Supplier survey anchors multi-pronged engagement program

Companies, especially small ones that do not manufacture their own products, face a challenge in conveying their sustainability expectations to their suppliers and tracking their progress.

How Does the Tail Wag the Dog?

As a leading maker of green cleaning and personal care products, Seventh Generation confronts an ongoing need to find suppliers that meet its qualtiy and sustainability standards, to push for and track improvements, and to foster deep innovation. Further, to determine its own product footprint, the company needs environmental data from its suppliers — data that may be difficult for suppliers that process products for many companies on the same machinery — to provide.

Seventh Generation has taken a leading, multi-faceted approach to supply chain sustainability with Pure Strategies as a key partner providing tools and strategies. The centerpiece of the supplier engagement initiatives is a supplier assessment tool, launched in 2006 and epanded in 2010.

A System for Comprehensive Management

Dubbed the Manufacturing Partners Annual Report (MPAR), it is a comprehensive tool that allows Seventh Generation to grade its suppliers on commitments and progress in energy, carbon, water, waste, natural resources, sustainability targets, people, community, and public disclosure. While energy and waste are often the best places to start a dialogue with suppliers - as efforts in these areas tend to have the shortest return on investment - Seventh Generation has been able to broaden the dialogue and engage across the sustainability spectrum. The tool allows the company to mentor suppliers lagging in specific areas, track improvements and reward achievements.

The company also has hosted an in-depth supplier summit where suppliers shared sustainability best practices and learned about Seventh Generation’s own commitments. The company’s engagement efforts have been successful because they take the time to explain why they have developed their supplier evaluation program and what their expectations are. Also critical is the fact that the sustainability evaluation is integrated into the larger vendor assessment program and is not viewed as an add-on.

The Client's POV

“Pure Strategies helped us build a comprehensive supplier assessment program that addresses all of the most important sustainability questions that third parties want to know about our products, and then created a simple tool that allows our suppliers to easily supply us with the information we need, often in a form they've already used to report it someplace else,” said Dave Rapaport, Sr., the Former Director of Corporate Consciousness at Seventh Generation.