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Sustainability Identified as Top Supply Chain Theme for 2022

The quest for sustainable operations has become both more pressing more promising. In the United States more than 50% of our green house gas emissions come from industry and transportation. The changes we make now, will have a meaningful and lasting impact.

Posted on 
May 13, 2022
Ayman Shoukry
CTO, Specright

Specright mentioned as a Sample Vendor for Sustainability tools in The 2022 Strategic Supply Chain Technology Themes report by Gartner®

The quest for sustainable operations has become both more pressing and more promising. In the United States more than 50% of our green house gas emissions come from industry and transportation. The changes we make now, will have a meaningful and lasting impact.In March 2022, Gartner research published “The 2022 Strategic Supply Chain Technology Themes.” The report touches on eight themes related to supply chain technology. You won’t be surprised to learn that one of those eight pillars is sustainability tools. We know that economic sustainability requires more insights that will feed decision-making across the entirety of our product lifecycle.That spells good news for organizations looking to mature their sustainability programs and reduce their environmental impact. While real barriers exist when we aim to collaborate across the full supply chain, technology is available to help.  

Sustainability Starts Within a Organization

Most organizations began sustainability initiatives inwardly focused. This makes sense. You have a lot of control over the amount of power you consume, which packaging materials you elect to produce, and you can take steps that reduce waste by-products of your processes. Combating climate change with sustainable development had to start somewhere. It proved to be a great place to start. The use of renewable energy is up, emissions are down for some operations, and we better understand our ecosystems and the impact they have on the environment. Yet, we’ve always known a focus on our own operations wouldn’t be enough on its own.

Regulatory Pressures are Pushing for a More Sustainable Future

The looming requirement to implement Extended Producer Responsibility is forcing  us  to look outside our sphere of control. While it can be an extra burden to take part in a truly circular economy, it also affords us the incentive to reach for new sustainability possibilities which are good for our environment, and good for our business.

Enhance Sustainability Across Supply Chain

According to the Gartner research, “supply chains are increasingly positioned as important hubs in which to launch and establish environmental and sustainability centers of excellence and to differentiate their products and services. Sustainability has impacts that span the entire value chain — from plan, to source, to make, to deliver and, finally, to the service domain. This year’s theme creates a clear distinction for the need for supply chains to be ready and mature in their response to sustainability impacts in areas such as environment, social and human rights, always correlated to different levels of maturity”.

Specification Management Bridges Data Gap for Sustainability Success

To realize the vision of a truly sustainable society, we must overcome short-term challenges and come together for the greater good.

One of the biggest challenges to organizations realizing their sustainability is a lack of data. And the reality is, most organizations have legacy systems and tools that prevent them from easily capturing and standardizing data across their supply chain network. Many existing systems like ERPs and PLMs were internally focused.

This means organizations must act now to invest in solutions, like Specright, which provides transparency, bridges the data gap between systems and processes, reduces waste and re-work, and sets a solid foundation for data analysis at scale. Together, we can create more sustainable businesses that thrive, even as regulatory and consumer preferences pressure us to change.For more information read the full report here.

*Gartner, “The 2022 Strategic Supply Chain Technology Themes”, Christian Titze, Dwight Klappich, March 25, 2022.GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the

About 

Ayman Shoukry

Ayman is Chief Technology Officer at Specright, where he leads the product and engineering teams. Before Specright, Shoukry was part of the eCommerce platform team at Amazon. Before Amazon, he was CTO at HireRight, a world leader in background screening, where he was part of the executive team that drove the company’s successful exit. He began his career in the Microsoft Developer Division, where he spent over 15 years in various leadership positions. He holds a master’s degree in software engineering from the University of Newcastle in Australia and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the American University in Cairo. He lives in Irvine, CA with his wife and two daughters.

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