Validate Supply Chain Claims and Avoid Greenwashing

Most people make at least some effort to minimize their impact on the planet’s ecosystems. Recycling and saving energy are mainstream practices now, and most of us try to buy more sustainable products. Buying sustainable products does make a difference, but it’s important to learn to identify greenwashing, the practice of emphasizing the environmental benefits of a product while ignoring its continued negative impact on the planet.

Companies regularly make sustainability claims about their supply chains, from ethical and organic to deforestation - and child labor-free. These claims were traditionally supported by audits and certifications, which only validate a sample of suppliers, but new legislation requires accountability for the full end-to-end supply chain. A form of false advertising, greenwashing can be illegal, but it’s easy to mislead without telling a lie. Since most greenwashing does not involve explicitly false statements, it’s hard to take legal action against it.

Supply Chain Transparency Makes all the Difference

With companies sourcing from thousands of suppliers, and new technology that enables end-to-end traceability, audits and certification are no longer best practices. Greenwashing takes advantage of consumers’ limited time to make you feel better about their products instead of making their products more sustainable. If you can’t trace your suppliers all the way upstream, you can’t be certain that greenwashing isn’t taking place in your supply chain. 

Check out these tips:

• Know your suppliers. It’s crucial to discover all of your suppliers and their suppliers to create an extended database of every farm, every mine, every factory and every distribution center - until you can trace each product from raw materials to completed finished goods.

• Benchmark your suppliers to make sure they live up to your codes of conduct, and incentivize them to improve performance year after year. This includes collecting data on their practices and comparing that self-reported data with trusted third-party sources.

• Make sure your suppliers are actually who they claim to be by tracing and reconciling every transaction. Verify the authenticity of your suppliers. Anything less than traceability means you’re exposed to smuggling or adulteration, which means your supply chain isn’t what you think it is – and greenwashing could very well be part of your operation.Make sure there is a clear, well-documented business process in place to validate the data through buy-in from internal and external stakeholders and a secure tracking repository.

At Sourcemap, we empower companies to take control of their extended supply chains through software that supports best-in-class business processes, all while saving time and money. To learn more, get in touch with our experts.