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Olivia B

Feb 3, 2025

3

min read

Embracing the Second Era of Sustainable Sourcing

Companies are improving how they approach responsible supply chains.

Embracing the Second Era of Sustainable Sourcing

The majority of the environmental and social impacts of our material world occur in the supply chains that support every aspect of our global economy. The vague standards, “impact neutral” frameworks, and external certifications that defined the early days of corporate sustainability are past; the industry is entering a world of higher regulatory expectations, greater environmental literacy, and a renewed commitment to sustainable (or responsible) sourcing. Businesses are now seeking frameworks that emphasize positive impact, a holistic understanding of the risks in their supply chains, and outcome-focused commitments over promises and pilots.


At GreenBiz25, an annual event for Sustainable Business Leaders, companies come together to learn and collaborate around this next generation of sustainable supply chain goals. To facilitate this process, the Global Impact Collective and its partner, DT Global Commercial Advisory, will be hosting a joint workshop on the second era of sustainable sourcing, led by experts who have seen the shift firsthand. The event will showcase best practices across different industries and NGO sectors, then give participants an opportunity to consider ways of using these practices to advance their own sustainable sourcing goals.


“Past approaches to sustainable sourcing didn’t really evaluate, measure, and manage the actual outcomes,” recalls Seth Olson, a senior sustainability manager at DT Global Commercial Advisory. “Now, with the maturity of corporate sustainability as a profession, as well as sustainability science, it’s clear that you have to focus on driving improvements to increase business resilience.”


DT Global's paper Navigating the Future of Sustainable Sourcing: Strategies for Securing Resilient Supply Chains in Our Complex Global Agrifood Systems explores the rationale behind this change and offers advice for companies interested in leading the way. Sustainable sourcing is “when an organization actively and consciously sources products and services in an ethical, environmentally sustainable, and socially conscious way."


“Thinking holistically about social and environmental outcomes and having a good sense of economics helps businesses understand the value of strategies that integrate social and environmental outcomes alongside profits,” Seth says. “It's those improvements in outcomes that will lead not only to environmental and social resilience, but longer-term, to business resilience and business value as well.”


Any company whose supply chain relies on natural resources can understand the sustainability challenges laid out in this paper. Regulations, environmental standards, and even the definition of “sustainable” vary wildly across different countries, making it difficult for global businesses whose resources come from all over the world to create and implement cohesive strategies. Making things even more challenging, long-term impacts of sustainability measures are often difficult to quantify, and granular data is hard to come by, especially in developing countries. In the past, lack of data has led companies to prioritize clean, obvious numbers—such as their volume of sustainably sourced materials—to measure what they are doing rather than the impacts they are having. While such metrics aren’t useless, they risk obscuring larger issues in the supply chain that can’t be so easily measured.


So, what’s a proactive business to do? “A lot of this really boils down to the fact that there are no blanket solutions,” Seth says. “A solution that works in X environment won't necessarily work in Y environment. In fact, oftentimes it won’t.” Overcoming the challenges of collecting and measuring sustainability data is a vital start. “You have to first gain an understanding of your supply chains as granularly as possible. Once you understand this context, you can start to design solutions with the stakeholders and communities in those landscapes.”


The toolkit and skillset that are emerging will help food and beverage companies tackle these challenges and build solutions that address the complexity of truly responsible, sustainable sourcing. “I think that this paper represents one data point in a broader trend toward this recognition of the importance of local context and the need for a holistic approach including environmental, social and economic considerations,” Seth says. At GreenBiz25, companies will collaborate, in a pre-competitive space, to advance these goals, share knowledge, and make progress.


Want to learn more? Join Seth Olson and his co-facilitator, Judith Hochhauser Schneider, VP Partnership Develop at Global Impact Collective, on February 10th at 3:30pm at GreenBiz25 as we share additional insights and are joined by three experts from Google, World Wildlife Fund, and Levi Strauss & Co. This interactive workshop will allow participants to immediately apply new learnings to their own supply chains.

