Supply Chain Environmental Sustainability

‘Sustainability’ is not an easy topic to discuss when most companies have a ‘profit first’ or ‘profit only’ mentality. Professor Yossi Sheffi of MIT, Director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, highlighting issues that company executives face regarding sustainability practices. 

Warren Buffett said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” It has been more than two decades now since a 1996 issue of Life magazine depicted a Pakistani boy sewing a Nike soccer ball, reportedly for six cents per hour. After the story, the company lost more than half its market capitalisation in just one year – it took Nike six years of demonstrated social responsibility to recuperate.

Eliminating straws from restaurants and coffee shops may provide a positive environmental message, Mr. Sheffi writes, sends a “feel good” message to consumers while sidestepping bigger actions that would have a more significant environmental impact.

Levi Strauss & Co. is launching an effort to slash the environmental impact of the factories world-wide that make its apparel and accessories. Levi’s will start its effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions through energy-efficiency programs at factories run by vendors in the first tier of its supply chain. 

Professor Yossi Sheffi talks to The Wall Street Journal about Levi's new plan for their global supply chain emissions. 

For a long time now, corporations and their supply chains have been required to prove that they are acting in a sustainable, environmentally-friendly way. 

(Also published in Materials Handling & Logistics)

For a long time now, corporations and their supply chains have been required to prove that they are acting in a sustainable, environmentally-friendly way. 

Professor Yossi Sheffi weighs in on sustainability. 

It can be hard to find a nuanced discussion of corporate sustainability. But Yossi Sheffi's new book aims to provide just that, offering a clear-eyed take on the challenges and benefits of going green. {Also published in the DC Velocity}

This article was written by Professor Yossi Sheffi and originally was published as a LinkedIn blogpost.