More than half of companies have sustainable purchasing policies, but just 15 per cent have staff dedicated to manage supply chain sustainability.
A study of 430 companies found two thirds of firms define the factors of sustainability across the supply chain.
According to the Sustainable Supply Chain Review 2014, which analysed sustainability reports from businesses in 40 countries worldwide between January and August 2014, 44 per cent of companies provided training for staff in supply chain sustainability. But just 10 of the businesses examined had full-time resources to manage sustainability in the supply chain.
The study also found 56.5 per cent of companies claimed to evaluate suppliers based on sustainability criteria.
“It is clear the lack of evaluating, monitoring tools that can measure suppliers’ sustainability levels represents a weakness, since it is left to internal systems with an insufficient updating and interrupted process,” the report said.
The report rated Deutsche Telekom the best performing company of those in the telecoms, food and beverage, automotive, electronics, textile and clothing and retail sectors.