Major companies launch supply chain advice service

Major companies launch supply chain advice service

Two major multinational companies ‒ food processing giant Cargill and professional services network PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) ‒ have joined forces to advise other firms on improving their supply chains.

The Responsible Supply Chain advisory service intends to help companies to improve their margins, reduce risks and meet sustainability challenges and social and environmental targets. Cargill Inc, which provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services worldwide, has worked with PwC for some time to improve its own supply chain and to assess its social and environmental impact.

"It was a way to harmonise and standardise their approach to managing environmental/social risks in their supply chains and to be able to have a process where they could look their customer in the eye and say we've got this fantastic process in place where you can be assured that we've got your back and we're taking care of the environmental associate issues upstream in the supply chain," said PwC sustainable business solutions director Cope Willis.

The Responsible Supply Chain service will cover marketing, finance, purchasing, sustainability and operations, among other aspects of business. It will aim to help companies to cut costs, improve efficiency, spark innovation and encourage transparency.

"Our intention is to create an immediate IRR with limited capital, limited expense, and start changing behaviours," said Steve Polski, Cargill's senior director of sustainability. "We look at sustainability as behaviour, and our intention and motivation is to be the catalyst to help our customers adopt those new behaviours."