I had a conversation on sustainable product development with Eric Leafquist, a product manager at Dassault-Systemes-SolidWorks. SolidWorks is a leading supplier of 3D design software tools that let you create, simulate, publish, and manage your data. Driven partly by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the leading reporting format used in sustainability reporting, companies are beginning a journey to take an end to end view of sustainability surrounding the products they produce. GRI’s latest guidelines ask […]
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Archive for Sustainability – Page 2
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports reflect the philosophy that corporations have a variety of stakeholders – investors, employees, suppliers, customers, and the broader society – and that to attempt to meet the needs of some stakeholders at the expense of others can be both irresponsible and financially short sighted. I’ve been reading the sustainability reports of the world’s largest companies. I’ve formed opinions on what characterizes a good report, how you can look at these […]
Read More →Sourcing to low cost destinations is not a new development and Bangladesh has been a favored destination of apparel brands and retailers. But incidents like Rana Plaza disaster (an eight-story factory collapsed, killing over 1,000 workers) brought to light non-existent safety measures. This incident, and three others during 2013-14, challenged the sourcing strategies of large apparel brand retailers and compelled them to embrace socially responsible procurement processes. Almost all brands that source from Bangladesh belatedly […]
Read More →There are various lists that include the world’s most sustainable companies: Corporate Knights, the Climate Performance Leadership Index, and others. Walmart does not make those lists. None of them. Walmart is doing more in sustainability, particularly in the supply chain area, than they are given credit for. In contrast, there seems to be some sort of halo effect surrounding one of Walmart’s biggest competitors, Amazon. Amazon is not known for treating their warehouse workers kindly, […]
Read More →There’s been a common thread in my conversations with shippers over the past few years: their desire to take freight off the truckload grid — i.e., minimize the number of one-way truck shipments they make. This desire is driven by a number of factors, including: Capacity concerns: A lot of capacity has left the market since 2008, with many carriers going bankrupt when the recession hit and others downsizing their fleets. This hasn’t been a […]
Read More →Last year, Halloween greeted us with a snow and ice storm. This year, it greets us with Hurricane Sandy. This is too much trick and not enough treat for me. In other news… C.H. Robinson Reports Third Quarter Results UPS International Profit Rebounds SAP Announces Record Third Quarter Results Exceed €1 Billion in Third Quarter Software Revenue C.H. Robinson Europe BV Receives AEO-certification FedEx Freight Expands Service and Shipping Solutions to Meet Customer Needs in […]
Read More →The nation is breathing a huge sigh of relief today. No, the economy is still growing at a snail’s pace, and things in the Middle East aren’t getting better, but in what the White House called “a great day for America,” the regular refs are back in the NFL! Classify that under “Things that Make You Go Hmmmm.” In other news… C.H. Robinson Worldwide to Acquire Phoenix International Ryder Publishes 2011 Corporate Sustainability Report ATA […]
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Supply Chain Brief
Guest Commentary: Beyond Sustainability to Supply Chain Resilience
Businesses around the world are increasingly becoming more vocal and active around “sustainability” issues and managing the breadth and depth of the “carbon footprint” generated by their operations. While both of these terms are getting lots of airplay, what they really point to is the need to plan for greater “resilience” in supply chain design, management and execution. How resilient are you in your thinking, and does that reflect itself in your supply chain’s processes […]
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