Corporate Social Responsibility
What does the global trade chess board look like lately ?
Global trade is becoming more and more confusing, given the vast array of different tariffs, trade wars, 301’s, customs duties, and other shifts in global trade. I had the opportunity to speak with a few different industry experts this week, […]
How sustainable is your food? Ask Field to Market
Rod Snyder, president of Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, has over ten years of experience in eco-labeling. FTM was founded in order to address the question of how US agriculture can better define, measure, and advance the […]
Analytics Should Focus on A Culture of Factory Safety for Workers in Low Cost Country Manufacturing
For analytics to become truly effective in global manufacturing settings, veracity and consistency are critical requirements. Based on a recent interview with an executive at a large global apparel company, several insights regarding improvements in global consistency of data became […]
What is the True Cost of Sustainable Apparel from Bangladesh? Insights from Harvard "Sustainable Models for the Apparel Industry" Conference
This week’s blog is a guest blog from a PhD Student, MD Rejaul Hasan. Rejaul is from Bangladesh, and is working on his PhD in the College of Textiles at NC State University, and is passionate on the subject of sustainable apparel […]
It's About Time for a new "World Class Supply Chain" Paradigm
As a young assistant professor at Michigan State University in 1992, I was part of a group called the Global Procurement Benchmarking Initiative. This initiative benchmarked over 300 global companies, and set forth many of the principles for what we […]
Biobased Economy Continues to Grow: USDA Secretary Announces NC State-Duke Study Results on Monday
I’m writing to share an exciting new report released today entitled “An Economic Impact Analysis of the U.S. Biobased Products Industry: 2016 Update.” This new report shows how the U.S. biobased industry continues to grow and generate substantial economic activity […]
Sustainable Procurement Finally Getting Its Own Standard
A new post discussed the development of a sustainable procurement standard developed by the International Standards Organization. ISO 20400, Sustainable procurement – Guidance, has just reached a second draft international standard stage, meaning interested parties can submit feedback via their ISO […]
Biobased Product Market Growth is Tied to Performance…but Production Credits Will Help!
Unlocking growth in the biobased products sector is tied to the ability to unlock access to inexpensive sugar, derived from corn farming. The second element has to do with production credits. This has begun to emerge at the state level, […]
Academics share insights about sustainable supply chains at NC State Workshop
I had the opportunity to sit in on a number of academic presentations today, as part of the Environmentally Sustainable Supply Chain Management Workshop for Early-Career Faculty. During the morning, we heard from a number of individuals in a session […]
Transparency is the new Sustainability
The focus on corporate sustainability often calls for companies to increase transparency in all aspects of an organization’s operations, and much more so in the supply chain. Apparel and electronics companies that source all of their products from factories in emerging countries […]