LS&Co. Unzipped
Sep 30 2011
We're All In It Together.
Suppose you’re an apparel company, moving product from, say, raw cotton in the field to a finished item in a store.
It’s a long chain, with many links. And while that “supply chain” process has never been simple, the added constraint of sustainability is making it even more complex. How do you get that product from farm to store…with minimal impact on the environment?
So it makes sense that colleges – and students – are taking a closer look, in the classroom, at sustainability. And collaboration.
UC Berkeley Haas School of Business students recently dove into the complexities “brain first” in a workshop hosted by the Berkeley-Haas Center for Responsible Business in collaboration with Levi Strauss & Co.
The workshop, “Sustainability Management in the Value Chain”, used examples from the apparel industry to illustrate the tools and problem-solving frameworks managers use when addressing sustainability issues in a company’s value chain.
Faculty member Omar Romero Hernandez, a green supply chain expert, made it clear: Managing sustainability is a very real part of today’s business world – and that sustainability is often in conflict with other priorities. Even with the best sustainability metrics, tough decisions must be made.
Michael Kobori, who leads Social & Environmental Sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co., explained the company’s product lifecycle assessment, which led to establishing an environmental strategy focused on cotton farming and consumer care – two parts of the lifecycle with significant environmental impact.
REI’s Kevin Myette is director of Product Integrity. He engaged students in a discussion about how REI works as a match-maker to connect its suppliers and other companies in the outdoor apparel industry. It’s critical for partners and competitors – from both public and private sectors – to trust one another, in order to build sustainability into every link of the supply chain.
Trust is the same force at work in the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, a group formed by top apparel and footwear companies to collectively address industry sustainability issues. Blake Durtsche of Blu Skye Consulting showed us how much can be accomplished when the apparel industry works together to drive sustainability efforts through pre-competitive collaboration.
If there’s one takeaway students had from the workshop, it’s that companies and organizations need to work together towards a more sustainable future. There’s strength – and success – in numbers.
If these students can carry such a philosophy forward, from the classroom to the workplace, we’ll all benefit.
Posted By: Will Morrison, Program Manager, Berkeley-Haas Center for Responsible Business |
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