Sustainable Business

Supply Chain Resource Data 3/3 mining and the fact that while around 90% of gold is recovered within a typical gold mine, other metals fare less well such as tungsten, where despite its rising use and application, less than 75% is extracted from the ore. Greater extraction efficiencies could be achieved, but deeper, more sectorbased research is required for certain material or product types. If this was then linked to material flow analysis across the value chain, right through to end-of-life, it would yield considerable value in terms of building up a reliable database that businesses could refer to. However working out what type of new data is needed, what form it should take, and how it can be accessed, is one of the key stumbling blocks according to ESKTN deputy director David Gardner. In launching the Resource Dashboard, he says its aim is to provide an understandable representation across the supply chain of the risks to growth resulting from resource limitations. "Material security and price volatility are big global risks to industry and business - but how do you differentiate between the two? How are people looking to use such data, where should that data be held and who should manage it? These are the big questions," he notes. Many observers feel businesses can only do so much in isolation in attempting to address these issues, and that more public-private collaboration is needed, underlined by strong government support. It's something readily acknowledged by Defra's own head of sustainable business, Jonathan Tillson. "There clearly is action required [from government]. Our intention is that the Resource Dashboard can play a key part in this approach, but there is a need for a partnership approach between government and business," he admits, while asserting that "we can't step in and solve everything". Meanwhile the Government is working on its own set of industrial strategies which should serve as a template for such collaboration, provided sustainability is written into the heart of them. Braking down some of the market barriers, particularly around competition law to help encourage more environmentally beneficial co-ordination between businesses, would help in this respect. Manufacturers would certainly welcome such intervention, according to EEF's senior climate & environment policy advisor, Susanne Baker. "Government has a role to play in mitigating some of the risks around material security for business. Companies who can adapt their business models around these risks and carve out new opportunities can start to add considerable strength to their profit margins," she says.

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