Supply chain World Volume 9 Issue 11 Lee Protheroe.pdf | Page 36

Pushing forward with ESG

But are companies committed to meeting their ESG priorities and if so , what challenges are they facing ? Insights from research conducted by Coupa discovered that most enterprises do care about ESG concerns and they ’ re committed to their objectives . For example , globally 91 percent of businesses stated that reducing emissions is important to them and 89 percent said the same about eliminating modern slavery . Looking at the US data , it ’ s aligned with the global statistics , with 89 percent responding that both are important .
Nevertheless , many companies are suffering from major blind spots in their supply chains , making it impossible for them to make meaningful progress toward their ESG objectives . Specifically , 61 percent of US companies cannot tell if their closest supply chain partners are meeting any kind of ESG standards . Additionally , 53 percent admit to not having an effective risk management system in place to accurately assess ESG integrity in their supply chains . Given the large number of companies that may need to comply with Germany ’ s Supply Chain Act , this could be a major challenge .
Diving deeper into the blind spots , US companies need to become faster and more agile to replace supply chain partners which fail to meet ESG standards too . Only 18 percent can do it within a couple of days , whilst 43 percent would need a couple of months or longer , if possible . What ’ s more , when asked about how they assess the ESG risk and compliance of their supply chain partners , 61 percent find their current solution inadequate .
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