A study from cloud management company Ivalua reveals that 60 per cent of UK businesses have decreased their investment in sustainability initiatives due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the study, almost all (95 percent) UK businesses have plans in place to address environmental concerns in the supply chain over the next year; however, COVID is likely to stop many of these or slow them.

The research, conducted by Vanson Bourne, surveyed 200 UK-based procurement, supply chain and finance professionals about managing sustainability initiatives and environmental concerns in the supply chain. The results show businesses face several hurdles when implementing sustainability initiatives, with 93 per cent claiming it is challenging to gain visibility into suppliers to track the environmental impact of their supply chain. When it comes to working with suppliers, sustainability id only the third most stated measure. Despite few placing sustainability as a top priority when working with suppliers, 87 per cent of UK businesses believe making their supply chain greener can be a key competitive advantage.

The report found that a lack of digital maturity is an issue when gaining visibility into the supply chain, with three-in-ten (30 per cent) UK businesses reporting a lack of visibility into supplier risk. A further 28 per cent said they had a lack of visibility into tier 2/3 suppliers, while 20 per cent struggle to gain visibility into tier 1 suppliers. Businesses also face challenges identifying and mitigating against environmental concerns in the supply chain, where the biggest barriers are poor data quality (39 per cent), prioritisation of cost (38 per cent) and difficulty collaborating with suppliers (38 per cent).

As a result of this lack of visibility, most UK businesses are unprepared to address environmental concerns, with 81 per cent claiming they do not have comprehensive and fully developed plans to overcome air pollution, and almost three-quarters (74 per cent) claiming the same for carbon emissions.

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