A new initiative by SustainAbility, the United Nations Environment Programme and UN Global Compact to address challenges in global supply chain management.

Chains, webs and ties that bind

A great deal is expected of global businesses these days, especially when it comes to social and environmental responsibility.

For multinational corporations (MNCs), managing these expectations and addressing the issues that affect the business and society's interests is a full-time job.

For suppliers of MNCs, however - or even their suppliers' suppliers - it is even more complex. Suppliers sell to multiple customers, each with their own requirements, expectations and stakeholders' needs. Customers deal with many different suppliers - often numbering in the thousands - who may have vastly different levels of experience and readiness to meet the challenges.

The Unchaining Value research programme will assess the value chains and webs that link producers, suppliers, end-users and consumers around the world.

With globalisation, such value chains have dramatically increased in importance for business and governments as sources of wealth creation, knowledge and technology transfer, and innovation.

The Unchaining Value research programme will assess the value chains and webs that link producers, suppliers, end-users and consumers around the world.

• With globalisation, such value chains have dramatically increased in importance for business and governments as sources of wealth creation, knowledge and technology transfer, and innovation.

• At the same time, scrutiny of business has led to an expectation that corporate responsibility should extend to encouraging responsible practices at every step in a value chain - wherever it may be in the world.
• International standards are increasingly expected of suppliers in developing countries.
• The concept of ‘traceability' - the capacity to track products and their ingredients or components back to their original source - will soon enable unprecedented levels of transparency and associated expectations of accountability.

A multi-sector initiative to build capacity in the supply chain

This new initiative will bring together companies from different sectors in order to:

• Bring out emerging best practice in sustainable value chain management, including approaches to improve efficiency, traceability and collaboration among suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers
• Identify innovative opportunities for partnering and capacity-building upstream and downstream along the value chain across developed and developing country borders.

The project aims to encourage companies to manage value chains using approaches that are:

• More inclusive: covering both upstream and downstream impacts;
• More integrated: addressing the interplay between different functions, such as R&D, manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution as a whole; and
• More collaborative: through supplier and value chain networks, developing joint ventures and new business models along the extended enterprise (including ‘insourced' and ‘outsourced' partners).

Research programme

Unchaining Value aims to:

• Review and analyse the current corporate responsibility challenges in global supply chain management;
• Identify new models and approaches to build supplier capacity, including joint training and design for sustainability;
• Highlight emerging good practices in supply chain partnering between multinational corporations and their suppliers in emerging market economies; and
• Further develop the new multi-sector initiative to promote sustainable supply chain practices, displaying innovative approaches and capacity building.

In this initial phase, SustainAbility has been retained to review two critical sectors: Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Food and Beverage. In this capacity, we have:

• Reviewed the nature of global supply chains in these two sectors.
• Evaluated the key risks and issues faced by companies in these supply chains.
• Interviewed companies, academics, NGOs and other experts on positive (and negative) experiences, lessons and recommendations going forward.

More information at http://www.sustainability.com/consultingservices/accountability_article.asp?id=1193 [1]