A sustainability value system principle for a global supply chain

Sustainability is becoming a key strategic and business issue for companies. The growing social pressure, new environmental legislation, and increasing customer demand for green products is forcing companies to address all sustainability challenges related to increased operational profit, the environment, social impacts, and legislation in a holistic and proactive way. Companies are looking for solutions on how to minimise environmental impacts and risks caused by the global supply chain from farm to consumer while improving supply chain value and performance. Sustainability is being perceived as a cost instead of adding value to the company. Addressing all sustainability challenges requires an integrated systematic approach beyond and above the current disparity of silo systems in the supply chain. This paper proposes an integrated Sustainability Value System that enables companies to transform the value chain of green initiatives from strictly a compliance and cost issue into means of generating value, growth and competitive advantage.