Shepherd Color’s Commitment to Sustainable Sourcing

During the past 5 to 6 years, Shepherd Color, like many manufacturing companies worldwide, has been increasingly focused on the sourcing of materials as another critical sustainability factor.

Chris Cossellel, purchasing manager, is responsible for purchasing raw materials, bulk chemicals and packaging components as well as laboratory and office supplies. In that role, Cossellel focuses heavily on ethical and responsible sourcing.

This includes all aspects of sustainability, including from an environmental and social impact. “It has really changed significantly over the last several years,” Cossellel said. “We have become more knowledgeable and more thoughtful about how we source our raw materials – not just what we make of our product but what we bring in the door.”

One of the highly publicized examples of sourcing involves cobalt and other minerals that come from the African region, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is undergoing numerous conflicts. “There’s quite a bit of focus on how cobalt is leveraged in our day-to-day lives, while potentially exploiting people in Africa through unethical mining practices,” Cossellel said.

As a result, Shepherd Color has implemented an extensive process for ensuring that raw material suppliers and its supply chain are doing their due diligence – making sure materials aren’t obtained in a non-responsible way, Cossellel said.

“Most companies have some type of an outward facing policy or declaration about how they wish to do business and we’re a bit different than that,” he said. “In our case, Shepherd Color goes further in that it states that it will do its due diligence and do all that it can to make sure it obtains its raw materials and other supplies through responsible means.

“We also have a certificate of declaration that we expect our suppliers to sign, at least those that are involved with those products that are of suspected conflict nature, like cobalt oxide,” he added. “We have them sign certificates that they, in fact, do their due diligence much like we do.”

Shepherd takes the process another step further through professional third-party audits to ensure that all stages of the supply chain are engaging in ethical sourcing, Cossellel said. “We undergo these audits and expect that our suppliers either self-audit and/or had third-party audits.”