WIREDGOV

techUK has published a new paper ‘Risks in Tech Supply Chains’ looking at some of the main sustainability, transparency and resilience risks facing the sector.

Supply chains in all sectors have faced significant supply chain pressures due to a perfect storm of a once in a century pandemic, geopolitics and increasing demand for products. Tech firms have some of the most complex supply chains imaginable so have been particularly exposed to these risks and businesses have faced shortages, inflation, shipping delays and a lot more scrutiny on the environmental and human rights footprint of their operations, supply, and increasingly value chains.

Download the full report here

This paper is to help explore all these issues and is divided into four sections:

• What is a ‘typical’ supply chain for tech? 
• The corporate approach to supply chain transparency 
• Supply chain sustainability
• Supply chain resilience 

The report breaks down examples of some supply chains, including the issues around raw material extraction and manufacturing through to logistics, retail and what happens to products when they reach the end of their lives. Within each of these areas the paper explores the sustainability risks, ranging from forced labour to carbon emissions and environmental damage in the local area, as well as the increasing number of laws and regulations firms governing supply chains. The paper crucially also covers how companies are facing up to the main resilience and security risks impacting supply chains.

The goal of this report is to act as a discussion paper and provide examples and share best practice as to how a business can approach risk mitigation and plan for future shocks. Supply chain risks are going to evolve, so techUK also intends to regularly update this paper as issues emerge and we hope this is useful to members, policy makers and the wider sector.

Download the full report here