Michael UngarCEO of the Industry 4.0 Club

Sustainability Impacts Supply Chain: EV & Consumer Demand

23 Mar 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:36

In this brief dialogue, Speaker A asks about the influence of sustainability on supply chains. Speaker B explains that many suppliers, especially those serving electric‑vehicle (EV) manufacturers, are facing new sustainability expectations from their European OEM customers. These OEMs require suppliers to obtain ISO 14001 certification to meet their own emissions targets. Beyond regulatory pressure, consumer demand for products made with minimal environmental impact is growing, prompting even locally‑focused companies to prioritize sustainability. To stay competitive, firms are adopting measures such as energy assessments, environmental audits, and pursuing ISO certifications, recognizing these actions as differentiators for current and future generations of buyers.

Chapters

So when we talk about trends, one of the other trends that seems to be playing much more into our conversation these days is sustainability. Can you talk for a minute about how that's impacting supply chain?
Yes. We have a number of suppliers who are— who their clients are beginning to have expectations and to make requirements for them around sustainability. Especially we work quite a bit with companies who are in the EV supplier space, and they have a lot of European OEMs that they're working with, and they're requiring them to be ISO 14001 certified because they themselves have emissions requirements that they need to meet. And part of it too is due to not only their own requirements, but also because the consumer is beginning to demand that. And I think that's something that we're going to see more and more, that the consumers are very concerned about, well, I want to know that this product that I'm buying is made sustainably, that it's not contributing to anything, that the environmental footprint is not detrimental. And we're even seeing that locally, companies that aren't sourcing overseas or aren't part of any larger overseas supply chain who have just decided, you know, my consumers, this is becoming a big deal for them. We need to focus on this. We need to figure out how we can do more. energy assessments and environmental audits, or even go for an ISO certification around that, because that's going to be a differentiator for us. And as the generations are coming up and changing, they're going to demand that. They're going to, they're going to require that if they want to buy from you.