4 Steps Towards A More Sustainable Supply Chain

Julie Starr • October 31, 2020



There is increasing pressure on companies to make sure that every step of the supply chain is as sustainable as it possibly can be. This comes from stakeholders, peers, customers, and the media.  It is for good reason; something needs to be done to protect the planet, and business and industry are some of the key players that can make the change.

By managing and improving sustainability in the supply chain, a business can conserve resources, save costs, discover new products and supply innovations, optimize processes, and increase productivity levels. 

While most businesses are keen to implement a sustainable supply chain, going about actually doing it is a whole different matter. It can be a complicated process, but not doing so is one of the biggest risks a business can take in an age where climate change is top of the agenda. Here, we look at four steps towards implementing a more sustainable supply chain.

Communicate expectations

Finding a balance between sustainability and making sure that you are maximizing your business profits is a challenge, but by communicating your expectations, you can make it much easier. You need to establish your expectations and communicate it to everyone else involved in your supply chain, via a sustainability code of conduct.

Of course, with this, you need to ensure that it does not affect the other aspects of your business too. Reliability and the swift payment of bills so that Skip Tracing is not necessary is essential in all levels of the supply chain, as well as transparency and communication.

Simplify your supply chain

In many cases, the supply chain can be made more sustainable simply by cutting it back and streamlining it. Analyze each step, look at the data, and see how you can combine this knowledge with automation and artificial intelligence to improve processes within the supply chain. Every adaptation that reduces waste,  lowers your carbon footprint , and speeds up productivity without compromising on safety and quality is a huge step towards a more sustainable – and simple – supply chain.

Make sure your supply and demand planning is reviewed regularly

A misalignment between what you need to produce and what you actually produce can mean huge wastage in raw materials, energy, and transportation. Again, this is where artificial intelligence and careful analysis of your forecasted supply and demand can ensure you only produce what you need, reducing the waste int terms of materials and resources and ensuring a more efficient manufacturing and supply process.

Keep an eye on environmental risks

Many supply chains already feel the effect of climate change, and as the issue deepens, it will affect more and more companies. Take into consideration external factors such as bush and wildfires, lower agricultural yields, extreme weather conditions, and drought, which can all impact the efficiency, speed, and quality of the supply chain. Having plans in place to mitigate the impact these have is essential  for maintaining a stable and reliable supply chain. For instance, partnering with experts like https://www.greshamsinc.com/ provides innovative solutions and insights to managing challenges you may face with a winter storm. Their expertise can help businesses adapt to changing conditions, ensuring operations remain seamless. 


By addressing these risks, head-on companies can build a supply chain that is more sustainable and capable of weathering unforeseen challenges. 

It is becoming more apparent than ever before that sustainability needs to be a focus of business. These four steps will go a long way to making sure that your business is heading in the right direction.

 

