Gartner recently published an in-depth report exploring the challenges of any procurement manager trying to implement a responsible sourcing program, including the effect on supplier relationships. 

It's never been more important to feel close to your trusted global supply chain. Besides rigorous independent auditing, sharing anecdotal experiences can play a crucial and nuanced role in supplier selection. TRAM supports rigorous supplier audits using customised parameters determined by procurement. More unusually, TRAM also provides a searchable wiki where clients can view and share their supplier experiences. These combined elements create a more holistic and relatable profile for each supplier, including their commitment to sustainability.

TRAM also helps strengthen the relationship between procurement managers and an often overlooked sustainability partner: warehouses. Warehouses hold a lot of fully-approved, usable assets on behalf of their clients and should be an efficient, sustainable source of material. However, because many warehoused assets lack visibility, they tend to sit idle and forgotten, even while replicas of these same items are manufactured from scratch. Often for short-term use, these new assets will go into warehousing until they're sent to landfill to make space for more of the same. The cycle repeats itself many times over at a high cost to businesses and, especially, our planet.

TRAM can provide transparency across an unlimited number of warehouses, making every existing asset around the world visible to the right stakeholders and, therefore, genuinely usable. Once on TRAM, assets languishing in warehouses for months (sometimes even years) become instantly visible to designers, project managers, and buyers who can make an informed choice between deploying existing items or manufacturing new ones. The result is rapid and repeated deployment of a lot of existing material. Currently, TRAM's most productive asset is a 100 kilo gondola which has been reused nine times - so far. Reusing this single gondola, instead of disposing and re-manufacturing it, has saved our client over $40,000 while avoiding nearly a ton of landfill. Repeat this scenario a few hundred times and you can see how quickly these environmental and business benefits add up.

​These are just a few ways TRAM's 360-degree approach to responsible asset management can bring procurement managers closer to their supply chain and their sustainability objectives.

Nearly 5 years ago this superb activation kicked off a very successful campaign of tropical-themed promotions across Europe. 

Over 30 props and fixtures joined TRAM's reuse module, a truly sustainable approach to instore activations. TRAM's visuals-first approach, combined with powerful filters, let designers and marketers quickly choose the right assets. 

Everything, including palm trees, crates, tiki bar, interactive touch screens and FSDU's, went on to create great shopping experiences at locations all over Europe. Reusing assets cut lead-times, costs, and landfill waste at every activation. 

Almost five years later, several assets are still busy creating impact at the point of sale. 
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As for the giant, custom-made pirate ship? She went on to add real impact to two smaller promotions before finding a permanent home at a downtown nightclub! 

Proving once again how sustainability shouldn't come at the cost of great design creativity (or vice versa). This stunning activation celebrating the Chinese New Year saved over 200 kilos of potential landfill, thanks in part to TRAM's agile assets module. 

Courtesy of Concourse Display Management (click here)