Name: The importance of sustainable supply chains
Uploaded: 2021-06-22
Duration: 6 min 32 s
Description: Leaders from Anheuser-Busch and Gap, Inc. weigh in.

Leaders from Anheuser-Busch and Gap, Inc. weigh in.

The importance of sustainable supply chains

Features

maybe the last time you went to a story about a piece of assemble yourself furniture, right? You open the box, there's hundreds of pieces. Each of those pieces was manufactured somewhere before it ended up in that box. And it's made of raw materials that were sourced in some way, whether it was horse products, whether it was metal, that was mind all of that is a supply chain. And so when you're making a decision as a consumer, there's a huge supply chain system that brought that product to the shelf and how products are made, how they're transported and sold. All of those have huge environmental impact, Roughly 90% of a consumer products impact is happening in the supply chain. You know, we started to look at how companies are incorporating sustainability. I think even as soon as nine years ago there's sustainability was on the radar, but it was a very superficial kind of adoption, right? You know, fast forward over the last decade or so, as I say, that both the recognition of their role, but also, you know, the actual public awareness about the scope of impact of supply chain. Both of those have kind of converged, right? You know, I think there was even accelerating factor of covid 19 where, you know, people ran out of toilet paper and they realized that was a function of supply chain so that became uh that supply chains are critical, they have big impacts, they can be disrupted. And so I think all of these converging factors have led to this point now where I see the for around supply chain sustainability as the highest it's ever been. The pandemic and other disruptions like climate change are starting to expose that we also need resilient supply change, not just efficient supply change. And so really thinking about how do we build in that resiliency? How do we build sustainability into those decisions to make sure not only that we have affordable products, but it's also doing it in a way that we know that they'll be there when we need them most. Yeah, our supply chain is incredibly complex. It spans many geographic locations, um it touches the lives of millions of people, both directly and indirectly. And so I think the biggest challenges where do you choose to focus that has the largest impact? We used the expression from dirt to shirt. We think about the actual soil that the fibers come out of the growing process. We have a strong commitment by 2030 to be water resilient across our entire supply chain and by 2050 to actually being water net positive. We also think about renewable fibers. And so we've been engaged in many cellulose fibers and making sure that they're coming from renewable plants that have a fast growth life cycle. This is really important when you look at recycled fibers, which we use quite a bit of and how you think about virtuous cycle of a full fledged cycle doesn't end when we're done wearing it. How do we take and actually reuse that clothing as well? We purchased everything there is to buy from hops, barley, all of the ingredients, the warehousing, everything we need to sell the beer. So everything that is needed to run a growing company sustainability. To put it simple is good for business. It attracts down, it helps us to empower corporate reputation. It is more and more demanded and expected by investors and consumers. And then last, but definitely not least doing what's right for the environment. It's cheaper than not doing it. Think for a long time climate change was seen as something far off in the future. We had plenty of time to address it, and I think now we're seeing ice caps melting, right, increases in wildfires, more powerful hurricane, right? More droughts, more blood. We're all experiencing that in our daily lives and I think that's making all of us, and especially younger generations far more aware of the impact. And I think empowered to want to do something about it because they have a long life in front of them. And a lot of that is translating into the company's they're supporting in the product that they're purchasing at the end of the day. When you think about your demand, it begins and ends with what your consumer wants and our consumers in this day and age are asking they want to wear their values. They're telling us that they want to know not only that their product was made in a sustainable way, but how it was made, who was made by and that those processes have been end to end sustainable and representative of the life they want to lead in their community. That means making sure that we are thoughtful about the economics and the ecosystems that we impact. It's really important when we think about longitude of our business as well as the economics of our business for us, we are doing this because it's essential to the survival of our business. We can make beer without barley cannot make beer without water. So if we have a water crisis, there's no more beer. Whether it's a brewery, whether it's a wholesaler, they are all part of making this happen. The reality is consumers expect a lot from companies and trust in a company in a brand is really important and tightly connected to repeat purchases, right? And having that sales both consistent and growing. He also need companies to use their most powerful tool, which is policy advocacy. It's great if one company is doing what they need to do. But as a planet, we need everyone there and policy is an important tool to help get us to that Global pollution sustainability is not just about doing good for our communities and all the peoples lives. We touch. It's also good business practice. And if this is where your consumer wants to go, this isn't an option. It isn't something you can just pay lip service to. You need to go do it and you need to do the hard work, which is often innovation. It's not only doing good for the world we live in, but it's doing right for your company as well and all of your stakeholders. Yeah.