Driving needs: Supply-chain activities can make a significant contribution to meeting utilities' environmental objectives and goals, while acquiring the best-cost materials and services.  With our industry facing major environmental and financial challenges-both short and longer-term, utilities executives must act quickly and decisively in leveraging the capabilities of supply chains.  The opportunity to learn first-hand from leading companies outside our industry that have achieved success in proactively developing and implementing financially enhancing green supply-chain best practices will provide essential knowledge to move quickly and decisively.

Core issues:

• Implementing sustainable supply-chain strategies and initiatives that accomplish the environmental and financial management objectives of both the entire supply chain and individual companies within the supply chain

• Gaining the commitment and active participation of senior management and all internal stakeholders for the cost-effective acquisition of greener, cleaner materials and services.

• Integrating green supply-chain environmental and financial considerations into all relevant corporate decision-making processes
• Educating and training suppliers on effective green supply-chain corporate policy and management practices and processes

• Developing, communicating and actively managing supplier expectations and scorecards

• Implementing an active verification process for monitoring and holding suppliers accountable for delivering on their green supplier commitments

Supporting issues:

• Counseling suppliers in adoption of prudent environmental ethics policies, responsible health and safety practices, and effective operating practices

• Deploying leading-indicator green supply-chain metrics

• Measuring the shareholder value of green supply-chain activities

• Managing green/clean supply chains as an integrated portfolio

• Developing and implementing a green supply-chain environmental management system

• Making environmentally and financially sound waste disposal, salvage, and recycling decisions

• Guiding and coaching internal and supplier behavioral and cultural change

Candidate best-practices companies: DuPont, Clorox, FedEx, Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, Boeing, Dell Computer, Procter & Gamble
 

Key start-up dates:
January 17, 2011: First best-practices meeting at Hewlett-Packard

• Reaching agreement and alignment between support services and line organizations-including information technology, human resources, finance, accounting, supply-chain management, technical services-on critical value-adding issues
• Developing the process for reaching a common understanding of "value"
• Defining cost and non-cost performance metrics
• Describing and establishing the optimal mutually beneficial relationship-customer/supplier, partnership, etc.-between the line organization and the service provider
• Managing the delivery of support services with shrinking and constantly changing resources
• Establishing the processes and practices for holding the provider and client accountable for results
• Adequately balancing the often disparate requirements placed on a given service provider by various internal organizations
• Funding and/or paying for services rendered by either internal or external service providers
• Evaluating and managing outsourcing options
• Overcoming cultural barriers to process-improvement change
• Making the best use, if any, of a "shared services" model