Some of the pain points for compliance and sustainability professionals are that suppliers have low quality responses. Over 50% of people say that they're getting kind of garbage data from suppliers. Over 40% simply never hear back. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, wherever you are in the world. Welcome to episode 107 of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast. I'm your host Tom Raftery. Over 50% of compliance and sustainability professionals say they're getting garbage data from suppliers while over 40% never hear back at all. And yet we're making regulatory declarations, ESG commitments and climate pledges based on that same supply chain. If you can't trust your data, you can't trust your risk model, you can't trust your compliance position, and you definitely can't claim resilience. Transparency isn't a branding exercise. It's operational survival. This episode is about why supplier data is still painfully hard to gather in 2026, why email and spreadsheets are still doing the heavy lifting, and how digital product passports and AI might finally change that equation. To unpack it, I'm joined by Lily Hogan, Senior product manager at 3E, working at the intersection of regulatory complexity, sustainability, and supply chain data. Lily, welcome to the podcast. Would you like to introduce yourself? Yes. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. So I'm a senior product manager at 3E, and I'll give you a little bit of background on how I got here. So I started my career as the founder of a sustainable outdoor gear company. As the manufacturer of a sustainable good, I discovered how difficult it was to gather sustainability data and just in general data from global suppliers. So this led me to Toxnot a startup that focused on supply chain data for sustainability and for compliance. The company was built on the thesis that you can't be safe, sustainable, or compliant without accurate and up-to-date supply chain data Toxnot was acquired by 3E in 2022. And that was a big unlock for us. It allowed us to use the industry leading regulatory expertise that 3E has as well as an extensive network of global suppliers. and combine that with the Toxnot vision to create what is now today 3E Exchange, a platform that helps organisations collect, validate, and act on supplier data. So that's what I'm doing now in my day to day. I'm focused on trying to tackle the complex challenges of supply chain sustainability and compliance, and that's really because I'm passionate about the intersection of sustainability and tech and targeting supply chains, the way to do that with a large amount of impact. Okay. And for people not familiar, can you give us a couple of words about 3E, you know, what size is the company, turnover, market share, markets addressed, all that kind of thing. Definitely. So 3E is made up of three different business lines. I'm part of our Supply Chain And Sustainability business line. We also have Workplace Safety and Supply Chain Procurement business line. And so the company services companies in all sorts of different industries, namely chemicals for us. I'll speak to my supply chain business line specifically. Our customers are often in the electronics or the industrials, or the built industry. Those are the main industries that we service, but we do offer services to companies and other industries as well. It's quite broad. Okay, and are you North America? Are you all the Americas? Are you Americas and Europe? Americas Europe, Asia, latam. You know what, what, what geographic areas do you address? Global. Completely global. Okay. Fantastic. Great. Okay, and let's start with what's happening out in the market space that you guys are seeing. Why is getting reliable supplier data still such a challenge for so many companies? It's, it's 2025, probably 2026 when this episode goes live. Why is that still a problem? There are many reasons for why it's a challenge. I'll first kind of take it, maybe even a step back and talk about the drivers for why people want to gather supply chain data. the answer to that is also multifold. If you think about a global manufacturer. They are trying to produce a good and sell it anywhere in the world. Each country, each region, even each state has different regulations that someone trying to sell into that region would have to abide by. So for someone who's trying to produce a good, the motivators for them to gather supply chain data is first and foremost compliance. They're legally abided to. And then the second, another reason would be for sustainability or circularity or ESG reasons. So they might want to ensure that, there's no forced labor that is being used in their supply chain. Or they might want to create a sustainability label to be able to outbeat their competitor that doesn't have that sustainability label. And they're hearing from customers that that's something that they want. The drivers really help influence what the challenges are.'Cause there's different challenges based off of what your motivations are, what the drivers are for, what you're trying to gather data for. And why is gathering that data? Why is it still such a challenge for so many companies? There's a variety of reasons. Gathering data from global suppliers just to like really bring that down for folks. Take