Transparent and sustainable supply chains at share

The challenge with share

share is THE impact brand that wants to make the world fairer through consumption. Sounds strange? Consumption & a fairer world? With share, it’s like this: no purchase without social impact.
What you buy to live on, you share with someone who needs it to live. Quite automatically, because: Consumption helps when it is social. This means that whether you buy a bar of soap, a bottle of water or a snack, you are helping someone else at the same time.

The approach of creating social impact on a large scale by selling high-quality products and thus integrating good deeds into everyday life is well received on the market. Share products are available at over 12,000 points of sale, including REWE, dm, IKEA, DB and Lufthansa.
Sustainability is firmly anchored in the company – with social and ecological sustainability going hand in hand. Sustainability is taken into account right from the product development stage. In the next step, share now wants to establish sustainability in the supply chain even more holistically and create efficient structures for the growing number of suppliers.

For share, it is clear that this can only be achieved through transparency in the supply chain and collaboration with suppliers, which requires a digital platform solution.

The solution

As part of the implementation of the VERSO Supply Chain Platform, share invited all suppliers for the food, beverage and hygiene sectors to join the platform. After registration, the suppliers were asked to carry out the Sustainability Maturity Assessment (SMA).

The SMA of the VERSO Supply Chain Platform enables a quick initial assessment of all relevant sustainability areas in the supply chain: Company Management, Climate Practices, Social Practices and Sourcing Practices by means of self-reporting by suppliers. This gives suppliers a profile of their strengths and weaknesses and enables them to compare their performance with the market environment.

“The simplicity of the process convinced us. The tool is easy to use for the suppliers and for us. Registration and answering the questions were completed quickly. The strategic and technical support from VERSO was also extremely helpful,” says Kristin Sebastian, Director of Product Development, Quality Management and Product Information Management at share.

The result

Thanks to the simple implementation and the service provided by VERSO, high response rates were achieved. Within two months, 92% of the requested suppliers had registered and 82% had completed the SMA.

“The results of the SMA form a very helpful basis for discussions with suppliers. Cooperation based on trust is strengthened. And we get a quick overview of the sustainability status for new suppliers,” explains Thomas Hoberg, Purchasing Manager at share.

One example: as a customer, it is important to know whether suppliers have already implemented sustainability standards for their own supply chain and also monitor compliance with them.

share will now extend the VERSO Supply Chain Platform to all suppliers and implement qualification via the SMA as an integral part of the onboarding of new suppliers.

“The iterative approach of the VERSO Supply Chain Platform convinced us. The SMA gives us an overview of the supplier’s sustainability management status. We also understand risks better and can now implement further steps in a targeted manner,” says Kristin Sebastian.

What are the next steps? Transparency is a high priority for share, even beyond our direct suppliers. “Particularly in the case of raw materials that are critical in terms of human rights due diligence, we want to know where they come from and how compliance with human rights is ensured,” explains Kristin Sebastian. Suppliers whose products contain these raw materials are now requested to disclose the sub-suppliers for the products via the platform. This allows product supply chains to be traced step by step and risks to be assessed.