Thursday, September 02, 2010
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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TAGS
"Corporate Social Responsibility"
Healthcare giant detoxes the supply chain
If evidence were needed of the value creation that sustainability can bring then it has been provided across the Atlantic by one of the world's largest healthcare companies.
Illinois-based Baxter Healthcare - a company with an annual spend of $4.4bn - announced in June (shortly after the World Health Organisation officially declared a global pandemic) that it was to become the first to release commercially available doses of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.
And while the news was greeted with relief as the potentially fatal virus swept around the world, it's the firm's sustainability efforts that are ensuring that Baxter itself remains in rude health.
According to the company's 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility report, Baxter saved almost $12m through its environmental efforts - and the firm's procurement and supply chain operation was instrumental in demonstrating that an environmental focus can deliver huge cost benefits.
The company estimates that for every $1 it has spent on environmental causes, the company has engineered $3 worth of savings.
Hardly surprising then, that the company is looking to extend its sustainability efforts as it moves through 2009 and beyond.
"One of our major focuses during the next 12 months will be implementing a global green supply chain program that includes criteria to evaluate our top suppliers' sustainability programs," said Tina Bova, manager, purchasing and supplier management, Baxter Healthcare.
"We recognize that our supply chain and product distribution operations contribute to the company's overall green house gas (GHG) emissions, and would like to better understand the risks and opportunities related to climate change and reducing GHG emissions within our supply chain."
Baxter - which signed up to the Carbon Disclosure Project in 2002 - last year implemented its own Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) at its Deerfield, Illinois headquarters, and are currently tracking its progress in order to widen its scope across its US facilities.
It's not just the company itself that is benefiting, however. According to Bova, many of Baxter's major US suppliers - the top 100 of which represent $2.2bn or 50% of the company's total supplier spend - are also realising welcome savings.
"Participating suppliers have realized significant benefits through the program," said Bova. "One supplier realized cost savings of more than $200,000 a year through improved material handling practices, enhanced material utilization and reduced waste generation and other opportunities."
At the current time those kind of figures are doubly impressive, and there could be more to come if Baxter's ambitious programme continues at its current pace. In the past six years the company claims that its total environmental income, savings and cost avoidance total $91.9m.
Small wonder then, that those companies on life-support are looking to Baxter as shining example.
For the full story, go to www.sustainable-sourcing.com
Procurement Tag - Corporate Social Responsibility
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