New Guide Targets Traceability to Advance Sustainability in Global Supply Chains

New York, April 9, 2014 /3BL Media/ – The United Nations Global Compact and BSR today released a first-of-its-kind guide on traceability to help companies and stakeholders worldwide address the evolving landscape of supply chain sustainability and meet their broader sustainability goals.

A Guide to Traceability: A Practical Approach to Advance Sustainability in Global Supply Chains provides an overview of the importance of traceability for corporate sustainability objectives, outlines the global opportunities and challenges it represents, and summarizes practical steps for implementing traceability programmes within companies.

Supply chain traceability – the process of identifying and tracking a product or material’s path from raw material to finished good – has become a key topic for companies around the globe in response to increasing regulatory pressure and consumer demand for responsibly-sourced and produced goods and services. Food safety related issues, conflict minerals and deforestation have highlighted the need for traceability and increased demand for organic, fair trade and environmentally and socially-friendly products and materials.

Research indicates that traceability is a tremendously impactful tool for advancing sustainability objectives, but it has a long way to go to be considered an integral part of sustainable supply chain management. Currently, only a small percentage of commodities are traceable on sustainability attributes.

“With corporate supply chains growing in scale and complexity globally in recent decades, it is critical for companies to think beyond short-term financial considerations and build capacities to deliver long-term value along the entire supply chain,” said Ursula Wynhoven, the UN Global Compact’s General Counsel and Chief of Governance and Social Sustainability. “Traceability systems offer an unprecedented opportunity for companies to improve transparency throughout the supply chain and fulfil their wider sustainability promises.”

The Guide offers recommendations to companies ranging from multinationals to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on how they can consider and implement traceability, while highlighting the importance of collaboration with stakeholders around a common purpose. Examples include gaining a full understanding of all relevant sustainability issues for commodities; developing the business case for traceability once it is identified as the best way to mitigate those risks; and participating in existing traceability schemes or reaching out to peers, stakeholders and the UN Global Compact to start one where it does not yet exist. 

Building on the landscape of existing traceability schemes, the Guide provides guidance about

and points to areas of collaboration and alignment for 10 commodities that are widely associated with traceability for sustainability purposes – beef, biofuel, cocoa, cotton, fish, leather, minerals/diamonds, palm oil, sugar and timber – while noting that many other commodities could benefit from a traceability approach. 

“In writing this guide, we aim to de-mystify traceability, to show companies clearly what it is all about, who the key players are, and how they can approach it” says Tara Norton, Director, Advisory Services at BSR. “Customers want to know that the sustainability claim they see on a product is true. When done correctly, traceability is a powerful tool to provide re-assurance to customers that companies mean what they say.”

Development of the Guide was informed by a year-long consultative process and interviews with companies, traceability schemes and civil society representatives; a survey of UN Global Compact Supply Chain Sustainability Advisory Group members; and an in-depth analysis of existing literature, case studies and traceability information.

• Download A Guide to Traceability: A Practical Approach to Advance Sustainability in Global Supply Chains
• View Frequently Asked Questions about A Guide to Traceability

NOTE TO EDITORS:

The Guide defines traceability using the widely accepted definition of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), with the added key component of a sustainability focus:

The ability to identify and trace the history, distribution, location and application of products, parts and materials, to ensure the reliability of sustainability claims, in the areas of human rights, labour (including health and safety), the environment and anti-corruption.

About the UN Global Compact

Launched in 2000, the United Nations Global Compact is both a policy platform and a practical framework for companies that are committed to sustainability and responsible business practices. As a multi-stakeholder leadership initiative, it seeks to align business operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption and to catalyze actions in support of broader UN goals. With more than 8,000 corporate participants in 145 countries, it is the world’s largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative. www.unglobalcompact.org

About BSR

BSR works with its global network of more than 250 member companies to build a just and sustainable world. From its offices in Asia, Europe, and North and South America, BSR develops sustainable business strategies and solutions through consulting, research, and cross-sector collaboration. Visit www.bsr.org for more information about BSR’s more than 20 years of leadership in sustainability.

ANNEX  OF AVAILABLE QUOTES

"Strong traceability practices are vital for companies that want to build conflict-free products, which require the ability to trace the metals in products all the way back to the mine. Only by tracing the origin of these materials in their supply chains can companies work to build conflict-free products, which are a hallmark of leading sustainable businesses today.”

Michael Rohwer, Program Director, Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative, an initiative of the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC ) and Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI)

“In order to bring sustainable practices to scale, sectors need a credible third party system to administer sustainable product flows.”

Han de Groot, Executive Director, UTZ Certified

“Being a sustainable company is not enough, we need a sustainable value chain. We very much support the UN Global Compact’s efforts to drive attention and deepen the knowledge across supply chains.”

Mario Abreu, Environmental Performance Director, Tetra Pak International