MK 7041- Managing Sustainable Global Value Chains Assignment Sample 2024
Introduction
The concern related to adopting a sustainable global supply chain is increasing as every sector worldwide is the biggest contributor to increasing negative effects on the environment. It can be seen that globalisation is increasing and with increased globalisation, every company is trying to enter foreign markets for increasing their revenue and success.
For delivering products and services to end consumers, the supply chain plays a critical role and if the concern of adopting sustainability is increasing then the organisation must focus on bringing sustainable changes in the supply chain (Panigrahiet. al. 2018). Looking at this issue, the industry chosen for reviewing the sustainability opportunities in a global supply chain is consumer goods, and the country selected is the UK.
The supply chain of this industry sector is huge and they deliver goods and services to millions of consumer in the UK. Hence, the impact of supply chain on environment will be discussed keeping the case of sourcing strategy in mind.
Furthermore, the agricultural and farming practices will be focused on adopting sustainable opportunities in the global supply chain. The primary stage of the supply chain initiates from agriculture and farming to source raw materials.
If an industry wants to have a sustainable supply chain it must initiate sourcing sustainably and use sustainable raw materials. This is the primary reason for selecting agricultural and farming practices along with sustainable sourcing in concern with the company’s business practices.
Academic Literature review
Consumer goods are goods that are produced for individual use and sold through retail outlets. This sector includes processed food and beverages, cosmetics, household cleaning products, home appliances, toiletries and electronic goods. Therefore, the impact of consumer goods industry on environment is also huge as they produce different products used by consumer and every production is related to emitting some harmful gases.
It needs to be noted that environmental concern is increasing rapidly and the supply chain is also a major contributor to it. Adopting a sustainable supply chain begins with being concerned about the company’s social, environmental, and economic impact. It helps in identifying changes that can help in reducing it.
The case chosen for adopting sustainability in the global supply chain is concerned with sustainable sourcing and strategies implemented by consumer goods industry. Every organisation in this sector is constantly focuses on adopting business operations that can help them in reducing their environmental impact while farming and agriculture (Kusi-Sarponget. al. 2019).
It has been noted that nowadays, chemicals used for farming are harmful to the environment, soil, and land that can decrease soil fertility. Other than that, fertilisers and pesticides utilised in agriculture and farming impact negatively as well. Keeping all these negative impacts in mind companies from this sector must keep a strong connection with suppliers and farmers so they can work on achieving their purpose.
According to Farooque et. al. (2019) consumer goods sector is aware about their impact on environment and focusing on implementing several practices in supply chain to meet emerging sustainable demands. Consumer goods industry serves billions of consumers.
It can be seen that various raw materials have been used to develop their products and services and there are various individuals involved in meeting these demands. Their primary duty is to have a sustainable supply of these materials as it plays a critical role in the future growth of their business along with helping them in delivering positive environmental impact.
As per Carter et. al. (2019) their primary approach to regenerative and sustainable sourcing includes four primary strands that include sustainably sourcing meeting the highest standards from suppliers, building change while improving their policies with suppliers, transforming their agricultural sector as per business, and communicating to consumers about their sustainable sourcing.
According to Saeed and Kersten, (2019) different agricultural farming practices come with a negative impact on the environment and are also responsible for the emission of harmful gases and it is must for organisations to address this.
Keeping this concern in mind the industry has developed several policies and techniques for offering guidance on the ways to nourish the soil, restore and regenerate the land and capture carbon. They aim to inspire their business, brands, suppliers, divisions, and peers and form regenerative programs in their supply chain. The primary regenerative practices they are likely to bring are related to climate, crop-specific, and region.
It would help the suppliers working with this industry in improving their crop rotations, composting, conservation tillage practices, adoption of cover cropping, and more. Along with that, it also helps in preventing pollution by improving water quality, nutrient runoff, prevention of erosion, reducing GHG emission by optimisation the farm carbon footprint, and more.
The actions and principles adopted by many of the consumer goods industry in the UK best suit the sustainability of global supply chains (Canter, 2018). Sustainability needs to begin by implementing sustainable business practices at places from where all the raw materials are coming.
Companies from this sector follow a procurement framework describing their responsible sourcing policy that needs to be followed by every supplier that is buying raw materials or products. The responsible sourcing policy embodies their commitment to conducting business with openness, respect, integrity for labour principles, and core human rights.
Their sourcing policy depicts that the company is not only concerned about environmental well-being but they are also focused on community development along with social and economic aspects. As per Sodhi and Tang, (2019) the suppliers that are having business with the company from this industry have to follow human and labour rights. Hence, the company focuses on enhancing their business practices so they can adopt sustainability in farming and agriculture as well.
It can be seen that agriculture activities can destroy the wildlife in many different ways and it is must to take some initiative for this as well. For this purpose, the consumer goods industry must have brought new activities that are less disruptive. Instead of using chemical fertilisers they can focus on using rough straw-rich manure (Lam et. al. 2021).