Smart Sensors, Smarter Supply Chains: Enhancing Traceability in Food & Beverage

By Julie Starr • June 20, 2025
In today’s competitive food and beverage (F&B) landscape, traceability is no longer a compliance checkbox—it’s a differentiator. The ability to track every step of a product’s journey, from origin to shelf, is vital for regulatory accuracy and to ensure brand integrity, supply chain agility, and consumer trust. Add smart sensors to the mix: the quiet, tireless observers revolutionizing supply chain intelligence. Traceability Has a Data Problem Despite digitization across many F&B operations, most traceability systems still rely on fragmented or manual data inputs. Batch numbers, barcodes, and handwritten logs often stand between a supplier and clarity when things go wrong. This approach struggles with latency and scale. When contamination or delays occur, root cause analysis is slow, costly, and damaging. Smart sensors shift this paradigm by embedding real-time, contextual intelligence into every stage of the supply chain . Whether monitoring humidity in transit or recording fill-level precision in bottling plants, they remove the guesswork by turning physical conditions into structured, time-stamped data. From Passive Monitoring to Active Optimization Sensors used to be reactive tools, alerting operators to anomalies. But smart sensors now play a proactive role in process control. They measure, and they interpret. For example, temperature sensors embedded in cold chain logistics can dynamically adjust cooling systems or flag threshold breaches before spoilage occurs. These advancements reduce waste and loss at a systemic level. In a production facility, smart sensors integrated with PLCs can enforce recipe compliance, verify clean-in-place processes, and detect micro-stoppages in real-time. This enables operations to pivot faster and isolate inefficiencies before they cascade downstream. Trust is Built on Transparency Consumers are paying more attention to what they eat and drink. They’re looking beyond labels, expecting visibility into how ingredients are sourced, processed, and handled. Smart sensors make this level of transparency achievable —without burdening manufacturers with excessive manual oversight. By capturing metadata throughout production and distribution, these sensors create a digital footprint that’s tamper-resistant and instantly accessible. When this data is integrated with a central platform, brands can respond confidently to audits, recalls, and quality assurance challenges with a level of precision that would be impossible through legacy systems. Intelligence Without Infrastructure Overhaul One common misconception is that adding smart sensors requires a top-down reinvention of supply chain infrastructure. In reality, companies can deploy edge sensors in a modular, scalable way. Many modern solutions offer plug-and-play functionality, allowing for fast integration with existing machinery and MES systems. This is where suppliers like alps-machine.com are reshaping expectations. Rather than pushing proprietary ecosystems, they design sensor-ready equipment with interoperability in mind. This future-proofs investment and keeps businesses nimble in the face of regulatory or market shifts. Designing for Data Longevity Sensors are only as powerful as the context they capture. A smart implementation ensures the data collected can be standardized, stored securely, and accessed meaningfully across departments. This means moving beyond local dashboards toward centralized, queryable datasets that inform everything from supplier contracts to marketing claims. As AI and predictive analytics become more accessible, these data-rich environments will unlock new capabilities—such as predicting demand spikes based on real-time freshness indicators or adjusting production schedules dynamically based on in-transit sensor feedback. Final Thoughts: Smarter Isn’t Optional Traceability isn’t solved by more paperwork—it’s solved by embedded intelligence. Smart sensors don’t just help businesses know what happened; they help prevent the wrong things from happening at all. For companies in the food and beverage sector, adopting smart sensors is less about chasing innovation and more about enabling resilience, speed, and confidence in every decision.

Eco-Friendly Garden Prep: Summer Tips for a Greener Business Space

By Julie Starr • June 5, 2025
If you're lucky enough to have a garden as part of your business, taking some time to set it up for summer is a great investment of your energy. Not only will it be ready for your customers to spend time in, but you can also incorporate some eco-friendly elements into it. Many people just think about the property and what eco-friendly updates they can make , but there are plenty that you can implement in your garden. This gives you the best of both worlds. You own a sacred and beautiful place for your customers to spend their summer, and at the same time, you can do your part for a better planet. If this is the route you want to take, then you also need to consider how to do this with the different seasons. To help you on your journey, here are some top tips for preparing your garden for summer. Plant trees and flowers Planting trees and flowers in your garden is a must. It will make a beautiful scene of nature for everyone to enjoy. Trees will provide people and animals with shade, as well as provide a habitat for wildlife. More trees are needed in the world because they purify the air that we breathe. Flowers, especially if you plant with pollinators in mind, can be an excellent way to attract bees and butterflies, which contribute largely to the earth. Use natural pest control When preparing your garden for summer, you can do this more sustainably and kindly by using natural pest control. Simply by planting trees and flowers, you are likely to attract lots of different wildlife, some of which may destroy your efforts. While all wildlife should be considered, you may need to take measures. Some better and more eco-friendly ways you can do this, as opposed to spraying toxic chemicals onto your plants and into the air, you can implement companion planting, using protective nets over your crops, choosing resilient plants, using natural repellents, and encouraging natural predators so nature can do its thing. Maintain your garden Maintaining your garden in itself can make it more eco-friendly. Composting your garden waste regularly, and kitchen waste can help you to reduce overall waste and create nutrient-rich soil. This is a great cycle of sustainability. You can also keep on top of things that need cleaning and replacing, so you can recycle the materials for other garden structures and projects, and repurpose things around your garden before they become waste. If you have features in your garden like a swimming pool, then a regular pool maintenance service is going to be vital in keeping your water consumption to a minimum, as when it is cleaned and maintained, it will need to be drained and refilled less as well as using less energy. You could also consider how you can use natural purification methods to reduce chemical usage and support biodiversity right in your backyard. Your garden is just an eco-friendly project waiting to be built. Use these top tips to help you get started.