Sustainability is the issue on pretty much everyone’s mind nowadays. After decades of reckless production and consumption, it’s now urgently necessary to take a proactive approach to limiting the impact we have on environmental systems.
The key to success in this regard lies in multiple areas. Here, we take a look at the role that product sourcing will play in this process, particularly from the perspective of retailers.
Transparency
One of the main things that’s needed to improve sustainability in the product sourcing process is increased transparency. Retailers like Stormline need to be able to clearly assess where the materials and labour for each product are derived, in order to be able to make a judgement as to its true sustainability.
This starts to decentralise the process of judging whether a product is sustainable or not, adding a more dispersed qualitative element that helps to spread both responsibility and understanding.
There is often kickback when it comes to enforcing traceability, particularly among suppliers who have something to hide. Rather than a challenge, this should be seen as an opportunity to help these organisations along the right path.
Circular economies
In recent years, the idea of the circular economy has become central to sustainability discourse. The general idea is that products are designed with their future in mind, whether that’s about how different parts can be reused or thinking about how they can be repaired in the easiest manner possible.
Done properly, circular economic thinking has the potential to revolutionise a wide range of products. It requires a radically different design philosophy, but it’s a philosophy that all of us stand to benefit from.
New regulations
A range of new government regulations are also being introduced to target sustainability, one of which is especially relevant to product sourcing – the extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework. This specific regulation aims to assign clearer responsibility over sustainable packing processes, which will likely have a tangible effect on a number of businesses over the coming year. It’s vital that you keep up to date with these regulations and others like them, so that you can ensure legal compliance in all areas sustainability-related.
Sustainable labour
While a lot of focus often goes into material sustainability, increasingly it’s been pointed out that this kind of sustainability means little if social elements are then simply forgotten.
One crucial way to mitigate this oversight is to focus on sustainable labour practices as well. In addition to checking where materials have come from, it’s also necessary to check the labour conditions under which those materials were procured and produced, and the conditions under which the product itself was made.
Sustainability is a rapidly changing area, and it’s something that we all need to play a part in developing. More than just a set of annoying regulations, taking sustainability seriously is key to maintaining a stable, healthy market, something that we can all benefit from for years to come.
