Elm’s Material/Waste Traceability and Sustainable Supply Chain Expertise

July 23, 2010 - PRLog -- As evident from the Conflict Minerals law signed by President Obama on July 21, 2010 that aims to ban the use of metals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the U.S  electronics industry, corporations and industries are increasingly held responsible for conditions under which their raw materials are produced.   In addition, there has been much publicity around – and concern about - international waste management/recycling associated with shipbreaking and electronic waste.

Unlike new entrants into this market, Elm has been advising companies and industry associations on these increasing expectations/concerns for several years through the following services:

−   Material/Waste Traceability.  We are already assisting companies in identifying, verifying and managing the sustainability/sourcing claims of raw material providers. Likewise, we have helped many clients develop programs to ensure third-party offsite waste disposal activities meet company policies and applicable regulations.  

“Increasingly, responsible corporations are trying to eliminate the use of raw materials produced under unethical or environmentally damaging conditions,” said Liz Muller. “We are helping organizations develop strategies, programs and tools to integrate these efforts into their sourcing functions in credible and cost effective ways.”

Patrick J. Doyle of Elm:  “Similar to concerns about raw materials, many companies want to investigate ultimate management and disposal of wastes sent for off-site management by third parties.  Our international team of environmental experts can identify locations and methods used for waste management.  As several popular media reports have recently highlighted, this is of particular interest to companies who are exporting electronic wastes to locations outside the U.S.”

“In discussions with brokers of environmental insurance, there has been a recent spike of interest for blanket environmental liability coverage for non-owned disposal sites, or NODS”, said Elm’s Lawrence Heim.  “While this has been common in the United States, companies are increasingly seeking this coverage for non-US NODS as well.  Certain exclusions to this coverage may be managed by conducting reviews/audits of the disposal locations, almost identical to the types of audits Elm's partners have conducted over the past two decades, if not longer.”

Elm’s Material/Waste Traceability team is comprised of senior-level experts with first-hand experience in the following industries:
•   Agriculture
•   Retail
•   Textiles
•   Electronics
•   Metals Recycling
•   Forest Products
•   Consumer Goods
•   Food Manufacturing
•   Pharmaceuticals
•   Packaging
•   Waste Management

A completely unique element of Elm’s Material/Waste Traceability offering is our relationship with Sentiment360 to identify, screen and assess potentially relevant information within the millions of on-going internet discussions daily.  

Scott Marticke, COO of Sentiment360: “Sentiment’s unique combination of tool-based monitoring and human analysis of the massive amount of internet chatter can support Elm’s Material Traceability service by finding sources of potentially-credible information that is likely to be available outside of the ‘normal’ business sources.  For instance, conversations from minerals, hardwood or palm oil suppliers may be discovered concerning pricing/shipments from sources that are not acceptable to the ultimate customer.  Also, Sentiment’s data mining scope can be modified to include waste disposal as well as material sourcing.  Any information obtained can then be used by Elm or the client directly.”

−   Supply Chain Sustainability Risk Management.  Identifying practices of raw material and waste disposal vendors is but one element of overall supply chain sustainability management.  Companies also need to seek advice on how to establish a supply chain sustainability management program, including appropriate contingency plans.

“At times, companies are faced with limited choices for vendors,” said Robert Bray of Elm.  “Where vendors or supplies do not meet sustainability or compliance criteria, companies have to be prepared to make important decisions about the sustainability integrity of their supply chain.  Understanding various risk scenarios and options is a critical part of the decisionmaking process.”

With the global reach of Elm’s offices and affiliates, our field investigation teams are staffed with local language skills and relevant senior-level environmental, health and safety expertise.  We work with Fortune 250 companies and their strategic environmental, health, safety and sustainability programs and are effectively advising clients on the myriad issues and risks they face.  Combined with Sentiment360’s ground-breaking internet data mining capability, the Elm team provides unmatched and industry-leading consulting support in this area of critical need.



All information garnered and analyzed by Sentiment360 is public, so no confidentialities are compromised or privacy laws breached. With millions of posts, tweets, discussions taking place online on a daily basis, chatter often contains sensitive materials on a variety of subjects. Sentiment360 counts as clients several Fortune 500 companies, political candidates, communications and marketing firms.

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THE ELM CONSULTING GROUP INTERNATIONAL LLC provides environmental, health, safety and sustainability (EHSS) risk management consulting support through our eight offices across the US and globe. We successfully create and maintain long-term relationships with our clients (including several Fortune 250 companies) and support them in 22 countries on six continents.