Sustainable Supply Chain Summit Europe 2024

The history, story, purpose, and future of Tony’s Open Chain and what makes it unique.How important collaboration is in making supply chain sustainability work at scale.How climate change has created an unprecedented time in the cocoa industry – and what we can learn from this.

The topics of supply chain and sustainability are inextricably interlinked, and this phenomenon is increasing due to many consumer, commercial and regulatory drivers.  Building resiliency throughout and within the entire supply chain is essential for businesses to succeed in this era, brands and retailers must take the responsibility to know exactly where their products come from, or risk losing customers and fail to comply with regulatory landscapes.  Origin verification is at the forefront of addressing the challenges surrounding supply chain transparency, traceability and sustainability and provides all parties with the confidence of true resilience.  

Managing increased complexity in supply chain operations given the impact of varied SBTi targets and uncertainties about sustainability regulations (CSDDD, CSRD, German Supply Chain Act, EUDR etc.).Understanding the opportunities to use supplier data to showcase sustainability achievements, adhere to regulations and meet targets.Anticipating the overarching geopolitics and customer requests that may disrupt supply chain bases and sustainability policies.

Digital Product passports will play a pivotal role in transforming today’s linear economy into sustainable, circular supply chains. The Global Battery Alliance (GBA) facilitates the development of the battery passport logic, likely influencing other sectors. Despite complexities and implementation costs, battery eco-system stakeholders will gain value through increased revenue, reduced costs, and new business models based on future transparency provided by digital product passports.

How sustainability can be successfully embedded into various operations, including category management, and direct and indirect sourcing and procurement.Developing thorough purchasing strategies by balancing sustainability requirements with price, quality, delivery and innovation concerns.What best practice looks like for collaboration between various internal functions in ensuring supply chain sustainability and developing a 'Sustainable Supply Chain' job function. Strategies for sourcing and procuring 'green' products.

Spending on digital solutions for supply chain compliance and sustainability performance improvement is growing at more than 20%. Companies can select digital solutions from a wide range of vendors – but which ones are the right fit for your company in terms of your business requirements, your 2025 priorities, the maturity of the tech and the availability of implementation support? In this session, three Verdantix analysts will present detailed insights of solution benchmarks for supply chain sustainability, Scope 3 emissions and product compliance.

Deciding on which parts of the supply chain to prioritize mapping out – Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier, 3 etc.How to efficiently identify sustainability risks for opaque, vast and complex supply chains.Setting up systems cost-effectively to ensure visibility, transparency and traceability for internal, upstream, downstream and end-to-end supply chains.Dealing with supply chain partners' resistance to disclose and share information and data.

Overcoming complexities and differences in GHG accounting methodologies to set baselines to address carbon emissions in the supply chain.Using the best approaches and technologies for collecting Scope 3 data.Methods and guidance for 'carbon insetting' - a strategy used by organizations to reduce their emissions and carbon footprint within their supply chain - such as through nature-based solutions, reforestation, renewable energy usage, regenerative agriculture.Considering what makes a fair price to carbon in the supply chain and the implications of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on this.Identifying emission hotspots and eliminating any unnecessary carbon emissions in the supply chain.

Many technology platforms offer systems that allow for the identification and remediation of difficult risks.

This creates a false narrative – of the sufficiency of a system alone to treat issues as complicated as modern slavery or climate change and can obfuscate questions of the adequacy of the underlying system's data.

We will look at multiple approaches to supply chain risk assessments – now a requirement of many European due diligence requirements – to offer a perspective on which tools are fit-for-purpose for treating critical risks. 

The different approaches to convince suppliers - no matter their size or maturity - to create meaningful targets, act on them with urgency and address sustainability concerns.How organizations of varying degrees of purchasing power can influence, engage and encourage supply chain collaboration to meet sustainability objectives.Determining whether customers’ sustainability requests can be better fulfilled by internal activities or encouraging action further up the value chain.Designing and enforcing a 'code of conduct' to ensure that suppliers meet sustainability targets.Limiting risks by involving customers, NGOs, policymakers and industry associations when deciding on supply chain sustainability strategies.

Each sector has unique challenges when it comes to their supply chains.

In these discussion groups meet with practitioners, vendors, consultancies and Verdantix analysts to discuss how sustainable supply chain drivers, priorities and technology choices vary throughout different sectors. Some suggested points to discuss for each sector:

What are the largest sustainability and climate risks in supply chains?What sustainability legislation is greatly impacting supply chains?What job functions are responsible for sustainable supply chains?What does "best practice" for improving sustainability metrics in supply chains look like?Which technologies could assist with improving supply chain sustainability?

Each discussion group will involve around 10 to 15 people and will be hosted by a Verdantix analyst and/or a practitioner and/or a service provider. The hosts’ responsibilities will be to kickstart a discussion on the topic and involve the group participants in the discussion. There may be an opportunity for the host to feedback to the wider audience on what their group discussed if time permits and they are willing to do so.

In today’s complex supply chains, manually tracking transport emissions from hundreds of suppliers is inefficient and unsustainable. Discover how automation can streamline emissions reporting, improve data accuracy, scale your business, and save time and costs.

Join us to learn how to automate your supplier data collection and emissions reporting—managing all your supplier transport emissions in one place.

Understanding the implications of Human Rights & Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) regulations that are ubiquitous for multinationals.How companies can reduce inefficiencies in striving to adhere with HREDD regulations.The tools, methods and initiatives that Nestlé, Reckitt and other FMGC companies are pioneering to address HREDD - and what can be learned from this.

Establishing what financial value can be captured through circular approaches to end-to-end supply chain management.How sustainability targets - such as those on waste - can be addressed through circular value chains.The processes, technologies, financing and collaboration needed to transform linear value chains to circular chains. Identifying which products can benefit from circular economy principles. 

How to measure and compare suppliers on environmental, social and governance (ESG) and sustainability criteria.Best practice for conducting a supplier audit and designing questionnaires to assess sustainability and social metrics.Understanding the various sustainability certifications in terms of what they mean and how they compare.