someone who's, say they produce an electronic, good. Electronic goods, something we hold every day, a cell phone, maybe a laptop, there could be tens of thousands of components in that electronic good. Furthermore, they might have tens of thousands of suppliers that they're buying those different components from. So if you think about the complexity of that, making a simple cell phone could mean trying to outreach to a thousand different suppliers all over the world. You're dealing with language barriers, you're dealing with technology barriers, you're dealing with proprietary rights suppliers that just don't wanna give you the information. Another one is the inbound of requests. If you put yourself in the shoes of a supplier, you know they're selling their product to however many customers they might have, that's it might be in the hundreds, it might be in the thousands. If they're getting individual requests from each one of those customers, that's an enormous burden on them. So variety of, challenges in that process. And when you look across the market, what's driving the growing pressure then for transparency? We're seeing an increase in regulatory complexity, and with that increase in regulatory complexity, like new regulations are coming out all the time, they're evolving, they're changing. It's really difficult to try and keep up with that. So manufacturers might find it easier to just ask for what we call full material disclosure, or the full list of ingredients that are in that product that they're buying. This allows them to be more nimble with responding to ever changing and quite complex regulations. So increasing regulatory complexity is one. A second is the reality of climate change and the global landscape where we need to make changes in the way we're manufacturing goods if we wanna be able to still produce them in a decade, two decades, in a hundred years from now. We live in a world where there's finite amounts of the goods that we make. And so finding ways to recycle or enter a circular economy where you're reusing those goods instead of, procuring them from the ground again, it's efficient and it, makes good business sense. So companies are looking ahead to the future in that sense. And how do, well, let's say compliance ESG, sustainability goals, how do they all pull on the same data sets or do they clash or how does that work? They truly do, but companies haven't been set up to gather that data in a cohesive way. Supply chain, data gathering is really an enterprise problem. But it's been addressed at a team level or at a, goal level. So, there's one company that we work with that I think does this really well to bring it down to a specific example. They are a global supplier of furniture. They have billions of dollars in annual revenue, and they have multiple sub-brands that they sell under. There's a trend that I've seen over the last five years of companies trying to consolidate the platforms that they're using to gather this data so that the data can live in one place. For this one example of this one customer, they actually have their marketing team and their sustainability team, and their compliance team, all using our platform and gathering data from those suppliers in a unified way. This is a win for many reasons. It's a win for the supplier who's only getting one request from that one company. It's kind of crazy to think about, but like it oftentimes happens that you have one company, you have a procurement team asking for it. You've got the marketing team, you've got the compliance team and the sustainability team all asking the same contact at the same supplier for information, and it's going into siloed places. So bringing that all into one place provides huge, advantages for that company. Although some challenges in permissioning,'cause folks on different teams can't always see the same information, but it's been an unlock for this customer, because they've been able to gather data in one unified platform. And the suppliers themselves, what do they tell you about, the pain points they have of sharing information upstream? so I was kind of getting at this earlier, the, the number of inbound requests that they get is pretty astounding. So we've tried to tackle this problem in a variety of ways. One of my first projects when joining Toxnot was actually to launch a digital product passport solution, which was aligning with regulations coming out of Europe, but also at its core, the goal is to get at the problem of trying to simplify sharing material data up and down the supply chain. what we did is we built a kinda mix and match approach to this technical architecture where suppliers can say, I wanna share, maybe it's my compliance determination for REACH and RoHS but not my sustainability data. Based off of what the customer is asking them, it's one shareable link. They can manage the permissioning on that passport, so that they have complete control over the data, but they're not having to answer emails. It's incredible to think about, so many of these global manufacturers and suppliers are still gathering this data via email and Excel spreadsheets. So if you think about like, you're looking through your inbox, trying to find this one email from this one person and then put it into place, and there's only one person at the company