Beyond supply chain transparency, supplier collaboration plays a huge role in ensuring supply chain integrity and enabling greater communication and visibility. Collaboration between a buyer and supplier creates a strategic partnership that ultimately helps both parties achieve business objectives and meet new supply chain expectations.
In response to consumer demand for more “responsible” products, businesses have made commitments to ensure their supply chains are sustainable and ethical. But these terms have varied interpretations. What does it mean for a business to be “sustainable”? What constitutes “ethical” and “responsible” practices? How do companies interpret these terms differently? Responsible business is a broad term that has several dimensions.
In today’s climate, it may seem that sustainability is no longer a business priority. Companies have shifted their focus to respond to both a global health pandemic and a social movement of unprecedented scale. With businesses needing to adjust their supply chains, adapt to dramatic changes in demand, and reassess budgets and internal business practices, where does this leave corporate commitments for more sustainable supply chains?
Discussions around supply chain transparency generally focus on brands and retailers—namely, those who directly interact with consumers and whose reputations are at stake when it comes to commitments for responsible sourcing. However, brands and retailers work with many suppliers who form the backbone of their supply chains. Collaboration with these suppliers is important to ensure brand and retailer supply chains meet commitments for transparency, sustainability, and responsible sourcing. The willingness to be transparent about their supply chains, share data with their clients, and implement responsible practices leads to significant benefits for suppliers both in the immediate and long term.
The Fashion Transparency Index reviews 250 of the biggest global fashion brands and retailers and ranks them according to how much they disclose about their social and environmental policies, practices, and impacts. This annual report has become a key benchmark in the industry to better understand how major fashion companies are incorporating sustainability, social responsibility, and transparency into their supply chains.
Transparency-One Director of Marketing KellyAnn Tsai spoke with Food Safety Exchange about the importance of supply chain transparency, its main challenges, and what the future holds.
We are living in unprecedented times. While the best thing most of us can do is stay inside and limit contact, many others are needed on the front lines—healthcare workers, food and grocery retail employees, truckers, delivery service providers.
There is a lot of talk about digitization of supply chain data, but what does this mean? It is more than just a trend—there is a real reason companies why should be compelled to shift towards digitization.
One of the biggest trends today is the use of “alternative” goods in lieu of everyday, commonly used ingredients and materials. More and more consumers are looking to buy beef that isn’t made of meat, flour that isn’t made of wheat, and dairy that doesn’t come from cows.
Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, is now a basic tenet of any good business strategy. Due to a shift in consumer expectations over the past decade, companies are finding ways to ensure their operations are more “socially responsible.” CSR is a broad term that can take many forms. Most CSR initiatives fall under one of three categories.