It is an interactive website set-up to allow people to create visual representations of a product’s supply chain. Maps contain the source of all the raw materials used to construct the product:
“We built Sourcemap so that everyone can access the information needed to make sustainable choices and share them with the world. The project is free, opensource, and volunteer driven.”
You can either create a map, or view maps created by others. There is a helpful video on the home page that introduces the software and there are other videos elsewhere on the site (http://www.sourcemap.org/info/). They also feature specific source maps on the home page, such as this one for Nissin Chicken Cup Noodles:
As well as listing all the places that supply materials used in the final product, the maps allow you to calculate the carbon footprint of the product (1.11kg in the case of Nissin’s Cup Noodles) and also view supply facilities using Google maps.
Of course, the final maps are only as good as the work invested in producing them, but I thought the tool was an interesting insight into the extent to which business is becoming increasingly transparent.
Have a good weekend
David
Instructor Teaching Site: http://www.sagepub.com/strategiccsr/
The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: http://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/
