Supply Chain

You can demonstrate your organisation's commitment to the environment and make the most of your purchasing power by choosing suppliers of goods and services that have little impact on the environment. Using suppliers who are well known for their good environmental performance or produce environmentally friendly products, is a positive action and should be advertised by your business.

Using suppliers who have poor environmental performance could negatively reflect on your own company. Here are a few issues to consider;

• Does the supplier use large amounts of energy or water in the production process?
• Are valuable resources wasted in manufacturing?
• Are goods sourced from miles away?
• Is transport used inefficiently?
• Are your suppliers known polluters?
• Do your suppliers have and adhere to strict environmental policies?

Ways to improve

Improvements in your supply chain are easy to make. Many people still believe that recycled or energy efficient products are vastly more expensive than normal goods. However, with a growing demand and increasing number of suppliers this is no longer the case.

Take for example, energy saving light bulbs that last longer than ordinary bulbs, use less energy and have decreased in price by half over the last few years.

Recycled paper is also more widely available and now sold at very competitive prices.