The end of last month saw the Corporate Sustainability Mastermind Group meet at the sumptuous Acklam Hall in Middlesbrough to discuss supply chain issues. Here’s a baker’s dozen of the many nuggets which emerged from the meeting for your delectation:

• Many organisations have no idea about what’s in their supply chain which is an enormous risk as problems bubble upwards;
• Poor supplier performance on Sustainability is often indicative of wider incompetence;
• Need to keep an open mind regarding risks, eg slavery occurs in the UK as well as developing countries.
• Write contract conditions to pass sustainability risks to the suppliers who represent those risks eg traceability;
• Innovation should always be put into contract extension commitments to drive continual improvement;
• Can be a tension between need to collaborate and get tough on suppliers – need to present carrots and sticks;
• Get suppliers to solve your problems, rather than you trying to solve theirs;
• Run award schemes for ‘supplier with best sustainability performance’ eg Johnson & Johnson;
• Internally, need to align responsibility with authority so the actual decision maker is held accountable for the Sustainability implications of their decisions;
• Consider using emotive words such as ‘Risks’ rather than ‘Sustainability’ on meeting agendas;
• External speakers can sometimes bring gravitas that internal practitioners can’t;
• Recruit people who have ‘been there, done that’;
• Make suppliers compete on sustainability by having ‘open’ scoring system in addition to proscribed/box-ticking requirements.

The Mastermind Group meets quarterly in the North of England to discuss Sustainability issues under the Chatham House Rule. We are currently working on kicking off a South East branch with the first meeting pencilled in for 10 November. Contact me (gareth@terrainfirma.co.uk) for more details on either Group.