A recent survey conducted by the Institute for Supply Management and Boise Paper shows that sustainability is a driving force in decision makers for supply chain management. Of those surveyed, 74% have sustainability goals in place and nearly half (48%) report that sustainability goals are part of daily operations.
Between 48 and 67 percent of supply managers say they would pay more for the most common spend categories if they were offered sustainably. An interesting side effect to be noted in the survey is that the companies that were making sustainable choices were also notably more profitable.
There could be several reasons for this. It could be that those are the companies that spend more time thinking about their supply chain in general, it could be that they are forced to be more innovative in their approach to their business on all levels. It could be that consumers are also making choices based on environmental stewardship and enabling these companies to grab more market share. Whatever the case may be, it’s really encouraging to see this trend in supply chain management.
