With the increasing environmental concerns, businesses are striving hard to achieve and implement sustainable practices in their existing systems. Whether it’s by reducing the carbon footprint or introducing an upcycling manufacturing process, several such practices are already prevalent in the market to establish an eco-friendlier environment. However, monitoring these processes or implementing them at the core will require a major transformation from the conventional workflows. This is where the major hurdle lies because a business as large as a wholesaler won’t be able to adapt to these changes swiftly. There will be restrictions at different levels and the underlying risks will threaten the business’s productivity and efficiency.

That’s why implementing wholesale ERP to make the business more sustainable and adhere to the environmental regulations and policies seems like a feasible approach for streamlining the transformation. However, before you do so, it’s necessary to understand the relationship between ERP and sustainability. Without a clear picture, you won’t be able to devise an appropriate roadmap for the transformation, which will automatically generate negative impacts on your business. This being said, we have compiled a detailed illustrative guide for you, explaining how wholesale businesses can leverage ERP software to make the processes more sustainable and go green in today’s world. 

Ways In Which ERP Software Allows Sustainability For Wholesalers

Understanding how the ERP software will positively change your wholesale business for sustainability and environment-friendliness is crucial for accurate roadmap formation and strategic planning. So, we've talked about the five ways through which it will add weightage to your sustainability plans and propel your wholesale business towards the green revolution. 

Optimized Inventory Management

Thanks to the advanced inventory management module in the wholesale ERP software, you can easily manage your stock levels and ensure the numbers don’t go beyond the maximum limit. This way, you won’t have to place insignificant orders with the suppliers, which in turn will reduce the manufacturing rate and pollution caused due to the same. Furthermore, getting real-time visibility of the stocks present in your inventory will also prevent waste generation due to overstocking and not being able to get the merchandise in the distribution cycle before their expiration. Another way in which the ERP software will help optimize your stock levels is through rotation. It will provide you with updated information about the products’ expiry dates and shelf lives. This way you can cycle out the stocks whose expiry dates are nearing first, ensuring minimal wastage.

Enhanced Supply Chain Efficiency

Managing the supply chain efficiently is a serious hurdle for most wholesale businesses, owing to the underlying complexities and lack of end-to-end visibility. However, with ERP implementation, you can easily overcome these hiccups and ensure your business has a streamlined supply chain operation. For example, you will be able to collaborate with suppliers who have adopted environment-friendly practices for material procurement, manufacturing, and processing. This way you can implement strategies for sustainable sourcing and ensure you associate with suppliers who already have adopted green technologies and operations. Additionally, it will also help in improving the logistics operations by providing higher transparency of the entire supply chain and allowing you to implement appropriate action strategies to reduce the carbon footprint. 

Energy Management

A tailored ERP system will also help in optimizing energy management practices by allowing wholesalers to adhere to environment-related regulatory policies and compliance standards. The module will also help in tracking and monitoring energy consumption at different physical sites, like manufacturing units, warehouses, and distribution centers. Hence, you can extract the details and detect the root causes of increased energy consumption for further optimization. Furthermore, the software can also be used for predictive maintenance through which you can easily predict the maintenance needs of different tools and equipment units used at the business centers. As a result, these elements will consume less energy, thereby optimizing carbon footprint.

Paperless operations

Thanks to the advanced ERP software, wholesale businesses can automate several workflows and obliterate conventional paper-based practices. For example, you can use the software to store the details of all your inventory stocks rather than using a ledger book. Similarly, automating order processing systems on a digital platform or generating electronic invoices will cut down the use of paper significantly, ensuring your business adheres to the green regulations and standards by all means. 

Regulatory compliances

Also, the wholesale ERP software will help you to adhere to the regulatory compliances associated with sustainable practices and eco-friendliness. From generating accurate environmental reports to tracking the current industry trends for green technology, you will be able to transform your wholesale business for the greater good. Apart from this, you can also leverage the analytical module to track waste generation and optimize inventory operations and order management strategies to maintain the levels within the stipulated amount.

Case Studies: Success Stories Of Sustainable Businesses with ERP Software

Since it seems to be surreal to use an application like wholesale ERP for sustainable business practices, we have shared a few case studies. These will illustrate how ERP can help implement sustainable and environment-friendly business practices in real-time.

Eco-friendly distribution network

A wholesale organic product distributor leveraged the advanced ERP software to optimize the distribution network and gain end-to-end visibility of the supply chain. The company further used eco-friendly packaging materials and techniques along with a consolidated shipment strategy based on the same demographics of multiple orders. This allowed the distributor to reduce the company’s footprint by almost 20% and adopt sustainable practices.

Sustainable inventory practices

Thanks to the advanced inventory tracking and monitoring module in the wholesale ERP software, an electronics business was able to manage the stock levels accurately, thereby preventing excess product stocks and reducing electronic waste generated every quarter. Furthermore, the professionals leveraged the software for demand forecasting and optimized the orders placed with the suppliers for enhanced order fulfillment and accurate stock levels. 

Energy-efficient warehousing

To reduce energy consumption at the warehouses, an apparel wholesaler implemented ERP software at the core of the business. The software allowed professionals to generate accurate reports on energy consumption and detect anomalies in the actual and forecasted values. As a result, the company was able to implement action strategies for optimal energy consumption and reduction of operational costs

Steps to Implement a Green ERP Strategy

Implementing a green ERP strategy will require proper planning and a detailed roadmap. To do so, there are a few steps you have to follow to ensure there are no mistakes or loopholes in your action strategies.

Assessment of current business processes: 

First, you should assess the current business operations to identify the areas that need sustainable practices for the green revolution. For example, you can use the energy consumption histories to determine if the already implemented sustainable practices need any further improvement or not

Choosing the best ERP software:

The next step is to work on your specific sustainable requirements for the business and choose the best wholesale ERP application. Ensure the chosen application offers robust modules through which you can implement sustainable business practices and make your business future-proof.

Setting clear business goals: 

You should define the future goals related to sustainability and eco-friendliness that need to be achieved with the ERP software. Also, ensure to define the metrics for better performance tracking and process monitoring.  

Conclusion

In this article, we have explained the ways in which wholesale ERP software will help you make the business green and adopt efficient sustainable practices. So, you should start working on the action strategies so that by the time the software is implemented, the transformation can be streamlined and your employees can start using the application to its fullest.