Presentations

Hi I am Lea Haber! I decided on working in supply chain because of my interest in sustainability.

From promoting lower waste and CO2 emissions to ensuring fairer wages to all participating in the making of a good or service, I believe logistics is a good place to start making a change. Supply chains sometimes require stunning layers of packaging, transport.

I was astonished by the amount of plastic wrap thrown away in warehouse so I’m taking you on a journey to unwrap the supply chain

A warehouse I used to work at calculated they could recycle 164T of paper and plastic if the company put in place a recycling scheme. They could even save money on waste disposal by doing so. Yet they struggle to get the approval for it.

Stories like this one are everywhere in the country and around the world. Companies don’t rethink their stance on the environment and make tangible changes. They don’t see it as a serious threat. Not the environmental threat but a pure business risk caused by changes in external factors. They don’t fear a behavourial changes from their customers, suppliers rethinking their strategy and customers aiming for better

In the mean, customers’ awareness is growing, their purchase habits are evolving and they are demanding more products and services that suit their values. Less packaging, traceable materials and fairer work conditions. While they are doing their best – or what they deem to be a good share of it – they are increasingly asking corporations to improve their products, rethink their waste, offer better alternatives with less waste. Most of the waste is created before a product reaches the end customer and 2/3 of the UK plastic recycling travels to foreign countries.

Customers lack power to reach the bottom of the issue. As a customer I will struggle to know how far my tinned tomatoes have travelled and how much packaging and raw food was wasted while making it. Tomato is not a random example, as the BBC explains here, and a documentary here, China has increased its tomato production massively and they have become the main producer of industry tomatoes (ketchup, tinned tomatoes…). Under EU regulations if a product is modified in Europe it can be “made in Europe”. Long story short you will struggle finding the footprint of your items unless industries change