who remembers how it all works. So having this be in a consolidated platform in a way that's reusable, it's simple in theory, but not in practice. Okay. Okay, so we've talked a bit about the pain. What does the good look like? So how, for example, are companies beginning to untangle this? Are there any strategies that really seem to move the needle? There's a variety of things. So one the unified platform, the unified approach to the ask. Asking suppliers in one way. One strategy that I've seen work really well is for one of our flooring companies. Before they sign a contract with a supplier, will have it in writing that the supplier must provide them the data about the products that they're about to be buying. And they have that built into their procurement contract, so that it's there from day one. That works really well. The challenge is greatest for the smaller companies in the middle of the supply chain. Bigger companies that have more buying power are able to gather data more easily. So that's another angle to this. The last thing I'll say in terms of success strategies is at the end of the day, these are all people behind the screens and establishing a relationship with those suppliers, a sense of trust goes a really long way. And that's something that, like I was saying before, with Toxnot being acquired by 3E, 3E has relationships with global suppliers, and so being able to rely on those relationships is a big unlock for our customers because the supplier, if they're getting a request from 3E for data from one of their customers, they're like, okay, I know how that platform works. I have the login already. I can do this in a unified place. And is technology able to play a role in easing that load? You know, things like. Automation, AI, smarter platforms? Absolutely. I'm so glad you asked. That's been the most exciting thing in my day to day lately is thinking about how AI can really solve these problems and the challenges that exist and it's squarely set up to do so. What we're talking about here is data sharing and in practice, suppliers might have information in different files in their computer, or maybe it's not even digitized, maybe it's in a, printout. AI is really good at helping gather large swaths of data and analyzing that in a way that makes the whole process more efficient. In short 100% AI is gonna make the whole process, better for everybody and also allow us to put more time and effort into that relationship piece that is the foundation of all of it. Okay, but how do you stop then all these technology tools from adding complexity instead of removing it? the way that I see it is technology is positioned to decrease the amount of manual and repetitive work. There's a lot of low hanging fruit use cases for that. And so from where I sit, it's a clear win on making repetitive tasks easier, rather than increasing the complexity, I see it as a, as a decrease in complexity for that reason. Okay, so it's around UI designed to design out complexity from the technology. Both UI design and the tools that live beneath it. So right now we are asking suppliers to fill out forms. And don't get me wrong, this is a win compared to an Excel spreadsheet and an email, but it's still an outreach. It's still someone typing out answers. Having technology, be able to take data that exists somewhere else and automate some of that for you, for the supplier. So really underpinning not just the ui, but the technology, the intelligence that lives underneath it it's twofold. And from your perspective, what makes a data collection program actually work for both the buyers and the suppliers? There's a couple different pain points that I wanna touch on. 3E did an in-depth market research project recently, and so I have some numbers to back this up. Some of the pain points for compliance and sustainability professionals are that suppliers have low quality responses. Over 50% of people say that they're getting kind of garbage data from suppliers. Over 40% simply never hear back. On the supplier side, the reason for that is because, like I was saying, it's time consuming to enter that data and do that in a repetitive way and at the same time, regulations are changing and new products are coming out. Companies are always evolving and, creating new products that need fresh information. So there's a variety of ways that 3E helps solve those problems on both sides. On the manufacturer side and on the supplier side. For the manufacturer side, we help automate reminders to suppliers and streamline that supplier survey collection process by making it easier for them to get data into the system, with that Digital Product Passport framework, we make it so that it's super easy to reuse their answers and manage the permissioning of who those answers are going to. Lastly, we have an obtainment team where if you don't even wanna do that again, this is from the manufacturer's side. If you, if you don't wanna manage this process yourself, you can pay for a service and someone will do it for you. So all in all, there's ways to make the process more efficient and automate it. And you know when teams get this right, what kind of outcomes are you seeing when supply chain data does actually start to flow properly? It's coming back to that thesis of being able to be safe, sustainable, and