2Sustain

More and more businesses are working closely with suppliers to improve their sustainable practices.

And now, results of a new study reveal that this type of collaboration can significantly improve the bottom line.

According to The Carbon Disclosure Project 2011 Supply Chain Report, produced by management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, a whopping 86 percent of the companies surveyed saw commercial benefits from working closely with suppliers to improve performance and mutual return on investment –that’s up from 46 percent in 2009.

PepsiCo, for example, has uncovered more than $60 million in energy savings opportunities and a 16 percent reduction in per-unit energy use across its beverage plants, as a result of its carbon management strategy and proprietary energy assessment tool.

“With a robust strategy and proven benchmarks in place, PepsiCo set out to engage and educate suppliers about potential opportunities to innovate their own operations,” said Walter Todd, Vice-President of Operations, PepsiCo UK & Ireland. “By providing suppliers access to the same energy assessment tools we use in our own operations, we’ve seen mutual return on investment.”

The study, which looked at climate change actions and performance of 57 leading global companies and 1,000 of their suppliers across a broad cross-section of industries, also found that:
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Late last month, Xerox Corporation released its 2010 Report on Global Citizenship, providing a comprehensive overview of the company’s activities and progress in five key areas of corporate social responsibility: environmental sustainability, governance and ethics, customer privacy and satisfaction, employee diversity and development and corporate giving and volunteerism.

With regard to environmental sustainability, Xerox reported that: (more…)

Many companies today are focusing on improving energy efficiencies in their supply chains as a way to mitigate risks, lower costs, improve compliance and meet new expectations from a variety of corporate stakeholders.

But, improving energy efficiencies in the supply chain is challenging –and if your suppliers are located in China, that “challenging” task can sometimes seem nearly impossible.

China, which emits more greenhouse gasses than any other country, is notorious for factories with poor energy and environmental performance. In fact, researchers now estimate that many Chinese factories use about 10 times more energy than their counterparts in Japan. And, remedies to improve factory energy-efficiencies don’t come easy there. In China, poor factory performance there is tied into challenges related to the country’s regulatory structure, the professional energy-service-provider industry, and lack of information about opportunities and standards for measuring emissions.

Is there anything you can do to help your suppliers begin moving in the right direction? (more…)