How to Build Sustainability Into Your Supply Chain

Sustainability regulation and compliance requirements are becoming standard across industries. At the same time, consumers are expecting more and more accountability related to corporate responsibility. For businesses, sustainability isn’t just about overcoming environmental concerns — it’s a key driver for innovation, streamlining operations, cost optimization and building consumer trust.

To stay competitive in the marketplace and avoid compliance risks, however, businesses must consider sustainable impacts beyond day-to-day operations. Studies indicate that supply chain emissions are actually 11.4 times higher than operational emissions on average. Some studies even indicate that over 90% of the average organization’s environmental footprint stems from their supply chain. And according to IBM, enterprises that integrate sustainability considerations into the sourcing, production and distribution of goods and services fortify their supply chain resilience.

Here’s what every business needs to know about why supply chain sustainability matters and how to make meaningful progress.

Supply chains are complex, especially at the enterprise level. On a simplified scale, however, a supply chain encompasses all the companies, facilities and activities involved in developing, manufacturing and delivering a business’s products. Sustainable supply chain practices recognize the environmental and social impacts that occur at every step in that process. This includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving water, reducing waste and optimizing energy efficiency.

Here’s why it matters to your business.

1. Mitigate Risk
   Building sustainability into your supply chain reinforces its resilience to disruptions, legal penalties and reputational damage while helping your organization adapt to evolving regulations and stakeholder expectations.
2. Strengthen Customer Trust
   Customers are actively seeking businesses that align with their values. A Nielsen survey found that 73% of global consumers would change their consumption habits to reduce their environmental impact. Demonstrating a commitment to ethical and sustainable supply chain practices builds your brand and consumer trust and loyalty.
3. Reduce Costs and Drive Efficiency
   Implementing sustainability throughout your organization often results in operational and cost efficiencies. For example, reduced waste translates to lower costs for waste disposal, material procurement and resource consumption. Whether it’s energy savings, reduced waste or smarter material sourcing, sustainability is not just good for the planet; it’s good for your bottom line.
4. Support Long-Term Growth
   Today, sustainability begets a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Businesses that lead in sustainable practices are better equipped to attract investors, retain customers and weather market changes.

Implementing supply chain sustainability is a long-term commitment. It requires thorough planning, clear goals and a willingness to evolve.

Here are some practical steps to consider as you build a strategy:

To create a truly sustainable supply chain, businesses need clear frameworks and systems of accountability. This starts with aligning to recognized standards such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) which guide efforts around environmental management, social responsibility, ethical sourcing, sustainable procurement and supply chain security.

These frameworks help businesses set measurable goals, build transparency and ensure consistency across their workflows and operations to help them meet broader sustainability objectives. Equally as important, they serve as a structure for managing risks and safeguard compliance with regulations while helping businesses live up to corporate responsibility expectations from investors and customers.

Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned to industry best practices and science-based targets ensures that you’re not just setting goals but making meaningful strides toward them. Being able to measure performance demonstrates credibility and allows you to share real-world progress in the form of data with stakeholders and customers. Transparency of this kind is key to building trust in your brand.

Being able to measure where you are at with your sustainability goals via KPIs is also key to ensuring compliance while helping your organization identify areas for cost savings, operational efficiencies and innovation. Tools like EcoVadis are specifically designed to help you track sustainability KPI performance.

EcoVadis is a globally recognized platform that provides business sustainability ratings and intelligence, measuring everything from sustainable packaging to sustainable IT asset disposition. Partnering with other EcoVadis-rated organizations can also contribute to moving the needle with your goals and KPIs, so it’s a win-win.

Build partnerships with vendors who share your sustainability commitment. Sustainability is not a solo effort. Companies are only as strong as the practices of the businesses they partner with and depend on. This makes supplier relationships a critical element of any sustainability plan. Collaborating with suppliers on shared sustainability goals can amplify impact across the entire supply chain ecosystem.

Sharing best practices, providing feedback and offering incentives for improvements to partners and suppliers is one way to foster collaboration. Leveraging tools like EcoVadis to assess both your own performance as well as supplier performance in areas such as environmental impact, labor practices and ethical sourcing helps ensure transparency while fostering continuous improvement.

Diversifying your supply chain builds in resilience so you can minimize risks, pivot when disruptions occur and quickly adjust to changes in the market. This strategy not only fosters flexibility, but it can also have cost-saving and competitive advantages by leveraging economies of scale and encouraging supplier competition.

Diversification is also an opportunity to foster economic inclusion and stimulate local economies by engaging smaller suppliers and minority-owned businesses.

A good example of this is CDW's Strategic Partnership Program, which leverages a community-based supplier network of approximately 1,600 businesses. This helps local economies grow while fostering a fair and competitive environment for all businesses. These benefits extend to CDW's customers and partners as well. Such partnerships can help organizations achieve their diversity goals while enhancing their brand image.

A sustainable approach to supply chain operations isn’t just about ticking boxes or avoiding penalties. It reflects a broader commitment to innovation, responsibility and leadership in a changing business environment. Organizations that invest in building ethical and environmentally conscious supply chains gain a clear advantage in the market.

As a trusted partner, CDW empowers your business to meet its sustainability goals confidently by aligning with ISO-certified frameworks, focusing on measurable progress and driving collaboration across the supply chain with tools like EcoVadis. Our customers rely on CDW not just for technology solutions, but for leadership in responsible business practices and shared values.