Green supply chain management: manufacturing a Canadian perspective

This page has been archived on the Web

Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please contact us to request a format other than those available.

Final Remarks

GSCM presents a valuable set of activities for Canadianmanufacturers. Companies that have adopted GSCM practices successfully have improved their business and environmental performance on many levels.

To benefit from productive GSCM practices, individual businesses should develop their own business cases. Canadian companies should not only make the business benefits of GSCM clear to their supply chain partners, shareholders, employees and senior management, but they should also make the environmental benefits of GSCM clear by developing metrics that are universally understood — for example, expressing carbon emission reductions as equivalent to "x" number of cars taken offthe road or "y" number of trees saved. Each business case should include recommendations and a roadmap for implementing the proposed GSCM action plan. The roadmap exercise consists of documenting the long–term vision and classifying its components into specific actionslinked to deliverables, performance indicators, objectives, return on investment, and the project time frame.

For some businesses, an initial roadmap action item could be to internally evaluate distribution activities andpotential environmental improvements by participating in associations and networks. For others, the first stepmight be to implement a pilot project with a customer and a supplier, such as implementing a green energyand carbon emission reduction mandate, a recycling process or a GSCM scorecard system. In all cases, a well–documented roadmap allows businesses to gain the support and involvement of all stakeholders for the implementation of their GSCM action plan.

For policy makers, the findings presented in this report draw important linkages between the driversfor adopting GSCM practices, firm activities and resulting business benefits. These connections can help inform a continued dialogue across government and with stakeholders. This report also sets the stagefor those interested in GSCM trends to pursue new research opportunities and projects.