compliant. When you have the data you need, companies are able to make smarter and more informed decisions, and be more resilient. Say a regulation emerges in one of like, their key markets, if they have all the data they need, they can easily say, yep, I'm compliant with that. I don't need to change anything. Or they can say, ah, shoot, I have a chemical that is now banned in this new region. I know which supplier supplies that. Let me see if they have an alternative that will be in compliant, or let me shift suppliers and change my formulation so that I can keep selling into that key region. Okay. Any examples of that that stick with you? Yes. So a relatively recent regulation that's emerging is around PFAS, also known as Forever Chemicals. They're called Forever Chemicals because they persist. A study was done. It was found that 98% of the world's population have traces of these forever chemicals in our bodies, and it's because they've been pervasive in a lot of the products that we use on a daily basis. They're often found in raincoats that are waterproof or in non-stick pans or in fire retardants. So if you think about a pan that you're using to cook your food and there's a PFAS chemical that makes it non-stick and then you're eating the food, it's quite simple to understand how that will end up in your body. So for the companies that are making goods that have PFAS, they have needed to pivot quite quickly towards one, understanding, and documenting that they do have PFAS in their products. And then two, eliminating it if they wanna continue selling into specific regions. So one of our key customers, they're a big retailer, they buy goods that are already manufactured, and then they sell that worldwide. They've had to quickly pivot to one, gathering data from tens of thousands of suppliers to understand if there's PFAS in those products, and then two, take them off the shelves of their stores. They were able to do this because they were able to gather the data that they needed and then be able to pivot quickly. And how does better data change internal decision making or relationships with partners? Your rebrand really gets at all of it, the resilience. Being able to pivot quickly, see when a supplier is not abiding by, maybe it's ethical standards, human rights standards, or emerging regulations. Having the data you need allows you to be compliant at a base, but then if a company were to have new sustainability goals or circularity goals, step one is being able to assess the state of your company and your supply chain right now, and then be able to make changes and pivot. And what's the future of all this, you know, regulations, PFAS, digital product, passports. How do you see the next wave of transparency evolving? So obviously the state of global regulation right now is changing. Things are slowing down a little bit. You see that specifically with the regulations coming out of Europe. The EU Green Deal had certain benchmarks set for 2026 that have since been pushed to 2027. You called out the digital product passports. They are targeting industry by industry, a phased approach to companies needing to have these digital product passports in order to be able to sell into Europe. So that's a pretty, it's a pretty black and white situation once those regulations do go into place. But what we're seeing right now is a delay. And it's understandable because of the level of complexity to gathering all this data and compiling it and getting everyone on board with a unified approach. So that being said, what I see for the future, I don't see a change to the increasing regulatory complexity. That will just continue, and I don't see a change to technology and specifically AI playing a huge role in how that data is being gathered, analysed, and then shared out again. And five, 10 years down the road, what does an ideal data driven, sustainable, resilient supply chain look like to you? That's definitely a tough question. There's no one singular answer. The path that I am on that I see companies going on is, and that really gets me, you know, motivated and excited, is these are really complex problems that we've been tackling for a very long time, and I don't see any huge, major disruption or change happening. I just see us getting better at being able to tackle it with the tools that are at hand. To put that differently, in a perfect world, if suppliers didn't have to spend enormous amounts of time sharing data, if it could be easier for them to communicate the needs that they have and, the challenges that they have to their partners that would make the whole system flow better. And on the manufacturer side, if they similarly could have additional data, it will allow them to make more informed and smarter decisions with respect to, eliminating harmful chemicals from their products. Or if there is a hidden supplier in their supply chain, who is, utilising harmful practices, whether that's for environmental or human impact, being able to pivot away from those suppliers. The message that you send is that we won't do business with you if you aren't looking towards the future and implementing sustainable practices or using efficient practices as much as possible. So in short, minor things can lead to major impact. And you've had a really varied career, Lily. I mean, you mentioned