Global Links: Embracing climate change solutions

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the January-February 2017 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

January-February 2017

Transformation is a topic that comes up in almost every conversation I have with supply chain managers these days. Executives from companies as diverse as J&J Vision Care, the division of Johnson & Johnson that manufactures contact lenses, and Thrive Markets, a startup selling health and wellness products to its members, have talked about how they have had to remake their supply chains to meet new customer demands. Transformation is also the theme of this issue of SCMR.

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When BSR (Business for Social Responsibility) convened its annual conference in San Francisco in 2015, there was considerable celebration about the landmark agreement at COP21—also known as the Paris Climate Conference. It meant that for the first time in over 21 years of UN negotiations, standards were finally established to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.

When BSR met in New York last November, the cri de Coeur was for “bold climate action,” with analysts observing at the time that multinationals must raise their ambitions by investing in climate finance, transitioning to renewable energy and finding more innovative ways of ensuring resilient supply chains.

It’s challenging to change organizational culture to embrace clean energy and other climate solutions, BSR analysts admit. But they insist that supply chain managers join Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) managers in becoming “intrapreneurs” charged with persuading a wide variety of stakeholders that climate-focused initiatives are in their best interest.

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