Impacts on Sustainability Strategy of High-Tech Manufacturers: Requirements, Transparency, and IT-Tools

Abstract

Over the last decade, sustainability has become an important topic that affects the customer and legislative requirements for High-Tech Manufacturing. These requirements have shaped how corporations need to work towards their sustainability approach. This thesis will explore which requirements have impacted and which tools have been utilized by High-Tech manufacturers to create a sustainability strategy.

Four semi-structured interviews were conducted with RamBase partners to explore the topic. In addition to the interviews, a literature review has been utilized to understand which Information Technology tools and requirements affect the manufacturers. The interviews revealed similarities and differences regarding the corporation’s different approaches to sustainability.

The findings show that customer requirements for sustainability in the supply chain is the most important drivers for manufacturers. However, these requirements were often linked to legislative requirements like the Transparency Act and CSRD. This shows that by focusing on the legislative requirements, one can gain benefits to competitors. In addition to the two mentioned legislative requirements, the ISO 140001 certification was an excellent framework for sustainability. The result shows that the legislative requirements were a guideline for corporations to become better at sustainability. Further, different IT tools can be used to gain transparency in the supply chain, which is an essential step towards the Transparency Act. These tools have the potential to become even better and to help corporations towards a more transparent supply chain.

This thesis highlights that the customers directly impact the manufacturers but that the legislative requirements impact the customers. Because of this, it can be beneficial for the manufacturers to focus on the legislative requirements, as it can give them significant competitive advantages, especially compared to manufacturers in Asia and the USA that are not required to follow these legislative requirements.