ESG and the need for supply chain transparency

FairSupply provides business and institutional customers with visibility over ESG risk along their entire supply chain. 

Supply chain transparency is extremely complex. There are first-tier suppliers, then the supplier’s suppliers form a second tier, and so forth — resulting in supply chains that often stretch across the world. These chains are not linear, but rather spread with the complexity and shape of the branches of a tree.

FairSupply is a cutting-edge global ESG data provider and consultancy. Its award-winning proprietary technology provides business and institutional customers with visibility over ESG risk along their entire supply chain.

“What we know about ESG is that the associated risk — whether modern slavery, carbon emissions or biodiversity — is hidden deep within the supply chain,” says FairSupply founder and CEO Kimberly Randle MAICD. “Your real risk related to any of those issues may be located on any one of those tree branches.”

FairSupply’s pioneering technology has been repeatedly highlighted by industry and media as a unique solution to this pressing need for supply chain transparency. The data obtained will help directors to know exactly what risks they are dealing with.

“Regulators are taking a strict enforcement approach to greenwashing and misleading and deceptive conduct by organisations,” says Randle. “Directors need to be informed by objective and quantifiable data.”

Now is the time to put in place systems to ensure organisations have the appropriate information to be able to do the right thing. “There is increasing pressure on directors to educate themselves on the risks associated with ESG reporting,” says Randle. “You simply can’t fix what you can’t see. If organisations can’t identify an issue, they can’t actually direct resources to address it.”

Subjective interpretation, where different companies use various methodologies or are self-reporting, cannot provide the objective data required to conduct comparative and meaningful ESG risk assessment across supply chains and portfolios.

“Also, the intersectionality of ESG needs to be measured,” notes Randle. “One example occurs as we transition to renewable energy. As more companies consider reducing carbon emissions, the human rights costs must also be considered, because the 2023 Global Slavery Index highlighted that the manufacturing of renewable energy parts is tainted by modern slavery.”