It includes beetles, flies thrive and dung that is beneficial for promoting the soil structure, crop growth and soil biodiversity as well. In this way, consumer goods sector can focus on adopting sustainable practices in their agricultural and farming activities to reduce environmental impacts.
Furthermore, the impact of sustainable opportunities in the supply chain is beneficial to reduce an organisation’s carbon and environmental footprint. For implementing a sustainable supply chain, any organisation must identify goals and objectives so they can observe the impact of their business operations on the environment (Khan et. al. 2021). After observing the impact, the organisation must research strategies and practices that can help them in reduce this impact.
The consumer goods sector should focus on implementing sustainable practices in the supply chain and it is must to develop a sustainable policy that makes it mandatory for every stakeholder to follow sustainable business practices (Batista et. al. 2018). Half of the success of implementing a sustainable supply chain can be achieved if the policies implemented are effective.
Other than that, the industry must look at their entire supply chain to observe the room for bringing sustainable improvement. Develop an action plan for taking adequate actions so the probability of achieving success can be enhanced.
Country case
The UK is constantly focusing on implementing best practices that can help companies in adopting a sustainable supply chain to lessen the impact on the environment. It can be said that supply chain collaboration can bring solutions for diverse emerging business challenges in business nowadays. The government of the UK is also strengthening and building supply chains a priority in industrial strategy.
They are also offering support to companies for adopting diverse initiatives (Rose et. al. 2019). They have developed a funding competition known as the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI) that is developed to optimise the competitiveness among the UK manufacturing supply chains. Around £245m of public funds have been pledged that were used for R&D, capital investment for improving the UK supply chains, and skills training.
As per Pretty et. al. (2018) the government is also taking the initiative to support the suppliers so they can adopt sustainable supply chain practices. They are organising training and development programs for the suppliers so they can gain knowledge and learn about several initiatives that can help in supporting them.
Further, investment programs helped meet their investment requirements to some extent. During this, suppliers have been trained about the way to optimise routes for decreasing fossil fuel consumption. It would be beneficial in reducing harmful emissions along with decreasing the utilisation of fossil fuels.
Other than that, the government has also taken initiative for delivering a fairer and better farming system in England. It helps in supporting farmers so they can bring changes in land and farming management. The roadmap developed by the government will take around 7 years to come into action that can help farmers in planning and adapting for the future.
The changes designed are aiming at ensuring that by 2028 farmers can sustainably produce healthy food that will lessen environmental impact, enhance animal health, and helps in reducing carbon emission.
The plan for sustainable farming includes changes like an introduction to environmental land management schemes for sustainable farming practices, establishing new woodland, handling climate change, and creating habitats. It will also help in optimising animal health and welfare that primarily focus on eradicating endemic diseases among pigs, sheep, and cattle.
A basic payment scheme will be announced to reduce direct payments and the money released will be used for rewarding environmental footprints and enhancing productivity. The launch of a farming investment fund will take place that will help in supporting productivity and innovation.
Farmers would be able to utilise public money for making their business more sustainable and productive (Bateman and Balmford, 2018). Hence, the UK is supporting the farmers in adopting sustainable farming practices so they can source sustainable raw materials that had less impact on the environment.
Therefore, the constant initiatives taken by the government for encouraging and influencing suppliers and farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices encourages the choosing of this country. Further, the country has economically stable environment allowing consumer goods sector to make investments in their sourcing strategy so they can achieve sustainability in supply chain.
Industry Case
As the environmental concern is rising continuously there is an essential need to adopt practices that can help in coping with changing demands. Consumer purchasing behaviour is getting influenced as well; as the concern of sustainable business practices among retailers and companies is increasing (Islam et. al. 2021).
Several companies are also communicating about their sustainable business practices to consumers which are pressurising other companies to adopt sustainable business practices. The supply chain involves several procedures and every step impacts the environment to a great extent. Before adopting sustainability in business, it is must that organisations focus on adopting sustainability in their supply chain from their products is coming.
Initially, they have to reduce environmental impacts from farming and sourcing as it is the place from where the supply chain of any organisation starts.
Consumer goods industries are focusing on adopting regenerative programs that can support their farming and agricultural practices sustainably. Similarly, many other retailers like Tesco, Sainsbury, and others are also adopting sustainable business practices to reduce their environmental footprint (Kuitiet. al. 2019).
For instance, consumers’ preferences are changing and they are focusing on buying sustainable products that have less impact on the environment. Companies operating in this sector constantly focus on developing sustainable products to meet the consumer changing requirements.
Other than that, they are also adopting renewable energies like solar panels and others so they can reduce their electricity consumption and its negative impacts.
The sourcing and transporting of finished products to end consumers’ huge amounts of fossil fuels and the development of renewable and e-vehicles can help in reducing this impact as well. For this purpose, the retailers like Tesco are using e-vehicles to deliver products and services to end customer is they are asking for online delivery (Bowen, 2019).
It can help them in addressing the concern of increased usage of fossil fuels and their negative impact on the environment. Therefore, every company in the industry is concerned about constantly changing market dynamics and they are doing their best to address these issues.
