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 results of the pilot will refine the process in preparation for the roll out and will help customers and suppliers to work together to develop strategies to reduce their carbon footprints. Some members will work with suppliers at national level, others will work internationally.
The project will be rolled out in May 2008, and CDP is inviting more companies to join the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration. This will broaden both the geographical and sectoral scope – and potentially bring tens of thousands of new suppliers into the CDP process and extend disclosure globally. A report will be produced on the findings.
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.”
The CDP information request gathers detailed information on companies’ supply chains. It encourages suppliers to report carbon footprints and climate change-relevant information, such as greenhouse gas emissions data, emissions reduction targets and climate change strategy. This is the first scheme that allows corporations to assess the emissions through their supply chain using one single standardized methodology. This will vastly decrease the burden on suppliers who might otherwise receive several separate requests for similar information.
Key sectors which are represented in member supply chains include agriculture, chemicals, transportation, buildings management, packaging and electronic components and this is the first time CDP will collect climate change relevant information from private companies and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration will bring some of the world’s largest privately owned companies into the CDP system. It is also an important step to moving the CDP process into China, where a significant number of suppliers to large multinationals are based.