Thursday, March 5, 2009

Global supply chains guilty of ignoring climate risks

Business Green: Many key suppliers to the world's largest firms are still burying their heads in the sand over climate change, according to the first global supply chain study from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). The investor backed lobby group teamed up with over 30 global companies, including Cadbury, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, P&G, Unilever, and Vodafone, to request information on carbon emissions and climate change policy from their suppliers.

The companies received responses from over 630 firms and found that while the majority recognise climate change on the risk and have a board level executive in charge of their environmental strategy, a sizable minority are continuing to ignore the issue. According to the survey, the results of which will be released later today at an event in New York only 58 per cent of respondents considered climate change as a threat to their operations, while a third believed it posed no risk to their business.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, ahead of the publication of the report CDP chief operating officer said that the findings posed a major challenge to multinational firms, given between 40 and 60 per cent of their extended carbon footprint is the result of their suppliers. "The findings suggest that emissions from smaller suppliers are out of control and need to be addressed," he said. "There's a real need for those larger companies that are beginning to act on climate change to work with their suppliers to help them cut emissions."…

A clerk doing inventory work in a Tesco Lotus supermarket in Sakon Nakhon, Thailand. Shot by Matthias Sebulke (Mattes), Wikimedia Commons

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