Conference provides Insights into Sustainable Supply Chain Leadership
Senior managers from leading Canadian firms met online recently at the Leadership Series 2.0: Sustainable Supply Chains Conference organized by Supply Chain Canada, Ontario Institute. The George Weston Ltd. Centre for Sustainable Supply Chains at Schulich was an event sponsor.
“There is a growing sense that greater accountability for social and environmental impacts is going to be part of every senior manager’s KPIs in the future,” said David Johnston, Weston Centre Director. “Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of building resilient supply chain organizations that are ready for the next major disruption, whether that comes from climate or social and political change.”
Throughout the day long event, 450 attendees heard from many C-Suite executives from various industries who discussed how their companies are moving to more sustainable practices.
For example, John Bayliss, SVP, Logistics and Supply Chain at Walmart advocated a disciplined approach, saying “We must think of the end to end impact versus chasing every shiny object.” Bayliss explained how Walmart was able to prevent greater than 1.1 million pounds of plastic from entering its supply chain by working closely with its procurement and merchandising teams to mitigate excess usage, while ensuring what remained, was recyclable. To motivate big change, Bayliss urged the need to set big audacious goals regarding emission and waste reduction, and also product and packaging.
To read the full report written by Master of Supply Chain Management students Kishen Suresh Kumar (Editor), Pankaj Murali, Vivek George and Nusrat Nur – please click here.