Optimised sustainability data processing
Consumer demand for sustainable products and services is very high, yet responsibility for compliance and requirements is often passed down to companies' suppliers. As a result, suppliers struggle to exchange compliance and sustainability data on various levels across entire supply chains because of a lack of resources, appropriate procedures and information technology (IT) systems. Thanks to EU funding, the SUSTAINHUB (Sustainability data exchange hub) project set out to develop an efficient and integrated platform to improve the handling of sustainable information along supply chains. A set of valid sustainability indicators were defined as well as techniques to calculate and combine them. Surveys helped to determine what key services the platform should provide. The team also devised a business model to support companies in arranging and gathering data on sustainability. The model enables companies to install an efficient communication process along their supply chains. Several IT tools were developed to support data architecture. These include advanced communication facilities for supply chain information interchange, a data model to oversee all features of product and related sustainability data, tools to enlarge the existing information base via data mining standards, and tools to enhance data quality through algorithms that automatically check plausibility of sustainability data. The SUSTAINHUB platform will start operating in 2017. It is poised to transform sustainability data exchange by enabling faster data input and collection, better monitoring of risk of non-compliance, and acquisition of information on eco-efficiency and sustainability. Companies will be well positioned to reduce costs and effort required for collecting data throughout their supply chains.
Keywords
Sustainability data, data exchange, product compliance, supply chain, suppliers
