In supply chain management, environmental sustainability is no longer just a nice expression of awareness of environmental and social issues, but has become an essential value for success. Sustainable production and distribution processes are recognized by stakeholders not only for their ethical and productive considerations but also for the benefits they bring to economic-financial profitability, brand image, corporate wellbeing, and regulatory compliance.
More and more companies have started to draft sustainability reports or ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) reports: some due to legal requirements, others because they have chosen to communicate all the commitments they have made in the field of Corporate Responsibility, as well as the goals they have already achieved.
To reduce the environmental impact of the manufacturing sector, many companies are adopting innovative technologies, strategies, and choices to improve energy efficiency, reduce emissions, and minimize waste.
Where to Invest to Make Supply Chains More Sustainable?
1. Technology
- Implementing energy management systems to monitor and optimize energy consumption in production plants, warehouses, equipment, and transportation.
- Adopting low-consumption motors, machinery, and equipment powered by clean energy and high efficiency.
- Developing digital models of production plants to simulate and optimize processes without physical modifications, reducing resource waste.
- Choosing technologies to calculate the carbon footprint and reduce emissions from production, logistics, and transportation facilities.
- Installing carbon capture and storage systems (CCS) to absorb carbon emissions directly from industrial plants.
- Activating advanced filters and scrubber systems to reduce particulate matter and harmful gas emissions.
- Digitizing paper documents and using Blockchain for Sustainable Traceability, monitoring and certifying the sustainable origin of raw materials and production processes.
2. Strategy
Sustainability is also achieved through the transition of business models, such as the shift from linear economy models to circular economy models. Reducing resources used, reusing products or materials, recovering components, and recycling resources are becoming increasingly important.
In a survey conducted by the Politecnico di Milano’s Contract Logistics Observatory, it emerged that 75% of companies are pursuing various strategies in developing circular economy initiatives. Resources can come from beyond company boundaries, from closely connected companies or other supply chains. Adopting a circular economy strategy is forward-thinking as it mitigates financial risks associated with raw material price volatility, scarcity of certain resources, and regulatory uncertainty, giving companies that embrace this choice a better competitive advantage to deal with fluctuations in production cost markets.
This context also includes the management of water resources, particularly the recycling and reuse of wastewater to reduce the consumption of drinking water in production processes and improve the quality of wastewater released into the environment.
3. Innovation
Another key lever is the search for innovative and sustainable materials for both production and packaging, such as bioplastics and biodegradable materials that reduce the use of petroleum-derived materials. Experimenting with lightweight alloys and advanced composites to reduce the weight of products brings benefits in the transportation and usage phases.
Innovation also comes from the use of renewable energy sources, obtained through photovoltaic and solar thermal plants, wind energy, biomass, and cogeneration and trigeneration systems to simultaneously produce electricity, heat, and, if necessary, cold, improving overall energy efficiency.
What Benefits Do Sustainability Investments Bring?
- Recovery of Margins and Efficiency: Adopting technologies that reduce consumption allows companies to recover efficiency margins and reduce costs.
- Continuous Improvement: The need to address environmental challenges pushes the manufacturing sector to evolve continuously.
- Diversification: Finding new solutions and strategies to become more sustainable leads companies to experiment with new industrial processes, becoming flexible and ready for sudden market changes.
- Competitive Advantage: Sustainability is a factor that can make companies sector leaders and enable them to obtain preferential treatment from regulators, customers, and investors.
Regardless of global political and economic contexts, choosing to improve efficiency while reducing the environmental impact of the supply chain is a win-win decision for all actors in the supply chain.
Zucchetti, through its Digital Supply Chain offering, provides the best technologies and cutting-edge know-how, the result of continuous investments in research and development, ensuring tangible benefits for companies that choose to opt for an intelligent and profitable ecological transition.
