What is the Retail Sustainability Collective?

Retail organisations’ supply chain emissions average more than 11 times their operational emissions – a shocking statistic based on data from CDP.

This is down to several factors, including the extensive transportation involved, the use of inefficient logistics due to the demand for fast delivery, overproduction, material waste and the energy-intensive manufacturing, packaging and distribution processes involved in supply networks. 

However, retail organisations must enhance their sustainability efforts to secure long-term business stability and a healthy future for our planet. 

Fortunately, Optera, a leading provider of ESG software solutions, has joined forces with SPS Commerce, a key provider of cloud-based supply chain management solutions, to launch the Retail Sustainability Collective, which will strive to help retailers to minimise their supply chain emissions.

This solution will mean that retailers will receive comprehensive primary data coverage across the supply chain, more accurate reporting and support and education on how to enhance their sustainability efforts.

Tim Weiss, CEO and Co-founder of Optera, says: “For too long, sustainability teams have been going it alone, often in a siloed function trying to build separate, and sometimes duplicate, processes and programs from scratch. 

“The Retail Sustainability Collective will enable sustainability teams to tap into existing networks and processes within their organisations – streamlining emissions management and making it a core part of business operations.”

Why are retailers' supply chain emissions so high?

The complex, global nature of retailers' supply chains often results in their emissions being high.

Energy-intensive processes powered by fossil fuels propel each stage, including raw material extraction, manufacturing, packaging and distribution.

The rise of globalisation, alongside increasing demand for fast delivery, means transportation is required across longer distances relying on trucks, ships, airplanes and inefficient last-mile logistics. 

Changing consumer demands have significantly damaged the environmental impact of supply chains, with the desire for fast fashion, lower prices and frequent product launches intensifying production cycles. 

Retail organisations must implement systemic changes to tackle this intense use of energy and lack of data and visibility.

Meet Optera

Optera is a leading ESG company that specialises in supply chain emissions management.

Its platform supports organisations in meeting their sustainability goals by combining advanced data tracking, real-time analytics and supplier engagement and equips businesses to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions across Scope 1, 2 and 3 categories.

Ultimately, Optera strives to enhance transparency and accountability in emissions reporting to create a greener future for the supply chain industry. 

What impact will the Retail Sustainability Collective have?

The Retail Sustainability Collective will strive to enhance supply chain transparency and energy efficiency.

The solution will allow suppliers to access built-in calculator tools and a single submission process to share their emissions data with many customers.

By including benefits for both retailers and suppliers, the solution will enhance collaboration between sustainability and supply chain teams, ensure retailers can build an efficient plan for decarbonisation and establish benchmarks for suppliers to understand their performance relative to peers.

This will help secure the future of the supply chain industry, improve cost efficiency and reputation, meet evolving consumer and regulatory demands for environmentally responsible practices and enhance business resilience. 

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