To address this challenge, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has partnered with environmental data provider Trucost to enable members of the CDP Supply Chain program to use Trucost’s environmental data to identify their most carbon intensive suppliers for inclusion in the disclosure process.
Large organizations often have a significant problem understanding and managing their total environmental impacts, due to their long and complex supply chains, which can encompass many thousands of suppliers, according to Trucost. Trucost solves this problem by identifying ‘hot spot' suppliers that offer the most potential emissions reduction.
As Richard Mattison, chief operating officer at Trucost states, "we regularly find that just 10% of suppliers will be responsible for around 90% of supply chain environmental impacts. Our data enables organizations to identify their ‘hot spots', even when their suppliers do not disclose data, and efficiently manage their supply chain risks."
The impact of such an initiative could be significant. Earlier this year, more than half (56 percent) of Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) members surveyed said that in the future they would stop doing business with suppliers that do not manage their carbon.
That’s a strong incentive to start tracking carbon emissions.
CDP Supply Chain currently works with 56 of the largest organizations worldwide, including Wal-mart, PepsiCo and IBM, to help them engage with their suppliers to understand risks and opportunities throughout the supply chain.
It’s all part of next-generation product design, a topic that is explored in greater detail in the related research study, “Sustainability and the Product Lifecycle: A Report on the Opportunities, Challenges and Best Practices for Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing.” So, stay tuned. We’ll be providing updates and an opportunity to participate in the research in the weeks and months ahead.
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