Securing a Sustainable Supply Chain: Lessons from CSR Research

Dec 3, 2015 5:40 PM ET

Securing a sustainable supply chain: lessons from CSR research

To address environmental, social, and governance issues effectively, CSR professionals today must look beyond their own operations and deep into their supply chain. How and where are materials sourced? How are the components of products developed? What are the environmental and human rights ramifications of those processes? Issues as serious as child labor, conflict minerals, and climate change can only be effectively tackled when a company’s commitments to corporate citizenship and reporting are adopted by their suppliers and partners.

A clear understanding of expectations and a shared commitment can offer business as well as social value to companies and their suppliers both—and corporate citizenship professionals have an important part to play in brokering these relationships. According to the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship's 2014 State of Corporate Citizenship study, more than 90 percent of executive respondents reported success in securing a sustainable supply chain when corporate citizenship activities were integrated with business strategy, compared to only 60 percent of respondents who reported success when they were not

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