Frontiers in the Environment

Talk by:  Timothy M. Smith, IonE resident fellow; director, NorthStar Initiative for Sustainable Enterprise; and associate professor, bioproducts and biosystems engineering

Traditionally, corporate sustainability efforts have focused on reducing and preventing direct impacts of waste or emissions. However, the majority of climate, water and pollution impacts are the result of complex supply chains strung together to deliver value-added products and services. You may see processed food and meat on supermarket shelves; what you don’t see are the environmental impacts of corn and fertilizer that go into those products. Nearly 95% of CO2 emissions produced by your favorite clothing lines are from purchased power, chemicals, textiles and transportation used before they reach the store. Voting ‘green’ with your pocketbook often means influencing your supplier’s supplier to do the same. Identifying where in product supply chains to exert influence requires unprecedented coordination and collective action. Join us for a look into ongoing supply chain sustainability initiatives coordinated by large NGOs and corporate consortia, and informed by UMN-led research.