With a larger focus than ever before on ethical manufacturing, it is important to understand what Green Supply Chain Management is and how it can be adopted in your business.
What is supply chain management?
Supply Chain Management is the process of understanding and overseeing the design, manufacturing and logistical processes used in the production of goods. While this is an old concept, the idea of transparent supply chain management has arisen due to ethical consumption concerns.
Transparent, Green Supply Chains for companies are important to an increasing number of customers who want to ensure they understand the full impact their purchases are having. With a growing demand for ethically sourced products, customers continue to expect more information about the entire product lifecycle.
What makes it Green?
While the term Green has recently been associated with companies trying to Green Wash (make themselves appear more ethical than they really are), the sentiment about green supply chain management remains. Businesses who do not actively seek to create and maintain greener supply chains are becoming less and less popular as customers continue to hold them more accountable for environmental impacts.
A green supply chain management can also often be associated with lean manufacturing processes as the identification and removal of unsustainable processes lies at the heart of lean production systems.
While the impact of the supply chain on the environment is often a major concern, the welfare of people in the sourcing and manufacturing stage of production are also important factors in ethical manufacturing.
