Nestle
Amsterdam, 3 September 2021 - Stephane Bonnet, Emea Transport Purchaser at Amer Sports, a sporting goods company, spoke to Smart Freight Centre about his recent experience with our Develop your Sustainable Logistics Roadmap training.
What have you learned from the course and what insights have you gained?
I’ve learnt a great deal of practical insight from discussions with other participants and I found the international approach of the course very useful. It was interesting to learn about the global scope and potential of sustainable logistics as this wider overview is often difficult to gain in country-focused training. I felt the course was very current, practical and informative!
What did you like most?
Both the academic and procurement sessions particularly stood out to me. To understand how an effective roadmap and approach works in practice has been very helpful in developing my own strategy! Providing an academic background also gave me a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced in the sector. It was also personally interesting to learn about the effects of emissions and the large-scale changes required to prevent further damage – these sessions were particularly educational and provided a valuable wider context for developing my roadmap.
How did the training course influence your day-to-day work?
This course has helped kick-start and speed up the development of a sustainability roadmap. Now with a clear framework, resources and insights into successful strategies, there is a greater understanding of how to build our own approach as well as helping to spark discussions across the organisation. At Amer Sports, we recognise we’re in the early stages of building our sustainable approach compared with some other companies and this course has given us targets and a new-found urgency.
How did the training impact your approach to sustainability and emissions reduction in logistics?
Having already started working on this, I feel far more aware when it comes to sustainability. I’ve always tried to avoid air freight shipment or empty trucks, but it was never at the forefront of my mind. I have noticed sustainability is now an important consideration in decision making for me and I think the insights from this course have really helped that.
Even though it’s viewed as important, maybe sustainability isn’t seen to be on the same level as cost and service just yet. I think with many individuals wanting to live in a greener way in their own lives, this will soon start to happen in the company, and we’ll start to see real change.
How are you using the insights within your own company?
Providing good examples of companies who’ve changed their approach to logistics will be a good way to convince and inform senior figures and different teams in the company of the importance. If I outline the work being done by competitors and their changing approach to logistics, there will be more interest in treating sustainability as a priority. I’ll also be using the SFC roadmap as a checklist to ensure I’ve not missed any stage when it comes to a sustainable approach.
What was the key takeaway for you from the training?
The training showed me that sustainable logistics and transportation doesn’t have to be expensive and is achievable, particularly the session with 3M. To learn about how a large organization has developed efficient and cost-effective logistics will allow me to take my own steps at Amer Sports towards a similar approach.
What would be your message or advice be for future participants?
There is a lot of information to digest in this course so make time to reflect on ideas and make notes throughout. You may forget valuable insights and become somewhat overwhelmed without taking the time to summarize sessions.
What are you changing within your company as a result of the course?
The aim now at Amer Sports is to implement SFC’s roadmap and start to consider sustainability as an important aspect in decision making. This may well take time, and changing legislation could be an important factor, but there will be a change of mindset in the coming years for sure.
Would you recommend the course?
I would. I think this training, though, was more suited to organizations that have already started to develop a sustainability roadmap and know their CO2 emissions – it was quite advanced at times for me.