Why Supply Chain Sustainability Is Now a Competitive Advantage

From the Silf Regional Summit on February 12th.

Insights from our conversation with Timo Rossi

At Silf’s recent Regional Summit, sustainability was not discussed as a compliance topic, but as a strategic driver of competitiveness. During the event, we spoke with Timo Rossi, who shared why organisations need to rethink how they approach sustainability across the supply chain.

His message was clear: sustainability is no longer something companies do alongside operations. It increasingly shapes how organisations win business, build resilience and remain relevant in a fast-changing global landscape. Regulation is tightening, customer expectations are rising, investors demand better data and supply chains are exposed to growing geopolitical uncertainty. At the same time, organisations that take sustainability seriously are already seeing benefits in trust, margins and innovation.

From compliance to strategic value

According to Timo, many organisations still struggle because sustainability is treated primarily as a compliance exercise. Much effort goes into reporting, audits and templates – necessary work, but work that rarely changes how the business actually operates.

Real value is created when sustainability becomes embedded in sourcing decisions, supplier development and commercial strategy. When sustainability and procurement are brought closer together, the focus shifts from risk avoidance to value creation.

Procurement’s critical role

A key theme from Timo’s session was the underestimated role of procurement. Historically, procurement has been measured on cost, quality and delivery, while sustainability was left outside core KPIs. Today, however, most environmental and social impact sits in the supply base.

Procurement determines which suppliers are selected, how relationships are structured and which materials enter the value chain. This makes procurement one of the strongest levers organisations have to reduce emissions, improve social responsibility and enable circularity

Scope 3: start before it is perfect

When it comes to Scope 3, Timo highlighted a common misconception: the belief that perfect data is needed before action can begin. This mindset often leads to paralysis.

Scope 3 will never be perfectly precise. What matters is identifying where the biggest impacts are and engaging the suppliers that influence them the most. Organisations that accept uncertainty and start improving while they learn move faster than those waiting for perfection. Direction beats perfection.

Collaboration and digitalisation as enablers

Timo also emphasised the importance of shifting from control-based supplier management to collaboration. When suppliers experience relationships as collaborative, information flows more easily, innovation increases and sustainability improvements accelerate.

Digital platforms play a key enabling role here. By integrating sustainability data into everyday supplier collaboration processes, organisations gain transparency and can influence decisions in real time – rather than treating sustainability as a separate reporting task.

From insight to action

In his Summit session, Timo showed how supply chain sustainability can become a strategic competitive edge, supported by a clear framework and practical digital use cases. Participants gained insight into why sustainability matters for long-term business success, how it can be led strategically across the supply chain, and how it can be embedded into daily operations and partnerships.

As a follow-up to the Regional Summit, Timo and Silf will host an upcoming webinar focused on turning sustainability insight into concrete action.

About Timo Rossi

Timo Rossi is Co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer at Jakamo and Visiting Professor at IÉSEG School of Management. With over 15 years of experience in supply chain strategy and innovation, he specialises in supplier collaboration and sustainability across global manufacturing ecosystems. He is also co-author of Supplier Experience – The Fundamentals of Modern Supplier Collaboration.