Which sustainable criteria are the most influenced regarding supplier selection?
- sustainable supplier selection
- supply chain management
I'd say that depends strongly on the industry sector a buyer is in, as well as on the corporate sustainability strategy of that company.
1. different types of products have different 'hotspots' with regard to environmental sustainability. (e.g. energy use, conflict materials, potentially toxic materials, etc). if you have identified a business sector, see if you can find a meta-LCA that identifies hotspots for that type of product.
2. different kind of industries are experiences different kinds of 'heat' in media and on social media. e.g. worker conditions in textile factories in Bangladesh, after tragic accident a couple of years ago.
3. different corporate strategies (are they aiming for fair / circular / organic / cradle to cradle) will lead to different priorities.
So perhaps the more interesting question for you to ask would be how do companies determine their priorities with regard to sustainability in their supplier selection?
I suggest to rank all the significant attributes of suppliers in the selection process, then create the ranked lists by industries. You need to see the big picture before compare two attributes. The economic and sustainability aspects are overlaps in the supplier selection process, especially in the area of risk mitigation.
The ranked list of considerable factors could be a useful tool for supply chain managers. For instance (a non-comprehensive theoretical list):
- the ability of the supplier to fulfill the order,
- costs,
- quality and value for money,
- reliability,
- match with the value chain sustainability standards (above the expected minimum or added value for our clients by higher standards than the minimum expected). This attribute alone is enough to close out suppliers from the selection, but not enough to decide among them. Also, in the case a higher sustainability standard applied by the supplier, you need to consider how this effect the entire value chain (upstream and downstream as well). Sometimes your profit can increase by the higher sustainability standards of the supplier (if it affects the entire chain), sometimes it is neutral, sometimes it is a trade-off between sustainability and profit.
- felxibility, etc.
From sustaiability perspective, it is usually the criteria of value for money, reliability, maybe location anđ suplluers' busoness policies regarding packaging, reverse logistics..
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