Quarter of businesses forced to delay climate plans, says new research
Proxima’s Supply Chain Barometer highlights a quarter of businesses have been forced to delay their plans to decarbonise their supply chain or change their plans altogether due to rising inflation.
The barometer, based on a survey of 2,000 CEOs of UK and US based companies, provides insight in to businesses’ concerns and decision making in response to increasing inflation and global supply chain challenges. Difficult businesses decisions to raise prices for customers and cut jobs are down to inflation, according to CEOs.
Key findings from the research include:
- Inflation slowing progress on sustainability – A quarter (25%) of businesses have had to delay their plans to decarbonise their supply chain due to the impact of inflation. Another 13% admitted that inflation had caused them to change their plans in order to stay on track with decarbonisation efforts.
- Businesses are feeling the impact of inflation – 91% of CEOs say that they are seeing inflation. For more than half, the level of inflation is above 6% – with one in twenty CEOs saying they have experienced inflation above 10%, and a handful saying they’ve seen hikes as high as 100% in their cost base.
- ‘Nearshoring’ is already happening – 15% of CEOs told us they had already acted to ‘nearshore’ their supply chains, while another quarter (26%) said they were actively looking at nearshoring some or all of their supply chains.
- Inflation is forcing businesses to make difficult decisions – Almost half (47%) of the CEOs reported that their businesses had raised the prices as a direct result of inflation. A significant proportion also said that inflation was forcing them to reconfigure their products and services. Close to a third (32%) also said they were delaying planned business investments.
- Business leaders want to see more from government – An overwhelming majority of CEOs (89%) think the government should be doing more to tackle inflation. Close to half (45%) think that the government should be taking steps to cap energy prices for business, while a similar number said that the government should be actively intervening by sourcing certain goods.
Simon Geale, chief procurement officer at Proxima, said: “At a time when global supply chain issues are creating increasingly complex challenges for business leaders it is important to understand where disruption is being felt most, in order to focus on sustainable solutions.
Supply Chain decarbonisation plans, and the speed of delivering on them, are clearly coming under pressure. Businesses are working hard to adapt their plans to reduce carbon emissions, as well as calling on government to do more to help support their business.”
The full report can be downloaded at
