What is Sustainable Supply Chain?

Sustainability has now become an important part of every business model. If we talk about the supply chain, the sustainable supply chain does not only mean going green or becoming environment-friendly; it means that sustainability is incorporated in the entire supply chain management. From the selection of raw materials and creating processes on the plant to the use of product or service, the entire manufacturing process must be backed by sustainability.

How to Achieve Sustainable Supply Chain in Textiles?

Every single process of the textile or garment manufacturing must be backed by sustainable supply chain. Here are a few steps to achieve sustainable supply chain in textiles:

Organic cotton should be used instead of conventional cotton as it is free from pesticides, fertilizers, and other harmful chemicals

Minimize the consumption of energy and other resources wherever possible. Reusing and recycling should be a part of product supply chain

Use synthetic starch as a replacement of penta chloro phenol and other chlorinated preservatives as it may minimize health hazards

Sustainability and Consumer Behaviour

These days, instead of making a direct purchase of an item, consumers prefer to do a little research on the products. They prefer to buy such products that are not only built to last but are environment-friendly as well. The reason is when you buy durable and ethically-produced products, you are helping the environment in the long run. It means that these products will have less waste, create less pollution, hence healthy for the people and environment.

The Importance of Sustainable Supply Chain

The sustainable supply chain is important for a business in many ways:

• Improved customer relationship

Nowadays, when buying a product, most people prefer to purchase products from such brands that protect the environment. So, if you incorporate sustainability in the whole supply chain management, it may improve the quality of your product and customer relationships, hence enhancing your brand reputation ultimately.

• Cost control

Implementing sustainable practices are expensive initially; however, it outweighs the long-term benefits and return on investment, resulting in a significant decrease in the expenses of a business in the long term.

How to Make Your Supply Chain More Sustainable?

The following are a few steps to make your supply chain more sustainable.

• For sustainability of the supply chain, the most important step is to map the supply chain model in the right direction. For this, identify the social or environmental challenges that inventory suppliers are facing.
• To improve sustainability into your supply chain, develop training programs so your suppliers can get to know better how sustainability can affect the supply chain.
• Support, encouragement, and cooperation – all are crucial to promoting sustainability efforts. For this, conduct audits or motivate the suppliers to implement sustainability in a better way.

Ensuring Transparency of Supply Chain

• To ensure transparency of the supply chain, first, you need to set some standards to protect workers and your environment and track the performance of the suppliers towards sustainability.
• To make sure that the supply chain practices meet with policies, establish audits, and, as per the results, create strategies that may handle the social as well as environmental problems in the supply chain. All these efforts may help protect your workers, brand, and the whole environment while ensuring the transparency of the supply chain.