Why being a responsible company is so important

Businesses across all industrial sectors face a growing set of challenges to remain competitive. One of the most significant is learning to act responsibly. However, many companies have yet to fully understand just how important this is – particularly within the supply chain. Bernard Molloy, 'Logistician of the Year' and global industrial director at Unipart Logistics sets out an approach to competitive advantage through Corporate Responsibility.

Corporate Responsibility policy now plays a highly influential and expanding role in how companies choose to develop their business strategies.

With consumer awareness of how companies behave ethically and environmentally influencing decisions on the brands they buy, protecting corporate reputation has become a critical focus for companies and is changing the way businesses operate. And, critically, how they choose their trading partners.

Responsible businesses have a reputation to protect and therefore seek to forge relationships only with organisations that reflect their own values and that comply with their own standards and policies on corporate responsibility. Finding suppliers that act responsibly, and that can demonstrate that they do so, is fast becoming a prerequisite to doing business for most corporate purchasing departments. This is as true across engineering, automotive, and manufacturing industries as it is across retail and consumer goods sectors.

The collapse of an eight-storey garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh, in 2013 – where over a 1,000 people died – tragically demonstrates the human costs and the huge risk to brands when suppliers have poor compliance on fire regulations and improper building certificates and controls. There are many other high-profile stories in the media regarding the damaging consequences of big brands sourcing goods from suppliers found using child labour.

Leading companies are keen to demonstrate to stakeholders and customers that they follow corporate responsibility to 'best practice' standards, wherever they are positioned in the supply chain. Companies that fail to adequately do so will lose out.

Corporate responsibility reporting is now a mainstream business practice worldwide, undertaken by almost three quarters (71 per cent) of the 4,100 companies surveyed by the accounting group KPMG in 2013. Among the world's largest 250 companies, the corporate responsibility reporting rate is said by KPMG to be 93 per cent.

Clearly, if businesses wish to thrive then they must adopt sound policies on corporate responsibility and work only with like companies – committing to reducing environmental impacts, acting and sourcing ethically, responding responsibly to the needs of those who work for the company and positively contributing to the local communities in which the business operates.

Another important factor is that supply chains are a key focus for businesses looking to drive sustainability. According to Ethical Corporation's 'State of Sustainability 2015' report, supply chain and procurement was the department most directly impacted by a company's sustainability strategy. The survey found that supply chains were also the area of corporate activity where sustainability was most important. Some 49 per cent of respondents said sustainability was driving business revenues, with 67 per cent agreeing it provided savings.

Many companies now look to measure their carbon usage and their impact on the environment in order to drive improvement in energy usage and fuel efficiency. In the supply chain transport is a huge cost, so becoming more green by thinking intelligently saves money. There are a myriad of other initiatives that can take cost out of the supply chain, improve efficiency and enhance environmental performance. But it takes expert knowledge and, perhaps, the right partner.

As a logistics services company responsible for running the supply chains of some of the world's most valuable brands, Unipart Logistics has for many years realised the importance of being a responsible company, believing that corporate responsibility is about doing well by doing good. This is not simply altruism but commercially sensible and as such it is embedded into everything we do, every day.

The Unipart Value Set has been in place since 1987, forming the basis of our culture and is reflected in The Unipart Way, our philosophy of working, which engages and empowers employees at every level of our organisation to identify and remove waste from processes and continually improve the business.

In removing waste from every aspect of the business and the supply chains we manage, we continue to conserve scarce environmental resources. We use creativity before capital to solve problems and address issues, finding solutions that are low cost in terms of energy resources as well as in terms of cash. In Oxford we have recently installed a 995kW Biomass Boiler as part of our effort to reduce our energy costs and carbon emissions. Approximately 668 tonnes of carbon will be saved a year, amounting to around £10,000 worth of savings on carbon tax and maintenance costs.

For our customers we tirelessly seek ways to improve sustainability. As an example, for Sky we have succeeded in recycling 98% of all waste by recycling waste back to raw materials. The remaining waste becomes fuel (Refuse Derived Fuel), which in turn preserves fossil fuel resources. We also provide an award winning zero landfill service for any returned product, equipment or packaging through a fully auditable and ethical process and are able to leverage our repair capability to provide full repair, refurbishment or harvesting of re-usable parts.

Demonstrating our commitment to being a responsible company, Unipart Group was amongst the top 10 performing companies in the UK to receive a five star rating in the Business in the Community 2015 Corporate Responsibility Index – the UK's leading benchmark of responsible businesses. In 2014, for the second year in a row, Unipart won six British Safety Council Swords of Honour across its principle sites. The Oxford Distribution Centre again achieved a double award, earning both the Sword of Honour and the Globe of Honour Awards – one of only four organisations worldwide to do so, which puts Unipart's performance in the area of health, safety and environment amongst the best in the world.

When it comes to sourcing goods from low cost economies we ensure our suppliers are assessed for their ethical and environmental standards and once a supplier is selected, there are local offices in place in China, India and Thailand with English speaking staff who carry out audits to ensure suppliers are compliant with Unipart's quality and environmental standards.

Corporate responsibility is at the very heart of our business and determines every aspect of the way we work with our partners and stakeholders to produce high performance supply chains that are ethical, sustainable and above all responsible.