Firms work together with Carbon Disclosure Project to assess supply chain carbon footprint

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has released the names of the firms it is working with to help them assess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through their supply chains in 2008.

CDP has teamed up with some of the largest purchasing global organisations under the CDP Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration (SCLC).

New corporate members include Dell, HP, L'Oreal, PepsiCo, and Reckitt Benckiser. They join original members Cadbury Schweppes, Imperial Tobacco, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Tesco and Unilever announced in October 2007.

CDP is working with these global companies and their suppliers to create one single standardized approach to provide key climate change information throughout their supply chains.

Each member of the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration has selected up to 50 suppliers to work with them and to respond to the CDP pilot information request in the first quarter of 2008.

The project will be rolled out in May 2008, and CDP is inviting more companies to join the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration

Paul Dickinson, CEO of CDP commented: "The Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration is a key step towards a unified business approach to climate change. By bringing together the purchasing authority of some of the largest companies in the world, CDP will encourage suppliers to measure and manage their greenhouse gas emissions. This will enable large companies to work towards measuring their total carbon footprint, as this is the first step to managing and reducing it."

CDP said the scheme will vastly decrease the burden on suppliers who might otherwise receive several separate requests for climate change-relevant information.

Comments from members of Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration

Tod Arbogast, director of Sustainable Business, Dell Inc.

"Dell believes that partnerships between companies, suppliers, stakeholders and customers are critical to making a real difference in protecting the Earth we share. Our partnership with CDP in the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration will give us tremendous insight to help reduce not only our own carbon footprint, but ultimately that of our supply chain."

Pat Tiernan, vice president, Social and Environmental Responsibility, HP

"For decades HP's Design for Environment Program has focused on innovation, reducing environmental impacts and responsible practices in product development, operations and supply chain. We joined the CDP Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration project to help develop a consistent and appropriate methodology for reporting energy use and carbon emissions throughout the supply chain."

Chris Wickenden, Group OHS&E and social responsibility manager, Imperial Tobacco Group

"We collaborate with CDP on the development of a simple and effective cross industry framework, to assess climate change risks and opportunities across supply chains, as well as to account for their greenhouse gas emissions. Our aim is to prepare ourselves and our suppliers step by step for a marketplace where measuring and managing carbon is no longer optional, while keeping the administrative burden to a minimum."

Pierre Simoncelli, corporate sustainable development Managing Director, L'Oreal

"L'Oreal is pleased to be one of the first members of the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration. We believe our participation in this pilot project is a win-win for the Environment, our Suppliers and L'Oreal. Our suppliers will now have a single central source for reporting their greenhouse gas strategies and results that is accessible to all their customers. We also believe this will help drive our performance as well as theirs in this important environmental area."

Walter Todd, vice president, Operations for PepsiCo in the UK

"This initiative fits our 'Performance with Purpose' mission. It's a great opportunity for us to work closely with our suppliers to encourage them to understand and reduce their carbon footprints, and to identify opportunities where we can work together with them to reduce our collective impact on the environment. In doing so, we hope to develop a more economically secure supply chain that is able to face the tough climate change challenges that lie ahead, one that we believe will bring long-term future benefits to PepsiCo UK, our suppliers, and the environment."

Dr. Peter White, director global sustainability, P&G

"Participating in the CDP Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration is one of the steps that will help P&G achieve its new 5 year sustainability goals, which include improving the environmental profile of our products across their lifecycles. Working within supply chains to innovate and reduce CO2, as well as other environmental impacts, will be a key part of this work."

Edward Butt, vice president sustainability, Reckitt Benckiser Group plc:

"The Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration project is an important step forward in understanding and reducing organisations and products carbon footprints. Not only is it contributing to our own Carbon 20 programme to reduce the Total Carbon Footprint of our products across their entire lifecycle, the data derived from the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration project will also help to drive within our global supply chain additional measurement and improved management of climate change impacting processes, products and services."

Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive, Tesco

"Tesco is one of the founding partners in the new CDP initiative for the supply chain. It has a simple aim: to bring together major retailers and key brands so that we can understand, report and reduce carbon emissions within the supply chain. I very much hope that firms who supply us and our competitors will consider being part of this venture"

Ian Midgley, senior vice president supply chain for Unilever plc:

"We have been setting and meeting targets for tackling the impact of our own operations on the environment for some considerable time, but we really want to continue to develop our understanding of greenhouse gas management across our extended supply chain. The collaboration with the CDP and other companies with similar aims should accelerate learning and leverage expertise in this critical arena. Hence we are delighted that participation in the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration pilot is continuing to grow. We look forward to being part of this work over the coming months."

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