Green Printer Blog

Image source: http://blog.americanfeast.com

Strategies: Manage your supply chain

Just tip #8 of 10 tips from the Greater Vancouver’s Regional District’s “Smart Steps Strategies“

Your supply chain is made up of the companies that help your business secure materials and distribute products to the right place at the desired time in the quantities needed. The supply chain thus offers a unique and relatively easy opportunity for your firm to influence suppliers to the benefit of the environment.

If you do just one thing…

Engage your suppliers to minimize the environmental impacts of the products they supply to you.

You can ask your suppliers to meet the same level of environmental responsibility, performance and efficiencies that you expect of your own company. Businesses that work cooperatively with their suppliers to coordinate shipments improve their performance (fewer product losses, less waste, better bottom line) while lowering their impact on the environment. Some of the tips you can use to improve management of your supply chain include:

1. practicing just-in-time inventory management. This reduces storage requirements, product losses and waste;
2. identifying environmental concerns with your own products or services;
3. reducing packaging and switching to reusable shipping materials;
4. lowering or eliminate your use of hazardous materials;
5. implement product take-back programs to recover valuable materials and wastes. One firm’s waste can become another’s raw material;
6. assessing suppliers’ environmental performance. Questionnaires and auditing can establish the facts. Recognize that suppliers may need your technical assistance and support as well as time to meet new environmental requirements;
7. collaborating on design-for-environment initiatives. Work with suppliers to reformulate key components or materials and to ensure products are designed for disassembly and remanufacture and;
8. adding environmental criteria in the specifications for products and services you buy.
   

Save trees, time and money the eco way with our recycled paper, sustainable printing methods and eco-calculator. Green Printer uses science-backed sources to calculate your organization’s environmental impact with each paper quote on the back of all your marketing materials – more details at greenprinteronline.com. Now, wasn’t that easy?