Challenges

Red Gold’s team faced significant hurdles in meeting sustainability requirements while maintaining efficiency. As a supplier to major companies like Sysco and Walmart, Red Gold needed to ensure compliance with diverse reporting standards, such as those required by the Project Gigaton and Sysco sustainability programs.

Challenges included:

• Managing sustainability data within their small internal team.
• Responding to evolving customer demands for detailed Scope 3 emissions data.
• Addressing the complexity of private label reporting, where unique product specifications and multiple stakeholders add layers of difficulty.
• Ensuring that submitted data aligned with the sustainability goals of major clients while maintaining operational efficiency.

With only one team member dedicated to sustainability efforts, Red Gold required a solution that could maximize efficiency. Latis empowered them to achieve this, effectively functioning as an extended sustainability team.

HowGood’s Solution

Red Gold adopted HowGood’s Latis platform to transform their sustainability reporting processes. Latis enabled Red Gold to centralize data management, ensuring consistency and accuracy across submissions

“Using Latis has made customer reporting so much easier. It’s incredibly intuitive, and we can gather and submit data without getting bogged down in administrative tasks. It’s a game-changer for meeting customer requirements quickly and efficiently,” shared Sandrea Elam, Sr Procurement & Sustainability Strategy Manager at Red Gold.

The platform’s tools allowed the team to:

Simplify data collection and submission

• The platform’s intuitive interface streamlined the data entry process, minimizing errors and reducing time spent on administrative tasks.
• Latis’ centralized design significantly reduced the complexity of customer reporting, enabling Red Gold to meet diverse requirements for Project Gigaton and Sysco programs with ease.

Achieve stronger data insights

• Latis calculated detailed carbon and water footprints for products, providing actionable insights that Red Gold was able to share with customers.
• These insights positioned Red Gold as a proactive partner in their clients’ sustainability goals, setting them on the path to become Walmart “Giga Guru’s.”

Foster collaboration across teams

• The platform improved communication between sustainability and procurement functions, ensuring alignment on key metrics and priorities.

Results

Red Gold achieved the following outcomes using HowGood’s Latis platform:

Efficient reporting for key clients

The team successfully completed submissions for Project Gigaton and Sysco programs ahead of deadlines, meeting all compliance standards and client expectations.

Improved customer relationships

By providing accurate, verifiable data, Red Gold strengthened trust and collaboration with its customers, solidifying its position as a trusted supplier.

Operational efficiency

The centralized data management capabilities of Latis significantly reduced the time and resources required for reporting, enabling the team to focus on strategic sustainability initiatives.

Enhanced sustainability leadership

Detailed product-level insights allowed Red Gold to proactively address sustainability challenges and present data-driven solutions to their client.

The team is building on this momentum and now preparing to submit to CDP and SBTi while working on their first-ever annual impact report. By leveraging Latis, Red Gold elevated their sustainability reporting to a new level of supplier maturity, meeting advanced reporting standards and exceeding customer expectations.

“As a one-person sustainability team, I needed a tool that could do the heavy lifting. Latis not only streamlined my workflow but also helped us move to a new level of supplier maturity in sustainability reporting. It’s given us the confidence to meet and exceed client expectations.” - Sandrea Elam, Sr Procurement & Sustainability Strategy Manager at Red Gold

Key Insights

Red Gold’s experience highlights the value of investing in technology that simplifies sustainability reporting while enhancing the quality of data. Key takeaways include:

• Leveraging platforms like Latis can empower small teams to handle complex reporting requirements efficiently.
• Collaboration across functions, facilitated by shared tools and insights, is critical for achieving sustainability goals.
• Proactively providing high-quality data strengthens supplier-client relationships and demonstrates leadership in sustainability.

Red Gold transformed its approach to sustainability reporting using HowGood’s Latis platform, meeting the demands of clients like Sysco and Project Gigaton while positioning itself as a leader in private label sustainability. By simplifying data processes and providing insights at the granular level, Latis enabled Red Gold to exceed expectations and set a new standard for operational excellence in sustainability.