Organic September is upon us! Instead of fretting about how quickly the year has sped by, we can use September to celebrate all things organic, in a nation-wide campaign hosted by the Soil Association, a trusted body of organic certification.
If your role involves supplier, or vendor, management then you’ll only be too aware of the importance of sustainable and ethical supply chains. The sheer amount of work and people involved in getting the products you need can result in an alarming amount of environmental damage.
Ensuring that your suppliers are sustainable and ethical, means ensuring that impact on the environment, and negative human condition is effectively minimised, or even eliminated.
Agriculture and farming, when not carried out in an environmental responsible manner, is a big offender due to:
- Damaging pesticides
- Water waste
- Soil degradation
- Antibiotic usage
However, by working with suppliers who are certified by organisations, such as the Soil Association, you can have much more confidence that your supply base is sustainable and ethical, and for this, there are four good reasons.
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You can have assurance in your supplier’s environmental values
Environmental accreditations from a trusted provider demonstrate that a supplier is committed to their own green values, therefore, you are less likely to end up working with a company that frequently commits acts of greenwashing. For example, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a voluntary scheme, but organisations must undergo a deep verification process to demonstrate compliance with RSPO standards, demonstrating a commitment to sourcing palm oil sustainably.
The most reputable standards certify to a high degree. For example, certification from the soil association means that your supply chain operates with principles stricter than the EU organic standard regulations, which set out the requirements to become a more sustainable agricultural business. For example, a business must have eliminated antibiotics from their supply chain to be certified with the soil association, whereas the criteria to be an organic farmer allows the use of antibiotics as a last resort.
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You can have confidence that your vendor’s supply chain is sustainable and ethical
Supply chain scrutiny is only increasing, and this is not going away, but developing visibility across the entirety of your supply chain is an incredibly daunting task. It’s common for companies with large supply chains to have little visibility beyond their suppliers, which means they don’t have enough oversight to see where exactly where raw materials come from. Suppliers who are certified have had their supply chain independently audited to confirm that their supplier has sourced in an ethical manner, bringing us to the next point…
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You can be reassured that due diligence has been completed
If a supplier has a certification, then it often means that an independent third-party auditor has deemed the organisation’s practises within the parameters of the certification. Therefore, you might not have direct visibility of your supplier’s vendors, but you can have confidence that they are operating in an ethical and sustainable manner.
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Have confidence in your supplier certification with ARCUS® Supplier Management Software
Using our native API, ARCUS® Connect, our software integrates with certification databases, such as the Soil Association, RSPO, and Ecovadis, to bring across supplier certificate details into the system directly.
A live link is established between ARCUS® and the database, ensuring that the information is regularly updated without any manual intervention. If a supplier certificate expires, it’s easy to identify. Process automation enables business practices to be digitised, including auto-escalation if a certificate uploaded by a supplier is nearing its expiration date or has expired
ARCUS® Supplier Management Software offers a range of modules across the source-to-contract process that can be used standalone or in any order. By embedding environmental, social and governance due diligence into the source-to-contract process, users have confidence and oversight across their supplier’s ESG activities.
If you’d like to know more about how we can help you, book a free consultation today.