pv magazine Webinar | Supply chain transparency on the rise – Where is the solar industry?

Initiative partner: Nextracker

Why are supply chain transparency and sustainability important? Are there tangible business advantages? Our upcoming pv magazine Webinar seeks to address these questions, by hearing from experts in both solar and the electronics industry, to understand what solar companies can do to ensure supply chain best practice.

The past year has seen supply chain transparency and sustainability rise up the business agenda. While the issue is not new, several factors are conspiring to hold companies more accountable for how and where products are manufactured and by whom. For instance, draft legislation was submitted to the European Commission last September to enforce mandatory supply chain due diligence for all companies selling products and services within the European Union, even if their headquarters are elsewhere. Hopes are the legislation will be adopted this year.

At the same time, following claims of forced labor in Xinjiang, China, discussions are taking place in the U.S. and elsewhere to ensure the ethical provenance of manufactured components. The U.S. Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), for example, has recently released a Solar Supply Chain Traceability Protocol and Solar Buyers’ Guide on Traceability this April to help establish supply chain best practice.

The fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic has further exposed pre-existing problems, including social justice issues, while changing investor and consumer demands – environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting, for example – are pushing for more supply chain transparency.

These factors demonstrate just how critical resilience and reliability, in terms of environmental protection and human rights, are for business success. Arguably, the renewable energy industry needs to take these more seriously than most.

pv magazine Webinar initiative partner Nextracker Inc. is one company already making strides in this area. As director of sustainability, Sarah Albert wrote, “We believe that responsible procurement is more than just a Nextracker issue … We hope to begin a conversation with other tracker and solar component companies that leads to broad agreement on best practices for sustainable procurement.” In this upcoming webinar, Albert will discuss improving supply chain transparency with a particular focus on the importance of being on the ground, working closely with suppliers to meet sustainability goals, and establishing a code of conduct.

Joining her will be Evelyn Butler, Vice President of Technical Services at SEIA, who will outline the association’s newly published solar supply chain documents; Craig Murphy, Sr. Director Global Procurement Solutions, Analytics, and Product Compliance at Micron Technology who, in discussing the electronic manufacturer’s supply chain risk management, strategy, and processes, will provide insight on what lessons can be transferred to solar; and Thierry Dardeau, Procurement Category Manager – Renewable Energy at ENGIE, a customer of Nextracker, who will share the company’s responsible procurement strategy, including new supplier onboarding, exiting supplier management, integrated audit approaches and the overall importance of supply chain transparency.

pv magazine Webinar content:
• How to approach responsible procurement, focusing on code of conducts, ethics, workers’ rights on the ground, and environmental issues
• Investor management/stakeholder engagement for supply chain transparency
• Strategies, tools, and software to establish supply chain best practice and identify risks
• Learnings from the electronics industry

Questions can be submitted beforehand or during the webinar via a chat window.

For more information on pv magazine Webinars, please visit https://www.pv-magazine.com/webinars/
Registration for our webinars is free of charge.

This webinar was recorded on 1 June 2021.