Designing Sustainable Supply Chains

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Tracing a Sustainable Path: Learning Through Transparency
A Conversation with Leonardo Bonanni, PhD Founder & CEO, Sourcemap (http://www.sourcemap.com/)

When we talk about sustainable design, we focus on the product: is it efficient? Is it certified? But the greatest environmental impact is usually felt far from consumers, in the web of global supply chains. New media makes it possible to account for the entire supply chain of manufactured goods: from raw materials to end-of-life. Manufacturers are seizing this opportunity to build more resilient, sustainable businesses from the ground up. New communications platform are shifting sustainability from an internal process (planning, auditing, certification) into a multi-stakeholder activity with a focus on resilience and business continuity.

In this session we’ll discuss how new communications channels and big data are embedding sustainability into business as usual, and what it could mean for designers and architects. Topics include circular economy, cradle to
cradle, life-cycle assessment and equitable trade.

Dr. Leonardo Bonanni is the Founder and CEO of Sourcemap, a New York startup dedicated to supply chain transparency. Companies and consumers use sourcemap.com to learn how products are made, including the social and environmental risks. Behind the website is an enterprise social network connecting suppliers so that – one day soon – you’ll be able to scan a product on a store shelf and find out who made it.

Leo is one of Businessweek’s “America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs 2012” and among Ethisphere’s “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics” (2011). He has a background as an architect and teaches sustainable product design, most recently at Columbia and at the MIT Media Lab where he obtained his PhD.

Sourcemap is a supply chain transparency platform serving enterprises across the globe. They are actively engaged in enabling radical transparency across global supply chains. Together they seek to mitigate the social, environmental, and financial risks by connecting to the people that make our products.