As the Responsible Supply Chain Conference (RSCC) London approaches, Logistics Manager profiles the experts set to speak at the renowned event.
Organised by Aurora Insights with Logistics Manager, the event will take place at the prestigious 30 Euston Square, London – a Grade II listed events venue in the heart of central London.
From raw material extraction to last-mile delivery, supply chains are being tested by disruption, higher disclosure expectations and growing scrutiny of labour, sourcing and environmental impact.
Organisations that can evidence progress, manage risk in their supplier base and convert sustainability goals into operational execution will be better placed to protect reputation, maintain access to markets and build resilience.
Packed into a singular in-depth day, RSCC focuses on platforming industry experts that tackle these challenges face on, determining whether responsibility is real in practice and how sustainability affects everything from product and packaging design choices, supplier due diligence and assurance, credible emissions reporting and reduction, operational decarbonisation and the operating model required to embed progress.
One of the experts confirmed to speak at the event is Sriram Kasbe, sustainability advisor at Rodda & Son Ltd.
Kasbe is a sustainability & ESG Lead specialising in carbon accounting, ESG reporting, and supply chain decarbonisation.
At Rodda’s Creamery, he has led a data-driven net-zero strategy, delivering a 14% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions and significant cost savings.
Kasbe is experienced in frameworks including CDP, TCFD, TNFD, ISO 14001, and ISO 14064, and is a TÜV-certified GHG verifier.
Kasbe has also built automated sustainability reporting systems and supplier scorecards to drive Scope 3 reductions.
He brings a practical, data-led approach to green certifications, compliance, and transparent ESG implementation.
Name: Sriram Kasbe
Job Role: Sustainability Advisor
Organisation: Rodda & Son Ltd
What do you see as the biggest challenge organisations face when trying to move from sustainability commitments to real implementation across global supply chains?
The gap between policy ambition and operational reality — and I’ve lived that gap firsthand. At Rodda’s, we’re a heritage Cornish creamery with deep roots in a specific geography and a relatively contained supply chain by global standards. Even in that context, translating a sustainability commitment into day-to-day procurement decisions, supplier conversations, and measurable outcomes is genuinely hard. Especially when the planners, suppliers, are not well versed with sustainable choices or alternatives due to their experience.
What I’ve observed is that most organisations are commitment-rich and capacity-poor. The net-zero pledge is made at the board level, and then the sustainability professional is expected to lead the way but the person actually buying raw materials or managing logistics has no carbon budget, no tools, and no incentive structure that rewards sustainable choices.
The second dimension is supplier readiness asymmetry. Large Tier-1 suppliers can respond to questionnaires and provide data. But the real environmental and social risk sits further upstream in smallholder farms, in processing facilities in lower-income economies where capacity to report, let alone improve, is limited. You cannot mandate your way to sustainability down a chain where your suppliers’ suppliers have never heard of a materiality assessment.
How can companies improve the quality and reliability of Scope 3 emissions data while working with large and complex supplier networks?
Focus on what is material in data, most available type is spend based but with enough pressure, the core suppliers, do tend to focus on refined requirements. Most organisations default to spend-based emission factors as a proxy, it’s fast, it’s defensible on paper, and it requires nothing from suppliers. But spend-based estimates have error margins that can be 50% or more. You’re essentially reporting a confident number that may be directionally wrong. As a TÜV Rheinland Lead GHG Verifier, I can tell you that what gets submitted and what is verifiable are often very different things.
Additionally, tiering your supplier engagement is vital. Not all suppliers carry equal emissions significance. A credible hotspot analysis lets you concentrate primary data collection efforts on the low number of suppliers driving 80% of your Scope 3 footprint. For Rodda’s, that means dairy farming practices and the milk supply chain are where primary data investment is warranted, not stationery procurement.
Building supplier capability, not just supplier compliance, is equally important. Funding emissions measurement tools, running joint workshops, and treating data collection as a shared benefit rather than a reporting burden. Suppliers are more likely to provide accurate data when they understand it helps them too.
What practical steps can organisations take to strengthen supplier governance and ensure meaningful human rights due diligence throughout their supply chains?
This topic is something that I am not confident at answering, simply because HRDD in case of Rodda’s is simple due to the fact its Cornish Heritage and made in Cornwall by Cornish Farmers and the UK has excellent regulations that promote human rights.
How is the concept of the circular economy evolving within supply chain management, and where are companies making the most tangible progress?
The circular economy has had a bit of a branding problem, it became associated with recycling programmes and recyclable packaging, which are real but relatively low-ambition interventions. What’s genuinely exciting is how circularity is beginning to reshape upstream supply chain design, not just downstream waste management. At Rodda’s, clotted cream production generates significant volumes of skim. Treating that as a ingredient to create cottage as a valuable co-product that feeds back into the food system where the real value lies. This requires supply chain relationships and offtake agreements that most traditional manufacturers haven’t historically needed, but is happening now.
We also take pride in our regenerative sourcing. Circular economy principles applied to agriculture mean soil health, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and water retention not just recycled packaging. Farmers who practise regenerative agriculture are rebuilding the natural capital that industrial food systems have depleted. The supply chain is putting a higher focus on nature risk and dependencies, which shifts the views to a more circular economy principle backed agriculture and management as a risk aversion exercise. Where the real progress is happening: In the food sectors with clear regulatory pull packaging under EPR regulations, with many customers such as British Airways, trying to find alternative materials which are biodegradable to serve food in which as a bid to reduce plastic tax also helps to design packaging that is completely circular.
What role do digital technologies and data platforms play in improving traceability, transparency, and accountability across modern supply chains?
Technology is genuinely transformative, with AI enabling power in the hands of those who know not. The most important shift that is yet to arrive, will be AI powered sustainability teams or tools and platforms. Artificial intelligence will transform the capabilities of the sustainability team, by enabling easier data integration, analytics and strategies, the team is more able to focus on tasks that create an effect and not just another checkbox or report or audit/policy document. There are several other uses of AI which when explored lead to the world of limitless possibilities.
Satellite and remote sensing: particularly for agricultural supply chains, satellite data can now verify deforestation, land-use change, and even crop health at farm level without requiring suppliers to self-report. This is a game-changer for commodities like soy, palm oil, and beef where supply chain opacity has historically protected problematic practices.
The honest limitation is that the most vulnerable parts of supply chains are also the least digitised. Smallholder farmers, those who do not understand technology or do not want to transform their way of conducting business due to intertia. Investing in digital infrastructure for these actors is as important as investing in sophisticated platforms for procurement teams in headquarters.
Responsible Supply Chain Conference London takes place 23 June 2026 at 30 Euston Square, London. For speaker information and attendee registration, visit the official event website at www.supplychainconference.co.uk
