Harnessing existing technology deployments to drive supply chain sustainability

Globalized and interoperable supply chains have opened up business opportunities like never before. From car parts to clothes, an increasing number of businesses are now operating on a global scale, opening up access to cheaper materials, regional labor specializations, and perhaps most importantly of all, a much wider customer base. This globalization has, however, also led to more complex supply chains and technology deployments to help businesses overcome these challenges and ensure optimized operations.

Adding to the complexity are the increasing expectations that businesses must be accountable for their environmental impact. 54% of consumers have stated that they’d be willing to pay a premium for sustainable products and over the past five years, products making claims related to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) objectives accounted for 56% of all growth in consumer spending.

This sustainability focus is also now extending into regulatory requirements, such as the European Union’s incoming Digital Product Passport (DPP) – part of the European Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan, ramping up pressure further.

So, how can businesses ensure greener, more transparent supply chains to meet customer demand and comply with environmental legislation? Existing data and technology deployments may hold the answer.

Enhancing supply chains

Businesses across all sectors have undergone a seismic digital transformation in the last decade, deploying new technologies to increase visibility into their supply chains and enhance operational efficiency using the generated data insights.

RAIN: a standards-based UHF RFID technology is one such technology. Many industries already use RAIN to enable deeper visibility and traceability through its data-driven insights. In 2023, 50% of the 45 billion RAIN tags shipped went to the retail sector. Applications for the technology include inventory management, supply chain management, and loss prevention – enabling businesses to minimize waste and maximize profits. Organizations are also using the technology in their supply chains to enable smarter, more efficient manufacturing production processes, predictive maintenance, and location of critical assets, and to streamline logistics operations through enhanced supply chain visibility.

Added capabilities without huge cost

With sustainability increasingly a strategic and regulatory priority for supply chains, businesses are understandably nervous about the cost and resources it will take to ensure they are able to meet the necessary traceability and transparency requirements of the DPP.

The impending regulation will require companies to provide detailed product information, including the product’s origin, its composition, and the manufacturing process. Tracking a product throughout its entire lifecycle will be crucial to ensuring transparency across the supply chain as it validates that raw materials are responsibly sourced. Without a transparent and easily accessible method to trace all constituent parts that make up their product this can be a difficult task for supply chain professionals.

This is where existing technology deployments like RAIN can play a key role, as the data, which is already available from tagged products in many supply chain operations and is used to optimize inventory management, logistics, and asset tracking can be harnessed for traceability and sustainability reporting purposes. The added benefit here is that no new technology is required, meaning businesses don’t have to incur huge costs or drained resources as they adapt to enable more sustainable, traceable supply chain operations.

Enabling smarter choices

A data-led approach to supply chain management enables businesses to make more informed choices that optimize resource allocation and reduce product wastage. This efficiency has a direct impact on sustainable business practices. Enhanced visibility into inventory management helps prevent over ordering, and reduces the time taken to take stock. These benefits can be critical for industries such as food or pharmaceuticals, where getting the product to market before a sell-by date is critical. Less idle time and less overordering means less waste, which in turn results in a more sustainable and more profitable supply chain.

Enhanced and verifiable traceability also brings with it the additional benefit of consumer trust. With more individuals making purchasing decisions based on a brand’s sustainability policies, the ability to trace a product from source provides trust that the brand is adhering to the sustainable values it claims.

And it’s not just the products themselves that can be tracked. Using RAIN in logistics and fleet management gives real-time visibility into the location and condition of each tagged item throughout the supply chain. This allows organizations to identify and rectify any bottlenecks in the supply chain quickly. At the same time, RAIN sensors can also provide information on potential risks to the stock such as temperature changes, humidity levels, or how much the product is vibrating while in transit. Furthermore, a RAIN tag can provide information even when a vehicle is moving, helping enhance delivery centre throughput. This enhanced data gives unparalleled control over logistics management, helping reduce waste and achieve sustainability objectives.

Using DPP to give new life

The data already captured through existing technology – such as RAIN tags – also offers businesses an opportunity to better manage products at the end of their lifecycle. The information stored on a tag can include all the necessary details to optimize sorting and recycling, inform decisions about refurbishment or reuse, and sustainably manage the product’s end-of-life. And soon, this focus on circularity won’t be optional.

DPP regulations will require that all necessary information on the composition and recyclability of a product is readily available throughout its entire lifecycle. With distance and mass-reading capabilities, RAIN technologies give companies the tools to meet these DPP requirements with efficient, accurate, and cost-effective sorting processes.

An interoperable future for sustainability

From the largest heavy industry manufacturers to the local farm shop, being able to streamline the manufacturing process, improve timelines for deliveries and efficiently manage inventory are fundamental to retaining profitability. The need for greater supply chain sustainability at the same time adds to the challenge. However, by harnessing existing technology in the right way, organizations can ensure they resolve both of these issues simultaneously and without added costs.

Using interoperable data carriers such as RAIN allow business to unlock operational efficiencies and enable access to key information on a product’s composition, its journey along the supply chain and its eventual recyclability.

DPP requirements call for agile, market-driven systems that are accessible and affordable to all. The more stakeholders within a supply chain that take part, the better optimized a system can be; this is the key to true circularity. A transparent supply chain gives businesses a way to verify sustainable sourcing and practices in a way that doesn’t just meet legislated mandates, but also builds consumer trust, helping businesses stand out in a market that’s increasingly focused on sustainability.