2Sustain

A year ago, I wrote about the launch of the Procter & Gamble Company’s supplier environmental sustainable scorecard and rating process.

Now, P&G has released an update on scorecard results, while also announcing that it has rolled out an expanded version for 2011.

“By urging collaboration and unlocking innovation to create meaningful environmental progress, the initiative has already been a success and is just another example of how we strive to touch and improve the lives of more consumers, more completely, in more parts of the world,” Dr. Len Sauers, Procter & Gamble’s vice president for global sustainability, said in a press release. “Working with our external partners is clearly critical to realizing our long-term environmental vision as a company, and this scorecard is a helpful tool to facilitate that collaboration. After all, using 100 percent renewable or recycled materials for all products and packaging will only be achieved through strong collaboration with our business partners.”

The P&G Supplier Scorecard was designed to measure and improve the environmental performance of key suppliers, and it has three fundamental goals: (more…)

P&G underscored its commitment to environmental sustainability with the announcement last week that its Auburn, Maine site is now zero waste to landfill. The Auburn site, which produces feminine care products, is the first P&G manufacturing plant in North America to achieve this goal.

According to P&G, the plant now recycles or reuses more than 60 percent of its waste. The remainder is converted to energy. The company says forming business partnerships was critical for meeting the zero waste goal.

For instance, the P&G Global Asset Recovery Purchases (GARP) team, which is charged with finding external partners that can turn waste and non-performing inventory into something useful, connected the plant with a site solution provider who helped sort all recyclable materials and convert existing non-recyclable materials to energy through incineration. The electricity from the incineration is used by the incineration facility and then, the excess is sold to the local power company. P&G estimates that the GARP team has diverted tens of thousands of tons from landfills while delivering tens of millions of dollars in cost recovery in the past year alone. (more…)

Staples wants to drive sustainability innovation in product manufacturing, packaging and distribution –and the company has challenged its key suppliers with a competition designed to spur action towards these goals.

Staples’ new “Race to the Top” sustainability challenge calls on suppliers to compete not only in terms of product quality, cost and features, but also in finding eco-friendly solutions for product manufacturing, packaging, and distribution. The company says that ultimately, the strategy aims to increase environmental, economic and social sustainability and remove waste and inefficiency of all types.

Similar to initiatives already in use at P&G and Walmart, Staples’ Race to the Top strategy includes collaboratively developing sustainability scorecards for products and packaging. These scorecards, which will specifically track design innovations and environmental attributes, are designed to drive more accountability throughout the supply chain. According to Staples, the supplier scorecard designations will increasingly be scientifically-based and focused on the sustainability attributes that matter most for particular types of products. (more…)

Taking a page from Walmart’s playbook, the Procter & Gamble Company has launched a supplier environmental sustainability scorecard and rating process to measure and improve the environmental performance of its key suppliers.

The new scorecard is the result of 18 months of close collaboration with P&G’s Supplier Sustainability Board, which includes more than 20 leading supplier representatives from the company’s global  supplier network.  It will assess suppliers’ environmental impact and encourage continued improvement by measuring energy use, water use, waste disposal and greenhouse gas emissions on a year-to-year basis.

It’s worth noting that P&G also took the additional step of making the scorecard “open code,” so that any interested organization can use it. According to a press release, that’s all part the company’s effort to create an initiative that can have far reaching cross-industry impact. In fact, P&G is encouraging its suppliers to use the scorecard within their own supply chains. (more…)