Increasingly, as I have often said here, sustainability is becoming a fundamental business imperative. And to really succeed, it’s not something that we can fully achieve by working in silos alone. To that end, building a sustainable supply chain is something all businesses must seek to do to secure a more viable future. We deal with so many variables on a daily basis (as SMBs and MBEs) that any opportunity to mitigate risks within our control is one that I welcome.

As business owners and leaders of companies which may not have the luxury of dedicated supply chain managers, we all know it can be hard to find the time to step back and map out our whole supply chain – to see the proverbial forest for the trees as it were. But spending time reviewing and creating a sustainable supply chain is about reframing our mindset, taking the focus away from the short-term and day-to-day to shore up the the future – it’s an essential element of strategic planning. In his book, ‘The Big Pivot,’ green business strategist and frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, Andrew Winston asks executives to do exactly that, to move away from short-term targets to focus on longer-term goals and become much more efficient along the way.

A focus on sustainability and the supply chain is also key in developing a competitive edge, and achieveing marketplace standout. This is a great example of how adopting a sustainability mindset can be a very effective business development tool. For one, it provides you with something to engage with potential customers about – relevant and timely content uniquely tailored to their needs. But ultimately, it’s about delivering value in a very real sense, which in terms of attracting and retaining clients is a highly desirable quality. It’s about doing more with less, and being more effective as a consequence. It’s about being smart and strategic and turning positive thought into positive action. And who wouldn’t want to work with a company with that mindset? As ever, if you’d like to talk about how to communicate your sustainability credentials, please get in touch.

Twitter “Find of the Week” – Project Seafood

I’ve written before about how Twitter can be a great source of inspiration and discovery and this week, thanks to the land of 140 characters, I came across Project Seafood which takes 3D printing to a whole new level. The brainchild of Swiss couple Jennifer Gadient and Fabian Wyss, Project Seafood is a “lab in a mini-van” which features a Ultimaker 3D printer, a plastic shredder, and a filament extruder – everything they say they need to turn plastic waste found on beaches washed up from the ocean into useful products. If you get time, the article is well worth a read for a mind-blowing take on true creativity and innovation in tech and sustainability.