Monday, March 01, 2010
Sustainable Sourcing: One Half of a Really Good Idea
I’d say there’s little doubt that environmental stewardship is climbing the ladder of corporate priorities. Within the Telecom industry, there’s much conversation taking place around reducing the energy consumption of network devices, driven by 15 founding members of the powerful Green Touch consortium, and supported in the messaging of prominent equipment manufacturers at last month’s Mobile World Congress.
At one of the conference sessions there, ‘Moving Toward a Sustainable Green Future,’ a global carrier outlined its own corporate responsibility strategy. One of the aspects of their approach was the innovative concept of ‘Sustainable Sourcing.’ In addition to traditional factors such as price and capabilities, this company has begun to incorporate sustainability into its equipment purchasing decision-making processes. I suspect that as time goes on, we’re going to see more and more of this, with companies placing greater emphasis on the ‘greenness’ of products and services.
As positive as greener sourcing is though, it’s really only half of the equation. No matter how energy efficient a piece of Telecom equipment is when it’s manufactured, at some point in time it will be decommissioned and a lack of visibility will make it susceptible to a reverse logistics process that could have it abandoned in a warehouse consuming energy, carted from one location to another without a plan, or worse – sent to a landfill.
As we continue to explore new ways to make the Telecom industry more eco-friendly, we need to recognize that aftermarket service and supply chains, if not managed properly, can undo a lot of the good work being done on the front-end of the development and manufacturing process. A well thought-out reuse strategy provides the level of visibility into internal stocks and the global market that can help ensure those green assets are put to their highest potential throughout their useful life, and when necessary, disposed of in an environmentally-friendly manner and in full compliance with WEEE.
