In late May, I attended the Institute for Supply Management’s first live conference since 2019. The message from Tom Derry, ISM’s CEO, was simple: These are challenging times, but along with the challenges come opportunities for those of us who can step up and lead our organizations into the future. One area where supply chain will be tasked with stepping up to the plate is going to be ESG, the initialism for environmental, social and governance. It was a major theme of the conference, and while all of the reporting requirements are still being debated, there’s little question that supply chain will lead the charge in environmental initiatives as well as areas such as conflict minerals, supplier relations and diversity and inclusion. Just pile those on top of the traditional role of getting stuff out the door and into the hands of customers. It’s going to be a tall order, but as Derry pointed out, therein lies the opportunity to lead. The July/August issue of SCMR is all about leadership, and touches on ESG. Not a subscriber?

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