Supply Chain Mapping as a Tool to Fight Climate Change

Climate change is the most significant threat facing global supply chains today. In the last few years, global temperatures have been consistently among the hottest on record. The global anomaly in surface temperature might cause an increase in sea level, a decrease in arctic ice, and a growing number of weather-related catastrophes, including storms, floods, and droughts.

While disruptions from climate change won’t happen everywhere at once, as was the case with the pandemic, the severity of the impact will only increase over time. 

The first step companies can take to mitigate the impact of extreme weather is to map their supply chains. This helps them better understand exactly where risks lie, whether that’s a supplier on the Gulf Coast subject to hurricanes, a transport hub susceptible to flooding, or a drought in China.

Supply chains need the interdependency, interconnectedness and the intelligence to predict disruptions before they occur. Companies need to identify the direct and indirect locations that are needed to support manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and repair. Tier one suppliers usually have sound strategic control and most organizations have good visibility over their processes. It is suppliers in tier two and beyond that are often most likely affected by weather disruptions.

It’s no longer a case of “if” the next weather-related disruption will occur, but “when” will it occur

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing more than 250 times faster than in the last Ice Age, mostly due to human activity. That’s led to rising temperatures, glacial ice loss, sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and more.  As climate change worsens, worldwide supply chains will face more challenges, and though disruptions are often inevitable, a mapped supply chain can help with those disruptions that are climate-related.

Since the 2011 Tohoku tsunami, Sourcemap has been helping global brands manage supply chain resilience with end-to-end visibility. Our approach uses network modeling to assess the cost of disruptions at every supplier, for every component. Inventory, lead time, time-to-replace, revenue-at-risk, and risk probability heat maps all factor into the ability to assess the weakest links in the supply chain at any time.

For more information, get in touch with our experts.