“Carbon footprinting” has become a buzzword for today’s media, government and business organisations, and implies the measurement of the impact on global warming that can be attributed to an individual or group. To further this end, some of the world’s largest companies have joined forces to measure, monitor, report and ultimately lower carbon emissions across their entire supply chains.
What is the initiative?
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is a collaboration of over 385 institutional investors, with assets under management of more than $57 trillion. According to Paul Dickinson, its CEO: “Increasingly, investors view good carbon management as a sign of good corporate management. Our investors are using the quality of the disclosure as a very useful tool to assess how seriously a company is taking the issues of climate change.”
The CDP has teamed up with some of the largest global purchasing organisations in our initiative called the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration (SCLC). Unilever is one of the original members announced in October 2007, along with Cadbury Schweppes, Imperial Tobacco, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble and Tesco. More recent companies to join include Dell, Hewlett-Packard, L’Oréal, PepsiCo, Prudential and Reckitt Benckiser.
Why did Unilever decide to get involved?
We have been setting and meeting targets for tackling the impact of our own operations – both in environmental and social terms – for some time. For example, we have been sector leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for nine consecutive years and announced as best-in-class by the CDP for our response in its 2007 process.
However, we want to continue to develop our understanding of greenhouse gas management across our extended supply chain and are convinced that the SCLC initiative could make a real difference. There is the anticipation of creating a benchmark for the consumer products sector and other industries, and we are conscious of the need to partner with our suppliers, peers and retail customers to achieve this.
What does the initiative hope to achieve?
The collaboration with the CDP and other companies with similar aims should accelerate learning and leverage expertise in this critical arena across the total supply chain, by reducing not only member companies’ carbon footprints (so-called Scope 1&2 carbon emissions) but also those of their suppliers.
The new CDP supply chain questionnaire goes one layer deeper than the original version by asking respondents for additional supply chain-related information. A CDP information request encourages suppliers to report carbon footprints and other information relevant to climate change, such as greenhouse gas emissions data, emissions reduction targets and climate change strategy.
This is the first scheme that allows companies to measure emissions through their supply chain using one single standardised mechanism. This will vastly decrease the burden on suppliers that might otherwise receive several separate requests for similar information.
How will this be achieved and when?
Unilever was asked, as were other members of the SCLC, to select up to 50 of its material suppliers and to work with them to respond to the CDP pilot information request in the first quarter of 2008. We chose suppliers from a wide range of backgrounds in order to test the pilot questionnaire as fully as possible. Suppliers included private as well as public companies, SMEs as well as multinationals, from all regions of the globe, and across our range of raw material types (chemicals, packaging and foods ingredients).
The results of the pilot will refine the process in preparation for the roll-out planned for May of this year, and will help customers and suppliers to work together to develop strategies to reduce their carbon footprints.
How can other companies get involved?
At Unilever we would encourage your company’s involvement in what we believe is an important initiative, whether as a supplier, producer, or retailer of the consumer products or other industry. If you want to find out more about the SCLC roundtable or would like to get involved in the roll-out phase, then please contact the CDP management team directly by e-mail to nigel.topping@cdproject.net
Ian Midgley is chief supply chain officer at Unilever, based in Rotterdam
