Celebrating Sustainable Supply Chain
The Global Sustainable Supply Chain (GSSC) Summit has been a blast. The 3-day virtual summit held from 8th to 10th of June, 2021 was filled with inspirational talks and a lot of lessons from the best leaders in sustainability. Aside from interviews, case studies, and panel interviews, the event also included networking, where the participants can connect to one another in-between sessions.
Day 1 of the Summit
The first day of the summit kick-started with an inspirational keynote from Bertrand Conquéret, President Henkel Global Supply Chain Company and Chief Procurement Officer of Henkel Global Supply Chain B.V. where he talked about procurement and the future of sustainability. He also stated that responsible leadership is our journey to build a sustainable future for people and our planet.
Meanwhile, Pawan Joshi, Executive Vice President, Product Management and Strategy at E2open shared in an interview his insights on the topic of, “Advancing Sustainability in the Supply Chain of the Future”. In this session, Pawan shared what sustainability means to E2open and some trends. He also shared more about the process of designing sustainable products, sustainability profitability, reducing empty miles, and phasing in and phasing out products.
Ann Tracy, Chief Sustainability Officer of Colgate-Palmolive, Eugenia Ceballos Hunziker, Head Responsible Sourcing and Impact Valuation – Corporate at LafargeHolcim, and Victoria Folbigg, Vice President, Procurement at Zuellig Pharma had a panel discussion on the topic of, “Trade-off to Priority – Sustainability in Supply Chain”. They explored how Colgate-Palmolive, LafargeHolcim, and Zuellig Pharma embrace sustainability in the supply chain in their organizations. In this session, the panelists also talked about the business benefits of sustainability and what is the competitive edge in practicing sustainability. They also discussed why some sustainability initiatives failed, the problems encountered, and their solutions.
The panel was followed by a demo session by Locus, showcasing an advanced decision-making engine, smart Geocoding, dispatch planning, real-time delivery information, predictive alerts, and customers’ practical testimonials. The summit Day 1 was cut short by a worldwide internet outage that extended the summit to the 10th of June, but on the plus side offering participants more opportunities to connect and interact.
Day 2 of the Summit
Opening the second day of the summit is an exciting keynote from Ann Rosenberg, SVP for Sustainable Development, Member of WEF Advisory Network on Climate at Wood plc where she tackled some of the changes taking place towards the race to sustainability and quick insight into the challenges embarking on a decarbonization journey.
After the opening keynote, we had a panel discussion with Arindam Sengupta, VP and Head of Procurement Asia Pacific at Dole International, Michaël Rouviere, Vice President Asia Pacific, The Sustainable Procurement Pledge at Fluxym, and Anne-Brigitte Spitzbarth, VP Operations Excellence & Sustainability at GEFCO on the topic of “How to Create a More Ethical and Sustainable Supply Chain through Procurement.” In this panel, they talked about ethical and sustainable procurement and why it has become a game-changer and key driver for ethical & sustainable procurement. They also answered the question, “How can companies start their sustainability journey with so limited visibility on their end-to-end supply chain?” and tackled how COVID highlighted the blindspots and highlighted how poor the end-to-end visibility was even for large corporations, with no visibility on sustainability.
The summit continued with two case studies from Inge de Winne, Group Chief Supply Chain and Sustainability Officer of Boortmalt on, “Supply Chain Leaders can Make a Difference” and Anicia Jaegler, Full Professor/Head of Operations Management and IS Department at KEDGE Business School on, “Sustainability and Digital Supply Chains.”
Sonal Pandya Dalal, FSA Strategy, Policy, Outreach at SASB, Fredrik Andersen, Assistant Manager Corporations and Supply Chains at CDP, and Divya Demato, CEO & Co-Founder of GoodOps discussed in a panel session on the topic, “Standards, Index, Reports, and Approach: How to Measure Sustainability Impact for Supply Chains.” They discussed the process and methods for measuring how sustainability impacts the supply chain and what makes sustainable supply chain assessment challenging. They also answered one of the biggest questions in sustainability, “What makes sustainable supply chain assessment challenging”. They also tackled the benefits of sustainability reporting and the best practices and the future standards in indexing and reporting the sustainability impact for supply chains.
Day 2 of the summit had Ernest Barcelo, Vice President, Sustainability at Omya in an interview on the topic, “Challenges Impeding Sustainable Supply Chain Practices in the Mining and Mineral Sector.” In this session, Ernest shared Omya’s sustainable strategy and why most organizations are struggling with their sustainability initiatives- internal and external obstacles and how to tackle them.
Xavier Houot, Senior Vice President, Sustainable Business & Operations at Schneider Electric shared in a case study what is shaping Schneider Electric’s Supply Chain transformation journey and how the company is setting targets and achieving its goals through its program “STRIVE.”
Sharing more on the topic, “Challenges & Opportunities for Global Supply Chain Sustainability” are Thomas Udesen, Chief Procurement Officer of Bayer and Co-Founder of The Sustainable Procurement Pledge, Sheri R. Hinish, Global Partner, Sustainable Supply Chain at IBM and Joselina Peralta, Executive Board Member at Zora’s Cradle. The panel shared more insights into why it is important for organizations to build a sustainable supply chain now more than ever, the level of commitment vs investment in sustainability, and daunting reporting challenges.
