IBM's Supply Chain Gets A Little Greener
By Christopher P. Sciacca
Expert Author
Article Date: 2010-04-23
Timed perfectly with Earth Day, IBM's procurement arm has come out with a bold effort requiring its 30,000 suppliers in 60 countries to advance their sustainability efforts.
More specifically, IBM's suppliers are now required to:- define, deploy, and sustain a management system that addresses corporate responsibility, including supplier conduct and environmental protection;
- measure performance and establish voluntary, quantifiable environmental goals;
- publicly disclose results associated with these voluntary environmental goals and other environmental aspects of their management systems
While no deadline has been put in place, John Paterson, IBM's CPO hopes to have compliance by 2011. And when you have more than $30 billion in spend you have the weight to toss around to make it happen. I think John says it best in this quote in the NY Times, "Ultimately, if a supplier cannot be compliant with requirements on the environment and sustainability, we'll stop doing business with them," he said. Comments
About the Author:
Christopher P. Sciacca is located in Brno, Czech Republic where he is the
manager of strategic communications for Europe and Africa for IBM's global
delivery business. His responsibilities include helping global delivery
employees across Europe and Africa understand IBM's strategy and how they
contribute to it. He is also introducing the latest in Web 2.0
technologies including virtual worlds and social networks to employees to
help them make connections that count globally. He is also responsible for
external communications, where he works with members of the press,
academia, government officials and analysts to help them understand IBM's
strategy of becoming a globally integrated company.
He currently keeps an acclaimed and widely read blog called "Why supply chains rock?",
which takes a simple, yet entertaining look at the impact of supply chains
on daily life.
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