6 Ways to Increase Supply Chain Sustainability

Download this guide for details on six best practices recommended by experts to boost the sustainability of your supply chain. These practices include optimizing your supply chain network to reduce its impact on the environment, creating a circular economy to reduce waste going into landfills, sourcing and purchasing environmentally-friendly materials and packaging, and more.

6 ways to increase supply chain sustainability cover

A guide for companies seeking to reduce the environmental impact of their supply chain

This e-book will cover 6 ways that companies can incorporate sustainability into their Business Spend Management practices including:

Optimizing the supply chain
Creating a circular supply chain
Sourcing governance
Inventory management
Procurement & more.

Did you know that a company’s supply chain emissions are on average 5.5 times higher than a corporation’s direct emissions?

Companies today are being held accountable for more than just financial success. Business leaders are pushed to show real impact and deliver on ESG commitments too. Neglecting sustainability can lead to higher employee turnover, customer pushback, damage to the brand, and fines from regulators. To fully manage the total environmental impact of their businesses, companies must manage and reduce the impact not only of their direct operations but also that of all of their suppliers and those suppliers’ suppliers. Learn how to reduce the environmental impact of your supply chain by downloading this guide today.

“Choosing to ignore the environmental impact of supply chains is no longer an option. Businesses must change quickly to comply with regulations, avoid fines and negative press, and ultimately to preserve and safeguard future business success.”

— 6 Ways to Increase Supply Chain Sustainability Guide

FAQ

How can I optimize my supply chain network to reduce environmental impact?

Continuous supply chain design can be used to determine ideal locations for distribution warehouses and routes to serve, thus reducing miles traveled, CO2 emissions, and direct costs. The supply chain’s carbon footprint can be reduced by efficiently designing supply networks and routes to market. Coupa’s AI-powered supply chain design can help you to evaluate billions of combinations of supply chain routes to find the ideal path for your business.

How does digitizing spend support ESG efforts?

One of the benefits of digitizing BSM with Coupa is that all types of purchase orders – across direct and indirect categories – can be sent electronically to suppliers who then respond by sending their invoices electronically as well. Accounts Payable departments can use a single system and process to manage every invoice. Invoices are validated and approved automatically, and then they can be paid digitally using electronic transfers or virtual cards. This end-to-end digital process cuts out the large amounts of paper typically seen in all but the most strategic supplier relationships—invoices, paper checks, and otherwise–saving trees as well as freeing up valuable employee time. Each Coupa customer gets a Sustainability Insights dashboard that monitors and quantifies these benefits—showing exactly how many trees and how much water, oil, and carbon have been saved by going paperless. These metrics can be included in your ESG annual reports.

How can supply and demand align to optimize inventory levels?

For each item sitting in a supply closet or warehouse, there are unseen costs. Excess inventory and wastage not only hurt the company financially but also hurt the environment through needless use of natural resources in producing and distributing those items. Integrated BSM can help companies intelligently manage inventory through the supply chain, and avoid duplicate purchasing with real-time checks against items already in inventory. Coupa’s AI-powered demand modeling can be used to better predict demand, meet customer needs, and avoid over-supply.