Supply Chain

Is a phrase used to describe all of the people and companies a product comes in the contact with between the producer and the consumer. You won't find an eco label that relates to supply chain but, non the less it is a pivotal part of how things work.

Supply Chain is not displayed on a label but all the products that display any green label will have had very detailed supply chain analysis carried out in order to make sure its OK to put the label on them.

For example: A farmer grows some organic turnips, the lorry driver comes and picks them up, takes them to a storage depot, then another driver picks them up and takes them to the packing factory, then they are transported to the shop. Care must be taken that at no point that pesticides come in the contact with the turnips, otherwise they aren't organic anymore!

Now take the the above supply chain, and imagine you were putting a carbon label on your product, you may be concerned about how many lorries are involved taking your turnips all over the country. So you could cut out the storage depot and take the turnips straight to the packing factory, saving some fuel = save some carbon.