Sustainability in Spare Parts: Strategy or Strain?

Spare parts operations have always run on tight margins and tighter expectations. Get the right part, to the right place, at the right time—every time. But in the last few years, a new requirement has started to take root: make that process greener.

Manufacturers are being asked to align their parts planning and procurement with environmental goals. Not just by regulators, but by customers and investors who expect supply chains to carry real ESG weight. The response, across the sector, has been mixed.

Claudine Bianchi, Chief Marketing Officer at Syncron, believes much of that hesitation stems from a false choice. “The idea that companies must pick between efficiency and sustainability is outdated,” she says. “Doing things well—predictively, with less waste—is what drives both.”

Where the Tensions Show Up

It’s rarely that teams don’t want to be sustainable. It’s that the tradeoffs feel immediate, while the benefits are deferred. For example, avoiding air freight on urgent parts may reduce emissions—but it might also extend downtime, which no service manager is eager to explain.

“Better forecasting can keep spare parts inventory low and reduce the use of carbon-intensive air freight,” Bianchi explains. But she’s quick to acknowledge that this only works when inventory and logistics planning are coordinated at a strategic level—not patched together after the fact.

Some organisations are getting ahead by using scenario-based planning tools to balance both objectives. Others are trying to retrofit sustainability into systems that weren’t designed for it. The results, understandably, vary.

Returns: Liability or Untapped Value?

Bianchi points to reverse logistics as an area that’s seeing quiet evolution. “Returns used to be written off as loss or risk,” she says. “Now, more companies are realising they can extract both environmental and financial value from those flows.”

This isn’t theoretical. By introducing condition assessment protocols, intelligent triage, and part traceability, manufacturers can recover functional components, reduce landfill waste, and cut procurement needs for replacements.

In some industries, that’s already standard practice. In others, cultural habits and system limitations are holding things back. Still, the shift is underway—and it’s being driven as much by margin pressure as by ESG targets.

Smarter Planning, Smaller Footprint

The operational link between sustainability and profitability becomes clearest when you look at forecasting. Overstocking leads to waste. Understocking leads to urgent shipping, which often means emissions-heavy transport. Precision isn’t just nice to have—it’s an environmental imperative.

“Automation and AI are helping cut down on overstock and waste by taking the guesswork out of managing parts and inventory,” Bianchi says. But technology alone doesn’t guarantee better outcomes. What matters is how it’s used.

In some organisations, advanced analytics drive sustainability directly—enabling smarter sourcing, mode-optimised shipping, and more accurate demand prediction. In others, the tools exist, but the business logic hasn’t caught up.

That gap is more common than it seems.

Servitization’s Second Order Benefits

There’s a growing recognition that servitization—once seen purely as a revenue model—is also a sustainability strategy.

“By delivering value throughout a product’s lifespan instead of only at the time of sale, manufacturers are reducing environmental impact while building recurring business,” Bianchi explains.

Preventive maintenance contracts, usage-based part replacements, and longer product life all reduce material intensity and waste. But capturing those benefits requires collaboration across sales, service, and supply chain functions—something many businesses still struggle to coordinate.

And even where the strategy is sound, execution often lags. Cultural alignment remains a bottleneck.

Sustainability as an Efficiency Signal

Interestingly, many companies that have made real progress in sustainability didn’t start with ESG as their primary goal. They started by trying to improve operational discipline—forecasting better, reducing returns and cutting stockouts.

“It turns out, that kind of rigour makes you more sustainable, too,” Bianchi notes.

Still, challenges remain. Tracking carbon footprint across global sourcing is no small task. Balancing cost, availability, and recyclability in procurement decisions takes time. And not every part of the business sees sustainability as its job.

But that’s changing. Slowly.

Final Reflection: From Compliance to Capability

The organisations making progress aren’t treating sustainability as an external requirement—they’re building it into how they plan, buy, and deliver. They’re not chasing perfection. They’re chasing alignment between what operations need and what the planet (and the market) increasingly demands.

As Bianchi puts it, “This is no longer about choosing between green goals and business goals. With the right structure, they become the same thing.”

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. But it’s starting to become expected. And for manufacturers that depend on service uptime and supply resilience, sustainability may prove to be more than a risk, it could become a differentiator.