More about sustainable supply chains

Nutreco is a Dutch based multinational company operating in the feed industry, and in 2012 this company launched the report called "Nutreco Feeding the Future: How we can contribute to feeding 9 billion people in a sustainable way: Vision 2020." This article was written to share with China Daily readers my impressions studying the document, another example of sustainability.

The company aims to create value in several different activities. Nutreco states that they "aim to become the global leader in animal nutrition and fish feed, delivering innovative and sustainable nutrition solutions".

It is clearly seen when reading the report, an integrated chain approach. For the company, the conditions of success include engaging people from inside and outside. "Every change depends on the efforts and commitment of one and more individuals… Furthermore we have to keep our customers and end users in mind of what we do and helping them to be more productive and environmentally and socially responsible."

Nutreco divides the 2020 vision in four major areas: ingredients, operations, commitment and nutritional solutions. Each major area has 4 sub-divisions, summarized here:

Ingredients sustainable sourcing: the objective here is to build value sourcing through third party sustainable systems endorsed by vendor policies. The stimulus came from a pressure to reduce negative impacts over biodiversity, social and environment, coming from supplier activities. The actions will include round table initiatives, auditing, suppliers engagement activities, extend supply chain coordination, promote demand for responsible ingredients, communicate to suppliers and measure the results.

Ingredients sustainable partnerships: increase and strengthen sustainable partnerships and supply chain projects. One of the future challenges is the cooperation among business, Government, knowledge centres and NGO’s, boosting innovation, sustainability and cost reduction. Company will improve partnerships, classifying supplier base, evaluate supplier classification and building sustainable supply chain projects.

Ingredients flexible formulations: build value via reducing dependency from scarce ingredients. This will be done with strategic analysis of long-term ingredient trends, research for alternatives and develop scientific position papers.