Making Global Goals Local Business Through Core Corporate Functions

How to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals into core business functions across the organization

A Spotlight on Sustainable Supply Chain & Procurement

Supply chain sustainability and responsible procurement are critical to making global goals local business by ensuring that the extension of a company’s operations, products and services can support the realities of our planet and better serve markets both today and in the future.

However, corporate supply chains are bigger and more complex than ever before. Open markets have enabled companies to source materials and outsource production to suppliers in developing and emerging economies. When done right, a global supply chain can deliver significant benefits to companies in the form of reduced costs and enhanced profitability and shareholder value. It can also contribute to much-needed economic and social development, resulting in higher standards of living for millions of people (learn more about the business case).

When supply chains are done wrong – by not taking into consideration the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of suppliers – companies leave themselves open to significant operational and reputational risks. Impacts on people and the environment can be substantial and severe.

See the Roadmap for Integrated Sustainability for further information on how different functions can be engaged in developing and implementing sustainability strategies within companies.

Coming Soon:

  • Spotlight on Investor Relations (September 2016)
  • Spotlight on Research & Development (November 2016)

What companies are doing

Enel SpA has developed a supplier engagement program in order to guarantee high quality standards, covering human rights, working conditions, environmental responsibility and anti-corruption. The program consists of three components: Qualification Systems, General Term and Conditions and Vendor Rating Process, which are used for monitoring, assessing and establishing continuous dialogue with its suppliers. To further enhance continuous dialogue with its suppliers, Enel Group utilizes a common global registration platform where all its suppliers can interact with each other and with the company itself. [SDGs 8, 9, 12]

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Emerging Supply Chain and Procurement Trends

In today’s globalized economy, outsourcing business operations doesn’t mean outsourcing responsibilities and risks. Responsible companies understand that they have an important and very active role to play in managing the environmental, social and economic impacts of their supply chains. Yet, extending sustainability throughout the supply chain is often considered the biggest challenge to improving a company’s sustainability performance.

Today we see that businesses are taking a number of steps to address these challenges. Adopting innovative solutions is helping companies not just address the risks to their supply chains, but also contributes to increasing labour productivity, reducing costs and the use of resources and increasing efficiency – all while meeting evolving customer and business partner requirements and innovating for the changing market.

Some of the key trends and practices in addressing supply chain challenges, which are often interconnected, include:

Participate in upcoming events:

Thursday, 1 September, 09:00 AM EDT

Ending Rural Poverty: How to Double Small Producer Income and Productivity

7-9 December, Multi-day eventWomen Vendors Exhibition and Forum, Istanbul

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