Building sustainability into supply chain planning with the o9 Digital Brain

The Takeaways:

1. A sustainable supply chain involves more than just achieving operational efficiencies, such as material utilization, production, and transportation. It also requires transitioning to low-carbon energy sources and using non-toxic and sustainably produced raw materials.

2. Digital technologies are essential for companies to report sustainability metrics and KPIs, retrieve data from suppliers and service providers, and identify supply chain risks. AI/ML can facilitate scanning the web for supply chain-related risks. A recent study of 560 companies concluded that digital technology is essential to sustainable transformation.

3. Scope 3 emissions refer to an organization’s environmental footprint outside its operational boundaries. Companies must ingest, cleanse, and harmonize data from vast sources to increase transparency and collaboration with suppliers and service providers.

4. There are six use cases of the o9 platform that can help companies achieve sustainable supply chains: product design and circularity, improving primary data collection, scheduling and planning, back-end circularity, transparency, and integrating metrics from all levels of the company.

5. Greenwashing still exists, but it is about to come to an end. CEOs have a stakeholder expectation to prioritize sustainability, and greenwashing is now a personal credibility and professional reputation risk for leaders. This is supported by a recent study by the UN Global Compact, where 93% of CEOs interviewed said that they viewed their responsibility as driving their businesses toward sustainability.