Build sustainability across borders

When it comes to the costs of products or services, organizations seldom leave a stone unturned in an effort to uncover potential opportunities to reduce or maintain costs. These efforts often include frequently reviewing internal operations to ensure the organization is operating efficiently. In addition, organizations commonly consider cost saving opportunities beyond their “borders” and work with suppliers and vendors to seek opportunities to reduce material and labor costs along the entire value chain.

Now, organizations are starting to use the same value chain approach to sustainability. Many organizations have fully explored sustainability options within their internal operations and have instituted cost effective measures including energy efficiency improvements, recycling/composting programs and even solar power. Looking beyond internal operations to the entire value chain for sustainability can offer significant opportunities to reduce an organization’s overall environmental footprint. This search for sustainability over the entire value chain can also have positive impacts on both an organization’s image and bottom line.

Currently, there are numerous organizations recognizing the importance of this value chain approach for sustainability and their efforts can serve as a road map for others.  The outdoor gear company, Patagonia, is well-known for both the quality of its gear as well as for its environmental ethos. Idt documents its far reaching efforts to address both environmental and social sustainability throughout its value chain on its website. This site not only provides examples of its efforts, but also provides an honest assessment of the challenges, successes and failures of the work. Another company that prides itself on sustainability throughout its supply chain is Levi Strauss. It has instituted numerous measures to improve its own sustainability and encourages sustainability improvements with all of its suppliers.

There are also industry-led initiatives and for-profit entities that are assisting supply chain sustainability through mapping, data gathering, trainings and benchmarking against industry peers. These efforts have brought increasing transparency to the market and assisted with improving sustainability across the world. The Sustainable Apparel Coalition is an industry led initiative that assists member companies ranging from Target to Nike with a variety of tools and resources to build sustainability throughout their value chains. In addition, companies such as EcoVadis and SourceMap are providing cloud services specializing in transparency and traceability for value chain sustainability efforts.   

Is your organization ready to look beyond your borders?  Here are a few places to start:

Products made or sold by an organization generally offer a logical starting place, as there are numerous opportunities during the product lifecycle for sustainability improvements. There are three main areas to consider: facilities involved with production; product components; and end of life options. First, for most products, there are numerous facilities involved in production.  Are there opportunities to require or to incentivize these facilities to meet sustainability standards? For example, Levi Strauss offers an incentive program for its suppliers to improve the sustainability of their facilities. Second, for the product components, it is important to consider the material used in production and if there are cost effective, more sustainable options. Some of these options may include using recycled content, using less toxic components, or using more efficient processes to reduce waste.  For Patagonia, this involved sourcing organic cotton for its gear. Third, while upstream of the value chain is important, downstream can be just as important for products. What happens at the end of life of the product? Can an organization support programs that ensure their product can be recycled, re-used or composted at end of life? 

Another opportunity to improve an organization’s environmental footprint beyond its borders is working with vendors providing goods and services. Whether or not an organization produces a product, there are often numerous vendors that may supply fuel for fleets, kitchen/office supplies, provide janitorial services or provide landscaping services.  Organizations can offer opportunities to educate and encourage them to implement sustainability measures and can use its purchasing power to help encourage change. These efforts to work with your vendors can also assist them in creating a sustainability niche to broaden their own impact and provide these options to their other customers. In addition, many organizations are creating green purchasing policies that formalize sustainability measures and options they expect vendors to abide by. The Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council can provide guidance and ideas to help with greening your vendors.

Beyond the value chain, employee commuting and business travel can also present additional sustainability options beyond an organization’s borders. Based on data from Commuting Solutions, which is a Louisville-based non-profit organization that develops innovative transportation options for the U.S. Highway 36 corridor, more than 105,000 cars commute along Highway 36 between Westminster and Boulder using an estimated 200,000 gallons of gas per day. Fortunately, on the Front Range, there are numerous alternative transportation options to help reduce single occupancy vehicle commuting including buses, bike lanes, car/van pools and EcoPasses. Commuting Solutions can assist local employers and commuters with determining which alternative transportation options might work best.

Business travel is often an undervalued opportunity. There are some potential options to reduce impact. Teleconferencing is one option. Where feasible, employers can also consider alternatives to flying, as traveling by train or bus can be 90 percent more efficient in terms of greenhouse gas emissions than travel by plane. 

While challenges exist, sustainability beyond an organization’s border can have far reaching impacts on an organization’s overall environmental footprint.

Kevin Afflerbaugh of Western Disposal writes an occasional column about green business practices.

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