How Sustainability is shaping the future of Supply Chains

Our resident specialist on sustainable procurement and ESG, Joe Arciero took some time out to share his reflections on the "How Sustainability is shaping the future of supply chains" panel debate at the Scotland Trade Fair Spring and Speciality Food and Drink Show 2025.

We were pleased to host this debate and Q&A on how Sustainability is shaping the future of Supply Chains. With a great mix of panelists speaking from the perspectives of manufacturing, supply chain, small business, global business, next generation and procurement. Since larger organisations are now required to provide transparency of the carbon emissions in their own supply chains. This is now flowing down the supply chain, having a direct effect on suppliers of all sizes across all sectors.  Furthermore, legislation and tenders are increasingly requesting evidence of carbon management with along with credible plans to reduce emissions. The panel discussion covered the barriers and opportunities that businesses are faced with, but more importantly the numerous opportunities that early adopters are able to leverage when embracing Net Zero.

The panel Q&A at the Scottish Food and Drink Show on Jan 20th was a great opportunity to field questions on the evolving and varied state of ESG awareness and progress across a range of SME's attending the show.

Regulation and Consumer demand is still evolving

The level of interest and engagement was encouraging from those who attended. The real-life experience shared and discussed between the panel members covered a range of industries, large and small. The common theme that emerged from the discussion was that, while there was a general appreciation of the importance of ESG engagement, the current and potential impact of regulation and consumer demand was less apparent. It was encouraging to see that the audience did appreciate the benefits of an integrated ESG Business Strategy and could relate this to their own activities. T

Future looking leaders are viewing this as first responder advantage

The follow up discussions convinced me that once the initial engagement hurdle is passed, businesses will quickly see the need and start the journey to a sustainable and successful future. As with all change, the first step is to quantify current state versus desired state. I think the businesses who attended the show and participated in the sustainability zone took a step in this direction and will benefit from it.