Argon & Co helps businesses optimise supply chains by leveraging AI-driven insights, reducing waste, and embedding sustainability for efficiency and resilience.
Supply chains are under increasing pressure. As consumer demands rise and global disruptions continue to test resilience, businesses must navigate a delicate balance between service, efficiency, cost, and sustainability.
Yet, for many companies, while they understand sustainability and its implications, it remains an afterthought rather than a core driver of supply chain strategy.
“Sustainability for me is nothing new. It’s all about conserving every single resource that you have – materials, energy, people, logistics. Obviously, carbon is first and foremost, but sustainability is much broader than that,” explained Sean Mitchell, Associate Partner at Argon & Co.
As a global management consultancy, Argon & Co helps businesses in the industrial sector optimise their operations, cut waste, and embed sustainability at the core of their supply chains. From reducing carbon footprints and minimising excess inventory to leveraging AI-driven analytics for smarter decision-making, Argon & Co’s approach is clear: efficiency and sustainability go hand in hand.
As part of his role, Sean develops and implements strategies to help industrial sector businesses optimise their supply chains, improve sustainability, and enhance operational efficiency by leveraging data-driven insights, automation, and resource conservation techniques.
“We work with companies to identify pain points in their supply chain, streamline operations, and reduce inefficiencies that contribute to waste – be it energy, time, travel or materials,” says Sean.
“By optimising processes – whether in manufacturing, warehousing, or logistics – we help companies reduce their carbon footprint while improving overall efficiency.”
A disconnect between awareness and action
While many businesses acknowledge sustainability’s benefits – lower carbon emissions, reduced waste, and improved efficiency – turning awareness into action remains a challenge.
Several key barriers prevent companies from making meaningful progress in embedding sustainability into their supply chains.
Supply chains today are under immense pressure to transform. As consumer expectations rise, regulatory frameworks tighten, and climate concerns intensify, businesses are compelled to rethink their operations – not just for efficiency and cost savings, but to embed sustainability into their core strategies.
Most industrial businesses are aware of sustainability and its benefits – lower carbon emissions, reduced waste, and improved operational efficiency. However, when it comes to execution, gaps remain:
- Measurement and visibility issues: Many businesses lack comprehensive data on their environmental impact, making it difficult to track and improve sustainability performance.
- Short-term cost vs. long-term gains: Decision-makers often prioritise immediate cost savings over the long-term efficiencies that sustainability strategies can deliver.
- Complex supply networks: In global supply chains, businesses rely on multiple suppliers – each with their own sustainability policies (or lack thereof), making alignment difficult.
“The average client we work with understands that their processes lack sustainability, but they don’t know how to tackle it. The challenge isn’t just about making supply chains ‘green’ – it’s about making them resilient, efficient, and adaptable to the future,” says Sean.
Argon & Co’s AI and benchmarking tools
An essential capability in sustainability management is visibility – businesses can’t optimise what they can’t measure. Argon & Co leverages AI-powered analytics and big data to provide real-time insights, helping businesses track environmental impact and streamline operations.
IRIS, Argon & Co’s AI and big data platform, enables businesses to:
- Process large, complex datasets to gain actionable insights into sustainability performance.
- Identify inefficiencies in supply chains, such as excessive energy use, redundant stock movement, or wasteful packaging.
- Automate processes to eliminate non-value-added activities and enhance efficiency.
- Use predictive analytics to improve planning, reducing overproduction and excess inventory that contribute to waste.
A client in the industrial sector struggled with excess inventory and inefficient stock replenishment, leading to unnecessary waste.
Working with IRIS, Argon & Co helped one of its clients optimise stock levels based on real-time demand forecasting, reducing surplus and improving sustainability.
“IRIS allows businesses to make data-driven decisions that directly impact sustainability,” says Sean.
“By understanding inefficiencies and eliminating unnecessary waste, companies can cut costs while improving their environmental footprint.”
Beyond AI-powered insights, businesses also need a structured approach to track and refine their sustainability performance over time. scprime, Argon & Co’s benchmarking tool, enables businesses to assess the current state of their sustainability efforts and measure progress toward more efficient, responsible operations.
It provides a clear evaluation of sustainability maturity across procurement, manufacturing, and logistics while establishing measurable benchmarks for energy use, waste reduction, and process efficiency.
By identifying gaps and offering actionable insights, scprime helps businesses transition from reactive sustainability measures to a structured, data-driven approach that drives continuous improvement.
“scprime helps businesses see exactly where they stand in terms of sustainability. It’s not just about compliance – it’s about continuous improvement and making supply chains leaner, smarter, and more resource-efficient,” says Sean.
An alignment of goals
While AI and benchmarking tools provide businesses with the data and insights needed to optimise internal operations, true sustainability cannot be achieved in isolation.
A supply chain is only as sustainable as its weakest link. While businesses can implement green initiatives internally, these efforts lose impact if their suppliers operate inefficiently.
Argon & Co helps companies align their sustainability goals with those of their suppliers by enhancing supplier visibility, ensuring businesses have a clear picture of their suppliers’ carbon footprint, resource usage, and ethical sourcing practices.
The company also establishes collaborative partnerships, where suppliers proactively work to improve sustainability rather than merely meeting compliance requirements. Additionally, Argon & Co implements supplier assessment frameworks to measure and track sustainability performance across the network.
“Sustainability in supply chains isn’t just about what you do within your own four walls – it’s about how you collaborate with suppliers to drive efficiency across the entire network,” says Sean.
Ultimately, Argon & Co’s approach demonstrates that businesses can achieve both economic success and environmental responsibility by minimising waste, reducing costs and carbon footprints, leveraging AI-driven insights to eliminate inefficiencies and optimise resource allocation, and fostering a sustainability-focused culture that empowers employees to lead green initiatives.
“There’s no trade-off between sustainability and profitability. The more efficiently a supply chain operates, the lower its environmental impact – and the stronger its long-term resilience,” says Sean.
As businesses navigate an increasingly complex and competitive landscape, sustainability isn’t just about regulatory compliance – it’s about future-proofing operations, building resilience, and staying ahead of industry shifts.
Argon & Co’s expertise in AI-driven analytics, process optimisation, supplier collaboration, and automation ensure that sustainability is embedded at every stage of the supply chain.
By rethinking traditional models and embracing continuous improvement, companies can drive efficiency, profitability, and environmental responsibility – simultaneously.
Discover how Argon & Co can help your business turn sustainability ambitions into measurable results. Get in touch to explore AI-driven insights, process optimisation, and supplier collaboration that make sustainability a strategic advantage: http://www.argonandco.com/en/services/sustainability/