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Today...we are teaching Sustainable Supply Chains and Product Stewardship


Kevin McKnight, former VP of Procurement and Chief Sustainability Officer at Alcoa, teaching today for Penn State Executive Programs

We are up at the Penn Stater Conference Center running our "Building a Sustainable Supply Chain" three-day workshop for Penn State Executive Programs. We have another great group from industry and government.

Kevin McKnight, former VP of Procurement and Chief Sustainability Officer at Alcoa, on "Sustainable Sourcing and Procurement"

  • Leaders identify and characterize the specific, material issues for their business. Leading companies don't settle for a generic understanding of their social and environmental risks and opportunities. Nike was an example. As they state in their 16/17 Sustainability Report: "We focus on materials because they have the greatest environmental impact in the entire product lifecycle."

Nike sustainability impact areas

  • Develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that result in sustainable business outcomes: financial results and social impact. Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan was used as a good example.

Dan Guide, Smeal Chair Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management on "Product Stewardship: Product Design & Closed Loop Supply Chains"

  • Supply chains struggle when the entire output of its upstream process cannot be inputs for other value-added processes or products

  • Xerox was used as an example from their leading work in the late 90s in the servicizing business model

  • "When a product is designed, it's supply chain has been set." We need to design waste out and for multiple-lifecycles.

Learn more about Building a Sustainable Supply Chain and register for our spring offering.

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