GEMI Publishes Quick Guide on Buyer / Supplier Collaboration on Sustainability

GEMI Quick Guide provides a short, easy-to-read view of how companies can engage with their suppliers in more collaborative ways to create shared value.

Washington, DC – The Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI), a global leader in developing insights, networking and creating collaborative sustainability solutions for business, today published a Quick Guide on Buyer / Suppliers Collaboration on Sustainability.

The Quick Guide builds on GEMI’s Responsible Supply Chain Guiding Principles, published in 2017, and is intended to offer a simple framework for advancing buyer/supplier engagement on sustainability.

The Quick Guide may be used to support discussion within an organization, and with its suppliers and customers, about how to achieve greater business value from deeper collaboration on sustainability issues and opportunities.

Short case examples have been included throughout the Quick Guide to highlight how thoughtful and strategic engagement can reduce the burden on suppliers and deliver improved sustainability performance for both buyers and suppliers.

“GEMI developed its Responsible Supply Chain Guiding Principles to provide a framework to help guide the process for engaging suppliers regarding sustainability, advancing strategic collaborations and, promoting increased alignment across industry-focused supply chain sustainability initiatives” said Bill Gill, AVP Environmental Affairs, Smithfield Foods and GEMI’s Chair.  “This new Quick Guide builds on that framework established through the Guiding Principles to provide additional context relating to engaging with suppliers along with real-world examples to help companies to put the Guiding Principles into action.”

“GEMI’s Supply Chain Sustainability Work Group sought input from a variety of leading companies, third party providers, and industry associations to inform development of both the Responsible Supply Chain Guiding Principles as well as this Quick Guide,” said Mark Johnson, Senior Vice President and Director of Environmental Compliance, Gannett Fleming and GEMI’s Vice-Chair. “We greatly appreciate all those organizations that have taken the time to engage with GEMI and share their perspectives to help inform our discussions on this important topic.”

GEMI would like to thank the 2017/2018 GEMI member companies and Supply Chain Sustainability Work Group participants for their leadership and engagement in GEMI’s supply chain sustainability efforts, including American Chemistry Council, American Cleaning Institute, American Forest & Paper Association, Ashland, Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable, Carnival Corporation & PLC, Corn Refiners Association, Dell, Ecolab, ExxonMobil Chemical, FedEx Corporation, Gannett Fleming, Hexion, IPIECA, Merck, Perdue Farms, Plastics Industry Association, Procter & Gamble, Schlumberger, SealedAir, Smithfield Foods, Smith & Nephew, UL Environment, Valvoline, Waste Management.

GEMI would also like to recognize and thank those external organizations that provided input through GEMI Supply Chain Sustainability workshops in 2017 and 2018, including CDP, Ecodesk, EcoVadis, Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, Electric Utility Industry Sustainable Supply Chain Alliance, Environmental Defense Fund, ISN, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative, SupplyShift, Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, The Sustainability Consortium, The Coca-Cola Company and Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production.

Special thanks also to Mary Beth Jordan, MBJ Strategies and Kellen Mahoney, GEMI’s Program Manager for their work in supporting the creation of this Quick Guide.

The GEMI Quick Guide may be downloaded at: https://gemi.org/solutions/solutions-quick-guides/gemi-quick-guide-on-buyer-supplier-collaboration-on-sustainability/

About GEMI 
GEMI (www.gemi.org) is a global leader in developing insights, networking, and creating collaborative sustainability solutions for business. For 25 years, GEMI has captured the vision and experience of global corporate environmental, health and safety (EHS) and sustainability leaders from diverse business sectors through the development of a wide range of publicly-available, solutions-based tools designed to help companies improve the environment, their operations and add business value. 

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