In the food and beverage industry, volatility is amplified by energy price fluctuations, climate impacts on agriculture, and supply chain disruption. This makes supplier relationships critical, as a significant share of the sector’s environmental footprint sits in Scope 3, spanning farming practices, packaging, logistics, and waste.
Many companies struggle to obtain consistent, comparable data across ingredients, packaging, and logistics partners. Without this, it is difficult to accurately understand the carbon and waste footprint of products or make informed trade-offs when sourcing decisions need to change.
At Blue Yonder, we help companies and their suppliers convert real-time supply chain activity into usable sustainability metrics, enabling carbon, waste, and efficiency to be managed alongside cost and service performance in day-to-day decision-making. This is important in inventory planning and demand forecasting, where food waste and overproduction remain challenging.
We also see more advanced suppliers using sustainability as a competitive differentiator, especially in logistics and cold chain operations, where efficiency improvements directly reduce both emissions and operating costs.
The strongest supplier relationships are built on transparency, shared data, and integrated decision-making.
When sustainability is embedded into planning and execution systems, companies can reduce waste, strengthen resilience, and maintain profitability even in volatile conditions.
Saskia van Gendt
Chief Sustainability Officer, Blue Yonder
About Saskia van Gendt
Saskia van Gendt serves as Chief Sustainability Officer at Blue Yonder. In this role, van Gendt is responsible for developing and executing Blue Yonder’s sustainability strategy and driving sustainability initiatives in product roadmaps and across the company.
About Blue Yonder
Blue Yonder is the AI company for the supply chain. As the world leader in end-to-end digital supply chain transformation, it offers a unified, AI-driven platform and multi-tier network that empowers businesses to operate sustainably, scale profitably, and delight their customers – all at machine speed.
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