Furthermore, the warehousing of products is also responsible for generating huge food waste among dump yards that is also accountable for harmful gas emissions. Many products are biodegradable but when these products break into smaller pieces they release harmful gas. Companies must address this issue as there is no particular development to address this issue.
Conclusion
It has been concluded from the entire analysis that there is an essential requirement of adopting sustainable opportunities in the global supply chain as the environmental concerns are increasing that are accountable for affecting human health, climate change emergency, and many more. The case of consumer goods industry from the UK has been chosen along with describing their practices to adopt sustainability.
The sector is adopting sustainable and regenerative farming practices to capture carbon, restore and regenerate land and nourish the soil. Many companies in this sector are also developing policies so every supplier working with them can follow sustainable business practices.
Other than that, the government of the UK also supports suppliers and farmers to adopt sustainable farming that can benefit the environment. Lastly, every company in this industry sector is also adopting various practices so they can respond to dynamic market changes.
It has been recommended that it is must address the issue of rising food waste while warehousing. For this purpose, the company has to research the soil degradation capability so in case they have to throw expired products they can throw it measuring the capability of the soil to degrade.
It will help them in reducing their environmental impact along with eliminating the impact of waste on soil fertility (Kuzyakov and Zamanian, 2019). Another way for addressing this is to order products that are demanded in the market instead of ordering excess products. The company can also donate their food products to charity if their expiry date is close and the likelihood of their sale is low.
References
Books and Journals
Bateman, I.J. and Balmford, B., (2018). Public funding for public goods: A post-Brexit perspective on principles for agricultural policy. Land use policy, 79, pp.293-300.
Batista, L., Bourlakis, M., Liu, Y., Smart, P. and Sohal, A., (2018). Supply chain operations for a circular economy. Production Planning & Control, 29(6), pp.419-424.
Bowen, Y., (2019). Research on Supply Chain Marketing Management under Enterprise Carbon Emission Reduction Strategy.
Canter, L.W., (2018). Environmental impact of agricultural production activities. CRC Press.
Carter, C.R., Hatton, M.R., Wu, C. and Chen, X., (2019). Sustainable supply chain management: continuing evolution and future directions. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management.
Farooque, M., Zhang, A., Thürer, M., Qu, T. and Huisingh, D., (2019). Circular supply chain management: A definition and structured literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 228, pp.882-900.
Islam, M.S., Moeinzadeh, S., Tseng, M.L. and Tan, K., (2021). A literature review on environmental concerns in logistics: trends and future challenges. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 24(2), pp.126-151.
Khan, S.A.R., Yu, Z., Golpira, H., Sharif, A. and Mardani, A., (2021). A state-of-the-art review and meta-analysis on sustainable supply chain management: Future research directions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 278, p.123357.
Kuiti, M.R., Ghosh, D., Gouda, S., Swami, S. and Shankar, R., (2019).Integrated product design, shelf-space allocation and transportation decisions in green supply chains. International Journal of Production Research, 57(19), pp.6181-6201.
Kusi-Sarpong, S., Gupta, H. and Sarkis, J., (2019).A supply chain sustainability innovation framework and evaluation methodology. International Journal of Production Research, 57(7), pp.1990-2008.
Kuzyakov, Y. and Zamanian, K., (2019). Reviews and syntheses: Agropedogenesis–humankind as the sixth soil-forming factor and attractors of agricultural soil degradation. Biogeosciences, 16(24), pp.4783-4803.
Lam, W.Y., Sim, S., Kulak, M., van Zelm, R., Schipper, A.M. and Huijbregts, M.A., (2021). Drivers of variability in greenhouse gas footprints of crop production. Journal of Cleaner Production, 315, p.128121.
Panigrahi, S.S., Bahinipati, B. and Jain, V., (2018). Sustainable supply chain management: A review of literature and implications for future research. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal.
Pretty, J., Benton, T.G., Bharucha, Z.P., Dicks, L.V., Flora, C.B., Godfray, H.C.J., Goulson, D., Hartley, S., Lampkin, N., Morris, C. and Pierzynski, G., (2018). Global assessment of agricultural system redesign for sustainable intensification. Nature Sustainability, 1(8), pp.441-446.
Rose, D.C., Sutherland, W.J., Barnes, A.P., Borthwick, F., Ffoulkes, C., Hall, C., Moorby, J.M., Nicholas-Davies, P., Twining, S. and Dicks, L.V., (2019). Integrated farm management for sustainable agriculture: Lessons for knowledge exchange and policy. Land Use Policy, 81, pp.834-842.
Saeed, M.A. and Kersten, W., (2019). Drivers of sustainable supply chain management: identification and classification. Sustainability, 11(4), p.1137.
Sodhi, M.S. and Tang, C.S., (2019). Research opportunities in supply chain transparency. Production and Operations Management, 28(12), pp.2946-2959.
Know more about UniqueSubmission’s other writing services:
