Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains

Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains We are proud to be the lead advisor to the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains—a World Economic Forum (WEF) initiative designed to achieve a better tomorrow. Together, we support industry leaders working to build resilient supply chains and transform their manufacturing processes to reshape the future of industry. Our close collaboration supports sustainable growth to foster a new wave of economic and social prosperity worldwide.

The 2020s have ushered in many challenges. A worldwide pandemic, geoeconomic warfare, and a climate action hiatus have proven severe shocks to the global system. But where there is a will, there is a way to make things better and the manufacturing industry is uniquely positioned to address the big challenges of our time. 

Kearney believes we can come together to ask ...

“How can manufacturing pivot to aid the creation of a more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive society?”

“How can supply chains transform to retain value?”

... and find the solutions to make life better for everyone.

Our mission

The Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains focuses on enabling more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive manufacturing and supply ecosystems through leveraging the latest technology and innovation. More than 150 organizations across 15 industries, together with national governments, academic institutions, and key stakeholders in civil society, are now part of its growing network of thought leaders, changemakers, and experts committed to driving positive change.

Our collective aim is to support knowledge sharing, meaningful dialogue, and strong relationships across multiple sectors including healthcare, consumer goods, transport, logistics, and the automotive industries in order to design globally coordinated responses to crucial issues such as net zero.

Our impact

Innovation
We unlock and deploy innovative products, technologies, and business models to create new value and positive impacts on society.

Sustainability
We support companies to drive sustainable and profitable growth, achieve carbon neutrality, and meet their ESG commitments across value chains.

Inclusion
We empower manufacturing workers through new opportunities and support both companies and citizens to strengthen their competitiveness. 

Click below to follow our latest insights for the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains.

Centre for Nature and Climate

Sustainable Aviation Fuel—Airports of Tomorrow Kearney is proud to announce a new partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the subject of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)—an integral part of the forum’s flagship aviation decarbonization initiative, Airports of Tomorrow.

More than 50 leading corporations and global NGOs have now joined the forum’s community of stakeholders across the aviation ecosystem to achieve net zero and Kearney is fully concentrated on supporting the scale-up of SAF production capacity to reach 300 by 2030.

Five years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) revealed that the world must reach net zero by 2050 if it is to limit global warming to 1.5°C and combat the existential threat facing our planet. Research shows that global air transport is responsible for 3.5 percent of all potentially reducible emissions from human activities. Since flying is so crucial to the way we live now, innovative solutions must be found—and one is the creation and utilization of bio-based and synthetic fuels.

Demand for sustainable flying and SAF has never been higher. SAF can now be produced from a wide variety of sustainable feedstock, ranging from used cooking oils to forestry residues and even carbon captured directly from the air. On a regional level, the EU has mandated that 2 percent of all produced aviation fuel must be SAF starting in 2025 as part of the ReFuelEU legislative package, while the United States Inflation Reduction Act includes a “blenders credit” for each gallon of SAF sold.

Kearney looks forward to bringing together national governments and industry leaders for roundtable discussions to help mobilize capital and produce a range of case studies on successful SAF implementation. Together, we can combat climate change and save the planet for the future of humanity. 

Learn more on the initiative

 

 

Unlocking Green Procurement Dialogue Series Climate Commitments continue to grow among the global Fortune 500 companies, with 40 percent of companies having set a net-zero goal. The supply chain accounts for more than 80 percent of a company’s greenhouse gas emissions. With its strong ties with suppliers, deep understanding of cross-functional needs, and access to detailed supply and demand market data, the procurement department is uniquely positioned to take the lead in putting decarbonization goals into practice. By incorporating sustainability into purchasing decisions, companies have the power to cascade their climate commitments throughout the supply chain. However, this is only achievable if the procurement department undergoes a fundamental shift in several aspects: mindsets, strategies, organization, processes, and capabilities. Green procurement is becoming an imperative.

Climate Commitments continue to grow among the global Fortune 500 companies, with 40 percent of companies having set a net-zero goal. The supply chain accounts for more than 80 percent of a company’s greenhouse gas emissions. With its strong ties with suppliers, deep understanding of cross-functional needs, and access to detailed supply and demand market data, the procurement department is uniquely positioned to take the lead in putting decarbonization goals into practice. By incorporating sustainability into purchasing decisions, companies have the power to cascade their climate commitments throughout the supply chain. However, this is only achievable if the procurement department undergoes a fundamental shift in several aspects: mindsets, strategies, organization, processes, and capabilities. Green procurement is becoming an imperative.

Green procurement addresses organizations' needs for goods and services in a way that achieves value-for-money on a life-cycle basis while contributing to the organizations' climate agenda. To successfully adopt and start practicing green procurement, organizations must strategically reshape the procurement function, transform the traditional procurement cycle, redefine suppliers' performance metrics, adopt new technologies, and collaborate with innovative suppliers to tackle the climate crisis.

This Dialogue Series will mobilize organizations’ procurement function to deliver on the net-zero goal. With support from the public and finance sectors, as well as the collaboration of senior procurement executives across industries, the Dialogue Series aims at unlocking the power of procurement as a critical lever to address the climate challenge. 

Consumers Beyond Waste We are proud to partner with the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Consumers Beyond Waste project—a multistakeholder initiative facilitated by the forum’s Future of Consumption platform. This initiative brings together 40 other leading corporations, global NGOs, and major municipal governments to develop and promote innovative alternatives to the traditional single-use consumption model.

Consumers Beyond Waste focuses on reuse and durability—in other words, packaging and products that can deliver value over multiple use cycles.

A major factor in this proliferation of trash is humanity’s over-reliance on single-use packaging and products. Half of all global plastic production is for single-use applications. To get a sense of just how ephemeral a “single use” can be, consider that the average working life of a disposable plastic shopping bag is all of 15 minutes. What happens to all of that waste? Literally nothing. Less than 10 percent of all plastic trash has been recycled.

There is a better way. Innovators from business, government, and the nonprofit sector are beginning to demonstrate that reuse-centered consumption is both viable and value-generating. In fact, there is mounting evidence that a reuse-driven consumption system—a type of circular economy—would not only solve our waste and resource problems, but also create significant financial benefits that do not exist in today’s linear waste-removal systems.

A shift from linear to circular consumption would save an estimated $706 billion a year throughout the productive economy and generate global benefits worth $4.5 trillion—an amount almost equivalent to the entire GDP of Japan, the world’s third-largest national economy.

Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR)

AVIATE: Advanced Air Mobility Launched in 2024, the AVIATE: Advanced Air Mobility initiative brings together a diverse group of stakeholders to enable the safe, sustainable, and equitable introduction of advanced air mobility and autonomous aviation technologies within the airspace.

Building on the well-established history of automation in aviation, new technology is allowing for more tasks to be handled by increasingly autonomous aircraft and creating a range of exciting new possibilities across drones, air taxis, and larger aircraft. Regulatory and public acceptance, however, has struggled to keep pace with the rapidly ambitious goals of the industry. AVIATE’s mission is to assist the private and public sectors in understanding the complexities of these technological advancements, to identify best practices that maximize their benefits and minimize unintended risks, and to facilitate the deployment of these technologies globally through the World Economic Forum’s network of independent Centres for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. 

Key areas of focus: 

• Enhancing stakeholder awareness and understanding of advanced air mobility and aviation autonomy
• Shaping best practices for the future
• Informing local and global deployment  

Centre for Health and Healthcare 

Global Alliance for Women’s Health  The Global Alliance for Women’s Health is committed to changing how women’s health is funded and prioritized to close the women’s health gap. While women generally live longer than men, they face greater barriers and are less likely to receive effective and timely healthcare because women’s health and well-being are underfunded and under-researched.

The World Economic Forum and Kearney have partnered on this initiative to examine the industry and public sector gaps, barriers, and opportunities for progress in women’s health and move the agenda forward in the areas of science and innovation and healthcare financing with the goal of shaping the future of healthcare with women in mind. 

By partnering with the World Economic Forum, we hope to advance work on areas of specific high unmet need in women’s health including, but not limited to, research and development and health financing in relevant disease areas such as reproductive health (e.g., menopause), cancer (e.g., cervical cancer), brain health (e.g., Alzheimer’s and migraine), heart disease (e.g., obesity), and autoimmune disease (e.g., psoriasis and IBD). 

Our partnership with the Global Alliance for Women’s Health began at the 2024 Annual Meeting where Kearney published an open letter on “Redesigning Healthcare with Women in Mind,” endorsed by the World Economic Forum. To support our activities with the World Economic Forum, we have also launched the [w]Health community consisting of 200+ life sciences companies, healthcare providers, investors, and innovators who seek to collaborate and co-create a healthcare system for women.  

Center for Urban Transformation 

The Future of Travel and Tourism initiative  Kearney is proud to announce a new partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF) whose purpose is defining the Future of Travel and Tourism ecosystem.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, travel and tourism (T&T) contributed directly and indirectly to ~10% of global GDP and jobs worldwide. International tourist arrivals plummeted by 70%+ in 2020, and the industry lost over $1.3 trillion in revenues, but the sector has recovered and has once again reached over $2 trillion in revenue and over 1.3 billion international passengers.

As the industry emerges from the shadow of the pandemic, it’s crucial to address the evolving challenges and opportunities happening in the sector while increasing its resilience. Environmental impact, digitalization, changing consumer preferences, peak demand in certain destinations, and workforce challenges are reshaping the industry landscape.

By convening leaders from governments, business, and civil society, this initiative aims to become a catalyst within the travel and tourism ecosystem, accelerating the sustainable adoption of adapted tourism practices, and driving the collective well-being of global communities and the economic development and diversification of countries’ GDP sources.

The objectives of this project are two-fold:

1. Restart the travel and tourism industry and establish cross-sector communities to identify, articulate, and elaborate on specific strategies to enhance industry practices and stimulate innovation within travel and tourism (sub)sectors, aimed at achieving improvements in long-term resilience and sustainability.
2. Drive and accelerate the transformation of the ecosystem toward sustainability by establishing robust cross-industry public-private collaborations that include governments, businesses, academia, and NGOs. These collaborations will foster innovative solutions and policies that support sustainable tourism and will be tested in two or three pilot cities.

Shaping the travel and tourism industry community will include the following specifics:

• Developing a comprehensive strategy and agenda and generating forward-looking insights for the travel and tourism sector
• Establishing a global platform for industry leaders to foster innovation and accelerate the transformation of the sector and reposition it on the global scene
• Incubating new collaboration opportunities for the sector to act as an engine of sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

Driving sustainability within the travel and tourism ecosystem will include the following steps:

• Establishing a global cross-sector and multi-stakeholder initiative to accelerate sustainability practices related to the hospitality sector, elevate and advance world-leading models for regenerative tourism, and promote effective government interventions
• Generating new insights and driving new collaborative efforts to foster a future for travel and tourism that is sustainable, regenerative, inclusive, and enriching, and engages stakeholders to drive global and local change
• Developing road maps and actionable tools that can be adopted by the public and private sectors to maximize the positive benefits of travel and tourism for local communities and the planet.

Kearney looks forward to bringing together national governments, industry leaders, think-tanks, and academics for roundtable discussions, to help increase global awareness of the importance of the sector, address some of the most pressing challenges met by the industry, and suggest policies, regulations, and economic stimulation to balance tourism flux across the globe and ensure that everyone benefits sustainably along the way.