Coming right after was a case study from Gráinne Lynch, Traceability Lead Europe – Digital Manufacturing and Supply Chain Operations at Accenture on the topic, “How to Use Traceability Capability as an Enabler for Sustainable Supply Chains” where she defined traceability in supply chain and the steps to take for the challenges faced.
In an interview full of energy and passion, Stephanie Benedetto, CEO & Founder of Queen of Raw shared about how “AI is Driving Economic Sustainability Across the Supply Chain” where she addressed the role of AI and Machine Learning in sustainability of the supply chains. She also discussed the crucial importance of data and how best to align different facets of strategy together to enable an organization’s supply chain to deliver these expectations.
The final session for the day was concluded by Martha Lumatete, Global Snr. IT Manager Enterprise & Corp Systems Supply Chain at McKesson in a case study on the topic, “Sustainability is a Competitive Advantage in Supply Chain”. She shared in this session the impact of the pandemic on sustainability and supply chain and some key pointers on how to improve sustainability in the supply chain.
Day 2 of the summit ended in a celebratory spirit, with the Global Sustainable Supply Chain Summit Awards. Among 10 nominees, Alexandra Palt, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer & EVP at L’Oréal Foundation won the Best Sustainable Supply Chain Leader Award. At the Best Sustainable Supply Chain Organization Award, out of 20 nominees, Schneider Electric was voted the winner.
Day 3 of the Summit
The third day of the summit started with an interview with Yann de Feraudy, Deputy CEO Operations & IT at Groupe Rocher on the topic, “Reconnect People to Nature: Groupe Rocher’s Sustainable Supply Chain.” In this session, Yann talked about how Groupe Roche adopts and embraces sustainability in the supply chain. He also shared some of the challenges that come along as a leader and the trends the cosmetic industry needs to watch out for in the coming years.
In a case study on the topic, “Journey Towards Sustainable Warehouses,” Mathilde Dumoulin, Sustainability Development Manager at Bolloré Logistics Singapore Pte Ltd talked about modern warehouses and climate change. She also discussed the solutions for sustainable warehouses today and the warehouse of the future.
Day 3 of the summit continued with a panel discussion on the topic, “Challenges in Supply Chain for the Circular Economy” with Catherine Weetman, Director at Rethink Global, Bettina Hobson, Sustainable & Circular Supply Chain, SP Scientific Products, and Zsofia Agnes Nagy, Supply Chain Developer & Leader Circular Business Model & Value Chain Builder at Circular Economy Institute. In this panel, the guests discussed how to make supply chains circular and the timeline to replace the linear supply chain with a circular supply chain. They also talked about accelerators and challenges to circular supply chains and gains and opportunities in companies that have already implemented a circular supply chain.
The sustainability in the toys sector was another angle for insightful conversations at the GSSC. Benoit Calmeil, Regional General Manager Merchandise Process, and Compliance at Toys”R”Us Asia shared in an interview his insights on the topic, “How to Prevent Sustainability Efforts from Failing and Avoid the Digitalization Trap.” Benoit shared more about sustainable procurement, unlimited and limited resources, the cost of pollution, and core business change to becoming sustainable.
“The Blockchain – The Sharing Economy Reloaded” case study by Justin Goldston, PhD, Professor | TEDx Speaker at Penn State University provided the audience with insights on what Polkadot blockchain is all about, what relay chain is, and how companies working in the same ecosystem are considered parachains.
Is sustainability an important topic on the board’s agenda? It surely is! And in the panel “Supply Chain Sustainability on the Board’s Agenda” Magali Anderson, Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer of LafargeHolcim, Alexis Bateman, Director at Sustainable Supply Chains Lab at MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, and Inge de Winne, Group Chief Supply Chain and Sustainability Officer of Boortmalt talked about how to design the much larger concept of supply chain sustainability involving the board and what sustainable business will look like in 2030.
Shivani Kannabhiran, Lead RBC and Public Procurement at OECD – OCDE shared in an interview her views on the topic, “Developing ESG Standards and Recommendations for Global Supply Chains.” In this session, Shivani shared how OECD goes about ensuring guidelines and frameworks are adhered to and some of the key challenges. She also explained what responsible agricultural supply chain is in Southeast Asia and the difference between the supply chain due diligence before and now.
The summit concluded with the case study presented by Peter Hill, Executive Board Member at SARIA Bio-Industries & CEO of the Saria Petfood and Feed Division at SARIA SE & Co. KG on the topic of “When Walking The Walk Isn’t Enough.” In this session, he introduced who SARIA is and some of the key learnings from their sustainable journey.
The summit was a success thanks to all the sponsors, partners, and participants who joined and supported the event. All the learnings and insights from our esteemed speakers will be etched in the supply chain industry going forward- taking into account sustainability in every move and every plan that is to come in the near future. Sustainability has been one of the growing topics in all aspects of the world, starting in our own community and now with big corporations with the vision of saving our planet. We hope that with this event- with a goal of celebrating a sustainable supply chain, we were able to open doors to a more sustainable future.
Visit the event site for more information about the event. https://www.globalsustainablesupplychain.com/
GSSC is powered by B2G Consulting and Alcott Global.
