Avetta Survey Finds More Executives Are Prioritizing Environmental, Social and Governance Efforts

• Survey is part of technical paper on ESG best practices, how supply chain sustainability should be integrated into a company’s broader ESG architecture

Avetta, the leading provider of supply chain risk management software, unveiled a new executive survey today which highlights how more companies are looking to improve their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals. The survey finds 79% of companies consider employee health and safety very important and 63% say reducing environmental footprint is very important.

“Our data shows that over a 10-year period, suppliers in our network experience a 7% to 12% year-over-year decrease in safety incidents. We look forward to continuing this successful trend in the ESG market.”

The findings are included in Avetta’s technical paper, Extending ESG Best Practices into the Supply Chain: A Review of Leading Organization Approaches. One-out-of-four respondents plan to make ESG supply chain issues a part of their organization’s program. The surveyed companies represent a variety of industries such as facilities management, chemicals, construction, utilities, telecommunications, transport, manufacturing, and food and beverages.

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The pandemic has actually increased the importance of supply chains for many corporations because 90% of their environmental footprint has been pushed into their supply chain. The paper offers examples of companies that experienced ESG risks, as well as best practices for adopting ESG into every aspect of a business, including:

• Setting clear supply chain goals in reports, contracts and governance structures
• Assessing, managing and monitoring ESG supply chain risks
• Enhancing traceability, transparency and engagement with suppliers

“Avetta is excited to help our clients grow their supply chains to be greener, more diverse and more inclusive,” said Arshad Matin, Avetta President and CEO. “Our data shows that over a 10-year period, suppliers in our network experience a 7% to 12% year-over-year decrease in safety incidents. We look forward to continuing this successful trend in the ESG market.”

Matin led Avetta to join more than 9,500 companies in 145 countries that signed the United Nations Global Compact in 2020, committing to ethical business practices, transparency and protecting human rights.

The survey also finds 87% say ESG in the supply chain is important—of which, 39% marked it as very important. “While companies recognize the importance of achieving sustainable outcomes, they are less likely to recognize that most of that impact is in their supply chain. This reinstates that supply chain sustainability should be integrated into the company’s broader ESG architecture and not be isolated with the sole oversight of supply chain or procurement functions,” concludes the paper.

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The responses highlight the need for companies to have systems in place to obtain and maintain ESG integration goals. For example, Avetta Connect™ helps companies worldwide deploy new ESG methodologies across their entire supply chain – increasing ESG visibility and delivering new ESG and sustainability reporting. The Avetta Marketplace provides suppliers and contractors deep discounts on safety and sustainability-related products and services.

Matin and Danny Shields, Senior VP of Industry Relations at Avetta, along with David Parham, Director of Research – Projects at Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), will discuss why ESG supply chain management should be an integral part of an organization’s ESG program during a webinar on June 29 at noon Central Daylight Time. The webinar will cover how ESG issues impact supply chains, what data should be reported to corporate boards, and what approaches and tools are being used to create meaningful ESG changes in supply chains.

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