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Embracing the Second Era of Sustainable Sourcing

Writer's picture: Olivia BOlivia B

The majority of the environmental and social impacts of our material world occur in the supply chains that support every aspect of our global economy. The vague standards, “impact neutral” frameworks, and external certifications that defined the early days of corporate sustainability are past; the industry is entering a world of higher regulatory expectations, greater environmental literacy, and a renewed commitment to sustainable (or responsible) sourcing. Businesses are now seeking frameworks that emphasize positive impact, a holistic understanding of the risks in their supply chains, and outcome-focused commitments over promises and pilots.


At GreenBiz25, an annual event for Sustainable Business Leaders, companies come together to learn and collaborate around this next generation of sustainable supply chain goals. To facilitate this process, the Global Impact Collective and its partner, DT Global Commercial Advisory, will be hosting a joint workshop on the second era of sustainable sourcing, led by experts who have seen the shift firsthand. The event will showcase best practices across different industries and NGO sectors, then give participants an opportunity to consider ways of using these practices to advance their own sustainable sourcing goals.


“Past approaches to sustainable sourcing didn’t really evaluate, measure, and manage the actual outcomes,” recalls Seth Olson, a senior sustainability manager at DT Global Commercial Advisory. “Now, with the maturity of corporate sustainability as a profession, as well as sustainability science, it’s clear that you have to focus on driving improvements to increase business resilience.”


DT Global's paper Navigating the Future of Sustainable Sourcing: Strategies for Securing Resilient Supply Chains in Our Complex Global Agrifood Systems explores the rationale behind this change and offers advice for companies interested in leading the way. Sustainable sourcing is “when an organization actively and consciously sources products and services in an ethical, environmentally sustainable, and socially conscious way."


“Thinking holistically about social and environmental outcomes and having a good sense of economics helps businesses understand the value of strategies that integrate social and environmental outcomes alongside profits,” Seth says. “It's those improvements in outcomes that will lead not only to environmental and social resilience, but longer-term, to business resilience and business value as well.”


Any company whose supply chain relies on natural resources can understand the sustainability challenges laid out in this paper. Regulations, environmental standards, and even the definition of “sustainable” vary wildly across different countries, making it difficult for global businesses whose resources come from all over the world to create and implement cohesive strategies. Making things even more challenging, long-term impacts of sustainability measures are often difficult to quantify, and granular data is hard to come by, especially in developing countries. In the past, lack of data has led companies to prioritize clean, obvious numbers—such as their volume of sustainably sourced materials—to measure what they are doing rather than the impacts they are having. While such metrics aren’t useless, they risk obscuring larger issues in the supply chain that can’t be so easily measured.


So, what’s a proactive business to do? “A lot of this really boils down to the fact that there are no blanket solutions,” Seth says. “A solution that works in X environment won't necessarily work in Y environment. In fact, oftentimes it won’t.” Overcoming the challenges of collecting and measuring sustainability data is a vital start. “You have to first gain an understanding of your supply chains as granularly as possible. Once you understand this context, you can start to design solutions with the stakeholders and communities in those landscapes.”


The toolkit and skillset that are emerging will help food and beverage companies tackle these challenges and build solutions that address the complexity of truly responsible, sustainable sourcing. “I think that this paper represents one data point in a broader trend toward this recognition of the importance of local context and the need for a holistic approach including environmental, social and economic considerations,” Seth says. At GreenBiz25, companies will collaborate, in a pre-competitive space, to advance these goals, share knowledge, and make progress.


Want to learn more? Join Seth Olson and his co-facilitator, Judith Hochhauser Schneider, VP Partnership Develop at Global Impact Collective, on February 10th at 3:30pm at GreenBiz25 as we share additional insights and are joined by three experts from Google, World Wildlife Fund, and Levi Strauss & Co. This interactive workshop will allow participants to immediately apply new learnings to their own supply chains.

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