BCLC’s Environmental Help Desk Helps Business Compete

There’s a B2B tsunami coming -- an enormous wave of green supply chain requirements by Fortune 1000 companies that will touch every small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) wanting to do business with them. The world’s largest businesses are greening their supply chains to reduce energy and waste costs, better manage risk, and to enhance their brands. In greening their supply chains, these companies are beginning to make every supplier to do the same.

There’s a B2B tsunami coming -- an enormous wave of green supply chain requirements.

Walmart’s 100,000 suppliers must now go through an extensive environmental review of their own products, operations, and supply chains, in order to do business with the retail giant. Walmart’s goal is to have 70% of its products procured under its Sustainability Index by 2017, and it will add 100 new product categories to its review process in 2013 alone.

Walmart receives a great deal of attention for its green supply chain initiatives, but it’s hard to find a major company that isn’t starting to make similar requirements of suppliers. IBM requires its 28,000 first-tier suppliers to adhere to an international code of green standards. Similar standards are now enforced by Apple, Cisco, Dell, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sony, Xerox, and other electronics companies. FedEx and UPS drive their green efforts through their shipping and packaging partners as well as in their own facilities. In the public sector, the federal government’s General Services Administration (GSA) partners extensively with private industry to green over a half a trillion dollars a year in goods and services from SMEs.

Successful suppliers are key to the success of big companies.

Where will this wave leave small and medium-sized suppliers of large companies? Successful suppliers are key to the success of big companies. With this in mind, the Business Civic Leadership Center developed the Environmental Help Desk for Business.

The Environmental Help Desk is a free service for SMEs and for the US Chamber of Commerce’s large company members. The BCLC’s objective in creating the help desk was to provide free, high quality, easy to understand advice for America’s small and medium-sized employers. Through the Help Desk, smaller businesses can

• Ask questions by phone or email that will be researched and answered by MBAs and Environmental Masters students from several participating universities
• Find plain-English descriptions of green supply chain developments in major business sectors
• And learn about cutting edge environmental innovations that help businesses reduce both bottom line costs and environmental impact

BCLC’s Environmental Help Desk is also a portal through which BCLC’s large business members can share new developments and connect with potential suppliers.

The green supply chain wave is powerful, and will transform the world’s economy over time. While that might sound scary, companies everywhere are finding that green supply chain standards are a catalyst for innovation, reduced costs, and a stronger bottom line.

The green supply chain wave will transform the world’s economy .

The Business Civic Leadership Center’s Environmental Help Desk works with large companies to educate their suppliers and helps smaller businesses get up to speed on green supply chain requirements and money-saving innovations.