that is good for the environment, too.

The famous 3R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) is gaining space also in developing countries, which is great. Companies operating in a circular economy should boost end-to-end view and support the 3R’s 100 %. It’s important to see the bigger picture and challenge that the 4th R could become revalorization, which could be turning the end waste to for example energy rather than landfill it. Waste-to-energy as renewable energy and future baseload is still rather new concept in many parts of the world. The concept is well proven in Nordic countries but still quite unknown for example in Africa. Someone needs to be the first. Should we add another R to the formula?

Circular economy integrates many stakeholders directly and indirectly. How to manage the data flows? Information technology platforms can bring much-needed transparency to the supply chain and among the supply chain players. Key role and responsibility remain with the product owners who control the chain of information. Information must flow and there must be trust among the parties. But what brings the trust? I argue that trust is built with a strong vision from the end users who empower the whole chain of stakeholders to follow the same goals, together. Information management in the supply chains is maybe more vital than ever but does it really bring value? I see yes, it does, if integrated to the management systems properly and used as a support function to run supply chains effectively.

Big corporations have finally started to place effort on green values and raised the importance of circular economy throughout the whole supply chain. There are already good examples by the Tech giants from this kind of initiatives. Sustainability in the supply chain is a KPI that is still rather difficult to monitor but which has a direct positive impact on the environment when done right. Such an index could act as one enabler for suppliers to get selected to become part of the supply chain? Would that be valued by the end Customers and does that increase the cost? I think not, just look at how the renewables such wind and solar are doing now cost wise against traditional energy forms. I believe that people can find a solution to any problem when given the right reason close enough to their values.

Want to know more? Comment the post or contact me directly. I’m happy to tell you more about turning your waste into wellbeing with WOIMA Circular Economy Solutions.