on the intro call that you had a career as an athlete. You mentioned yourself earlier this that you were an entrepreneur, now product leader. What have those experiences taught you about persistence, systems thinking, resilience? I'm so glad you asked. I think I rely on my ski racing career on a daily basis, even though you might not see the connection there. Ski racing is a pretty harsh sport. Its outdoors. The conditions are always varied. No one day is ever the same as the previous one. I was an alpine ski racer, so I was doing slalom and GS one at a time going fast through gates, and it was a race. And so, it taught me resilience. It taught me that you can have one bad turn and you can make it up in the next turn. It taught me that you can have a bad day and make up for it the next day. And you could have a bad season, you could be taken out by an injury, and if you do the work, you can still come back the season later. This industry that we're in, the fight for a better world, a more sustainable world, a more circular world, a more efficient world. It's not an easy fight. So I rely on the resilience that ski racing taught me very often in trying to reach these lofty goals. Nice. Very good. Very good. And for listeners who are trying to improve supplier data tomorrow, next week this quarter, whatever it is, what's one small practical step that they could or should take? At the end of the day, we're all consumers. Mm-hmm. We go and we buy things on a daily basis. I think you can make choices with what it is that you buy. I think you can educate yourself on the kind of sustainability and circularity labels that exist out there. If you're going to go buy a new desk chair or a piece of furniture, there are labels like declare labels or HPDs that inform you about the contents of that product that you're buying. It is possible to make informed decisions. It's very easy to not look past, the price and what it is, the good that you're buying. But by digging in a little bit deeper you can make informed decisions and businesses listen to that. So I think that's one way that you can feel empowered in your day to day is what you choose to buy. Okay. Very good left field. Question for you, Lily. If you could have any person or character, alive or dead, real or fictional as a champion for resilient and sustainable supply chains, who would it be and why? So I went to college in Maine and there's a, man in government in Maine George Mitchell, who after his career in politics in the US, he went on to help negotiate the peace treaty between Northern Ireland and England during the troubles. And I think about him often because he was given an impossible task of trying to qualm a conflict between two people, groups of people who really strongly disagreed with each other, Mm-hmm. and he was able to help them see common ground, and arrive at an outcome. In my day-to-day and in all of our day-to-day, there's problems that we're trying to solve, and sometimes I think it could seem impossible to solve them, but what he did is he found the right players in the game and found common interest and was able to reach a positive outcome out of that situation. So I would really love to have a, a dinner table conversation with him. Super. We're coming towards the end of the podcast now, Lily, is there any question that I haven't asked that you wish I had or, any aspect of this we haven't touched on that you think it's important for people to be aware of? I just would like to reiterate that supply chain transparency one, is not just a compliance necessity, it's a competitive and a sustainable advantage. When data collection becomes intelligent and automated and collaborative, it's easier for organisations to innovate and move faster, to meet regulatory expectations and really just build a more resilient supply chain. And doing that with humans and technology together, I really see a lot of potential for the future. Lily, if people would like to know more about yourself or any of the things we discussed on the podcast today, where would you have me direct them? Our website, first and foremost, it's 3E co, so 3E and then co.com. I can send you the link. And then if you wanna know more about me, my LinkedIn, just Lily Hogan you'll find me linked with the 3E website as well. LinkedIn website. Perfect. Great. Lily, that's been really interesting. Thanks a million for coming on the podcast today. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Okay. Thanks everyone for listening to this episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast with me, Tom Raftery. Every week, thousands of senior supply chain and sustainability leaders tune in to learn what's next in resilience, innovation, and transformation. If your organisation wants to reach this influential global audience, the people shaping the future of supply chains, consider partnering with the show. Sponsorship isn't just brand visibility, it's thought leadership, credibility, and direct engagement with the decision makers driving change. To explore how we can spotlight your story or your solutions, connect with me on LinkedIn or drop me an email at Tom at tom Raftery dot com. Let's collaborate to build smarter, more resilient, more sustainable supply chains together. Thanks for tuning in, and I'll catch you all in the next episode.