More than 4300 Suppliers to Large Companies Complete Survey, with About One-Third Saying they Reduce CO2 Emissions in 2016.
The latest annual supply chain report from the UK’s Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) repeats the same theme as most recent years, finding some progress in the reduction of carbon emissions in the supply chain, but that the progress towards that goal is too slow and that not nearly enough companies are taking the sort of actions needed to accelerate declines in CO2.
The CDP surveys the suppliers of its 89 member companies, primarily large, multi-national firms across the globe, ranging from Dell and Coca-Cola to L’Oreal and Toyota. There is a detailed survey for larger suppliers, and a more abbreviate one for smaller supplier firms.
For this 2017 report, 8200 suppliers of the sponsoring companies received survey requests, resulting in completed surveys from 4366 of them.
From a big picture perspective, the report says that “Today a growing number of leading organizations, such as CDP’s supply chain members, are developing an emerging body of knowledge and best practice on how to increase visibility and have a positive impact on their supply chain.”
It adds that “Sustainability needs to move beyond organizational boundaries into the supply chain.”
Despite what is characterizes as better progress on the climate front in 2016, “better is still not good enough,” the CDP says, warning that “The sum of all current commitments leaves the world on a trajectory towards around 3.4 degrees Celsius of warming,” a level many believe will lead to substantial environmental damage.
CDP does see progress in the data. For example, as shown in the graphic below, the research found 74% of respondents formally identify climate risks, and 68% identify climate opportunities (ways to reduce CO2), both up a bit from the 2016 report.
Source: TheGreenSupplyChain.com
