SUSTAINABILITY
trust , about fundamentally helping your customers , trading partners , employees and investors to feel like they ' re making a difference when they choose your brand – when they interact with you at every transactional point , every touchpoint across your global network and supply chain .”
Hinish stated that technology has a huge role to play in helping businesses make progress on sustainability , but she struck a note of warning : “ The adoption and scaling of technology can operationalise ESG and sustainability , but what comes after that ?”
This was followed by Hinish pointing out that too many businesses think they can “ buy a suite of solutions , turn the light on and be transformed ". That , she emphasised , is “ not the journey we ' re on ”. Instead , she says businesses need to be looking at how they are innovating .
“ Innovating is what I help people do ,” she said . “ Often , it starts with product innovation ; with design and deploying upstream thinking . Up to 85 % of today ’ s negative ESG impacts are designed into products and services . It ’ s about engaging the ecosystem – manufacturing , supply chain , customers . The transformation trailblazers have this figured out .”
But too many organisations have not figured it out because , according to Hinish , “ they believe it ’ s all about acting , when the truth is that it ’ s really all about thinking ”.
Sustainable supply chains ‘ requires change of thinking ’ – IBM “ For example , what is their thinking around designing for a circular economy ? What is their thinking around addressing the ESG-related risks that make our jobs really tough ? How are they taking their people with them ? Are they giving people what they need to make the right decisions , to design a better world ?”
Hinish added : “ That ' s what we ' re after . It ’ s all about helping human beings become better versions of themselves . It ’ s about empowering people so that their personal values and personal responsibility shows up in their work .”
‘ Thinking ’ may well be more fundamental than ‘ acting ’ in the quest for supply chain sustainability , but a big problem is that too many organisations appear to be doing neither . Hinish calls these the “ stragglers and sideliners ”.
Such businesses have made no sustainability investments to date . “ Inaction is a decision , right ?” Hinish highlighted . “ It ’ s disappointing , but listen , I spend a lot of time with these folks . These are good people , just like you and me . They want to make a
94 September 2022