Mapping the Future: Building Sustainable Supply Chains with Chris Tyas and Stanton Thomas

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, Tony hosts Chris Tyas OBE, former Senior VP of Supply Chain at Nestle, SA, and acting Food Supply Director for DEFRA, and Stanton Thomas, Senior VP of Sustainability Solutions at o9 Solutions. Both Chris and Stanton have championed sustainability throughout their respective careers and share their perspectives on issues like traceability, transparency, and how supply chain planning plays a significant role in developing supply chains that are truly sustainable.

Key Takeaways

Accountability is Imperative

Today’s consumers expect transparency in how products are produced or grown and aren’t afraid to call out greenwashing when they see it. Corporations that embrace transparency not only within their own organization but throughout each node of their supply chain will be able to show exactly how their products are produced and create a stronger sense of accountability among each tier of suppliers and work towards building a truly sustainable supply chain.

Mapping the Supply Chain

AI technology is creating opportunities for companies to gain more visibility into their end-to-end supply chain. For example, AI web crawlers can aggregate data to identify risk factors within a business’s supply chain infrastructure. However, mapping out a supply chain is an intensive process that requires major investment and doesn’t easily link to data upstream and downstream to trading partners. To ensure a stronger ROI on supply chain mapping, businesses will have to act collectively at the sector level and leverage a data repository to ensure supplier data is accessible across the end-to-end supply chain.

The Digital Twin’s Role in Sustainability

Digital twin technology will become a fundamental aspect of building a sustainable supply chain. When an organization incorporates a digital twin into its business and supply chain planning strategies, the digital twin can incorporate ESG data that will help inform how an organization can achieve initiatives like reaching NetZero or reduce/eliminate environmental risk factors within a supply chain.