22 • HR & Recruitment


Te Finance & Business Guide - brought to you by APL Media • Wednesday 22 October 2025 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE Delivering supply chain sustainability


Global supply chains have become increasingly volatile over the past five years


Trade wars, pandemics, natural disasters and security tensions have all contributed to an exponential rise in supply chain risk. At the same time, there are ever increasing stakeholder and regulatory demands to gain visibility across all supply chain tiers, identify and mitigate adverse social and environmental impacts, meet targets such as net-zero emissions and drive the transformation to a circular economy. As a result, sustainable supply chain management is no longer a “nice to have”— it’s become a critical business requirement. Yet implementing a sustainable


supply chain strategy is a significant challenge. Environmental and social risks are not only growing but are morphing and shifting rapidly as global manufacturing hubs are relocated to new regions in response to tariffs, sanctions and geopolitical pressures. Financial institutions increasingly


limit access to green financing — and preferential interest rates — based on a company’s progress on key indicators like Scope 3 emissions. However, many businesses struggle to map their supply chains beyond the first or second tier, making it difficult to identify, let alone influence, the suppliers who contribute most to their upstream footprint. In industries like technology,


where supply chains are dominated by a few large and powerful players, supplier engagement can sometimes be a non-starter when powerful companies adopt a “take it or leave it” stance, declining to share data or take action to help their customers achieve sustainability goals. This turbulent space is where Epi


Consulting thrives. It specialises in the practical implementation of sustainable supply chain strategies,


Epi Consulting specialises in the practical implementation of sustainable supply chain strategies


both at the individual company level and through large-scale industry collaborations. Its approach begins with


understanding key hotspots and the critical enablers in your external supply chain, whether this is CSR risk analysis, Scope 3 emissions hotspot analysis or identification of critical enablers for circularity. From there, Epi offers end-to-end


support: from analysing internal spend data, to developing supplier scorecards and sustainability tender assessments, to embedding sustainability clauses into contracts. It designs and runs collaborative supplier engagement and development programmes, supply chain maturity assessments and forward-looking dashboards that help businesses map and monitor their trajectory toward achieving their sustainability objectives. Over the last decade, Epi has


worked with some of the world’s largest brands helping them meet the challenges of delivering sustainable supply chains and, crucially, it has directly supported major suppliers to meet the needs of their customers. One area where Epi has


developed unique expertise is in its collaborative, industry-wide supplier engagement programmes. These collaborations reduce duplication, streamline engagement and lower costs across large, diverse supply bases. Aside from being more efficient, these collaborative approaches are also highly effective when attempting to influence large,


powerful suppliers, allowing several less powerful customers to align around a unified voice. A recent example of this approach


was recognised at the 2025 Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) Awards, where Epi Consulting received a Highly Commended recognition for Procurement Consultancy Project of the Year. The project brought together


CIRCULARITY REDUCES SUPPLY CHAIN RISK AND IMPACT


14 of the world’s largest telecommunications operators to jointly engage their top 50 shared suppliers. The objective was to establish carbon baselines for high-volume products and services, agree on reduction targets and action plans, and develop robust systems for emissions data validation and reporting. The programme was a win-win for suppliers and customers: suppliers were able to engage and meet the needs of multiple customers, while telecommunications operators shared the costs, effort and data, achieving far greater efficiency and impact than they could have alone.


LITHIUM MINING HAS SIGNIFICANT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT


Benchmark yourself


against global sustainable supply chain best practice, for free, by emailing


benchmarking@epiconsulting.co.uk with the subject — Best practice benchmark-ing offer


SHIFTING SUPPLY CHAINS CREATE HUMAN RIGHTS RISKS


DATA CENTRE GROWTH IS DRIVING INCREASED CARBON AND WATER IMPACTS


For further information


If you’d like to know more about how Epi Consulting can help you, contact John Spear on: T: +44 (0) 560 364 8975 E: info@epiconsulting.co.uk Visit: epiconsulting.co.uk


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