Best Practice

Developing Sustainable Supply Chains effectively

Discover how to monitor and drive ESG performance across your entire Supply Chain.

#Supply Chain & Procurement
#ESG

The growing call for Supply Chain Sustainability

In the B2B world, Supply Chains can account for more than half of a Buyer Organization’s revenues. Sustainability is a universal value and a key step in value chains, making a Buyer Organization as sustainable its last supplier.
ESG Supply Chain reporting and supplier due diligences are a growing trend internationally (e.g. the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence - also known as LkSG). The financial system is increasingly adopting “Supply Chain Finance” tools that incorporate indicators on the ESG performance of a Buyer’s supply chain.

Supply Chains are largely characterised by the presence of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) - in some cases, spread globally - with limited reporting capabilities and different levels of sub-suppliers (system integrators, raw materials, etc.). This makes Supply Chain Sustainability monitoring even more challenging.
Nowadays, Buyer Organizations need to be in control of their suppliers’ sustainability. For Buyer Organizations this means measuring it and constantly stimulating improvement throughout their entire Supply Chain.

Delivering a Sustainable Supply Chain journey

Best in class players are quickly moving from ESG score calculations to risk monitoring in a changing environment. Indeed, the ESG Supply Chain requires a gradual evolution of the adoption of ESG practices by the supplier base, continually raising the standard, in accordance with the best international practices (ISO, GRI, SDG, CDP, GHG Protocol).

Reply’s approach to a Sustainable Supply Chain

Reply is constantly engaged in discussions on the many Sustainable Supply Chain regulations and frameworks being discussed across industries. Among others, Reply has contributed to the industry workgroup for the “ESG Supply Chain Guidelines” in the broad B2B industrial sector. This includes the knowledge of the next generation of top-of-the-line digital technologies that support Sustainable Supply Chain implementation and integrate with existing ERP, Supplier Relationship Management and Procurement systems. Reply has also developed specific procurement and sustainability solutions that can be easily integrated in an existing IT landscape, according to the so-called Composable Supply Chain technology pattern.