The pandemic is uncovering gaps and weaknesses in supply chains that require organizations to digitally transform themselves quickly starting with sustainability.
Predicted to be a breakout year for Artificial Intelligence, 2020 quickly turned into a race for how quickly every organization could digitally transform themselves to survive, starting with supply chains. Little did anyone know, a global pandemic would force organizations to shift from leveraging technology to creating a competitive advantage to survival, in some cases. With the pandemic of 2020 uncovering previously hidden issues within supply chains, leaders began to shift their focus on the organization's sustainability.
When one hears the term sustainability, many definitions will come to mind. But to frame this article, I'll discuss sustainability from the commonly-known context of the triple bottom line – people, planet and profit – while also including another important pillar of enterprise environmental factors.
With the pandemic accelerating digital transformation across all industries today, it's important to stay focused on supply chains and their integral role in achieving sustainability initiatives. As every organization works to re-invent itself to survive in these challenging times, achieving greater sustainability goals will make them stronger, more resilient and quicker to adapt.
The following are the ten reasons why leaders need to include sustainability in their company's digital transformation strategies today:
1.The increased industry pressure to adopt sustainable practices. In a recent study conducted by The MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL) and the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), 46% (n=701) of the 1,128 survey respondents noted they felt pressured by external stakeholders to adopt sustainability practices. With this pressure, stakeholders also want transparency of the practices outside of traditional press releases. By capturing sustainability practices within an organization's enterprise applications, leaders are able to validate current state processes.
2.Every organization needs to prepare for the known unknowns of operating in a fluid, fast-changing business environment. With Joe Biden elected as the 46 president of the United States, how will this impact the global supply chain landscape? As Joe Biden pledged to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, along with a $1.7 trillion plan to invest in clean energy infrastructure of the next ten years, the method to track and trace the implementation of these activities within organizations will be integral to measuring the impact. It is also important to note that these analytics and metrics within an enterprise application must be able to scale as the new administration looks to fast-track sustainability efforts, as well as realize the impact of government support for sustainability.
3.The increased expectation of 'voluntary sustainability reporting.' As countries such as India, Indonesia and China mandate the reporting of sustainable practices, the reporting of sustainable practices continues to be voluntary in the United States. With KPMG reporting that 93% of the 250 largest global organizations now publish sustainability practices, stakeholders will look for small and medium enterprises to begin publishing these reports as well. By incorporating sustainability reporting standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework into an organization's digital transformation strategy, leaders of large, medium and small enterprises could be able to map information and metrics from enterprise applications into sustainability reporting templates.
