Supply chains are a critical policy and market mechanism that local places can activate to achieve a range of local economic, community and environmental goals. Localising supply chains offer significant benefits for local places including:

• Superior local economic performance;
• Growth in new and existing local industries;
• New and expanded business and employment opportunities;
• Increased local ownership and control over assets and capital;
• Reduced supply chain related emissions and environmental impacts;
• Strengthened relationships between local government, business, consumers and communities.

We worked with City of Newcastle, The Yunus Centre, ArcBlue and Future Together Group to understand how localising supply chains can contribute to localisation, sustainability and resilience goals in Newcastle, and develop a set of transition strategies to realise these goals.

We extended on existing activity to introduce the concept of impact supply chains. Impact supply chains intentionally and systematically utilise supply chains to achieve specified impacts. Impact supply chains can be applied at the organisational level, and importantly, provides a framework to organise city-wide supply chain systems transitions.

This work demonstrated that local and impact supply chains can become powerful contributors to local policy goals, such as Newcastle’s goal to: strengthen existing and create new economic opportunities for all in the 2020s, whilst also increasing sustainability and resilience in the local economy.

Download a copy of the report here: Final Report_City of Newcastle Localising SupplyChains 2022_Abridged Version

If you would like more information about this work or would like to explore how to realise these benefits in your region, please contact us: [email protected]