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sustainable supply chain.

There is an opaque nature to the manufacturing industry despite an era of what seems to be radical transparency in this global economy. It is rare that any given company would own the entire supply chain from raw material to delivery or point of sale due to the inefficient and costly nature of doing so. Instead, there is a network of raw material and machinery suppliers, hundreds of factories, contractors and subcontractors, and a substantial workforce to produce a single product. In an age where environmental impact is at the forefront of major economies, it is dually surprising how little information consumers are provided with to make sustainable decisions and habits.

Now in order to make this idea work we have to win over the big guys. Get them on our side, which is the side that would like to create a more environmentally friendly and conflict free supply chain. Sounds like a good idea. The big guys will want to know one thing… the bottom line and how this generates profits, because it sounds like an expensive investment. Well let me lay out the idea in steps on a potential path to success:

1. develop a standard of ethicality in regards to environmental, sustainable, and human rights for business practices

2. approach a major corporation and offer free supply chain auditing in exchange for proprietary data collected throughout the process, obtain critical mass in a particular industry to sign on

3. conduct thorough visits to factories, assess environmental impact and waste management, collect data on living wages and work conditions, review conflicts of interest including donations and political affiliations, record keeping, etc.

4. provide the company with a detailed analysis on ways to improve their supply chain in order to increase productivity by eliminating inefficiencies, avoid potential legal and compliance issues, and reduce waste or slack

5. continue to iterate and conduct periodic audits to update and check on improvement

6. sell supply chain data to major index providers to publish a green benchmark

7. companies in compliance with the standards will benefit from the premium consumers are willing to pay for their products and investors for their stock

That’s it…