The greening of suppliers is back in the news. Last week, several large companies, including Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever, announced that they would soon embark on a campaign to press suppliers to report greenhouse-gas emissions. The initiative, called the Supply Chain Leadership Coalition, would press suppliers to release data about carbon emissions and climate-change-mitigation strategies.
Not long before, Wal-Mart announced that it would measure the energy use and emissions of the entire supply chain of seven product categories, and find ways to increase their energy efficiency. Over time, the initiative is expected to spread to many other, if not all, products carried by the company.
What's going on here? For years, companies have been trying to push the responsibility for environmental problems upstream. If suppliers don't send products, parts, and materials that are overpackaged, or that contain toxic or nonrecyclable ingredients, then their customers could reduce their costs and liability in having to dispose of these things.
The pace has quickened recently, and moved to the more visible realm of consumer products and services. (For more stories on the topic, visit our supply chain resource center.) Moreover, big customers like those named above are asking their suppliers not just to be greener, but to disclose their strategies, programs, and performance.
But it's more than that. The previous efforts dealt directly with the packaging and ingredients that ended up on their customers' loading docks. The new push for climate disclosure deals with an impact that the customer never sees.
It's an interesting development. To do business today, you have to do more than deliver a superior product, priced fairly, packaged economically, and containing no environmental no-nos. You have to be an efficient and responsible company overall.
Suddenly, carbon management and energy efficiency have become table stakes -- the minimum commitments companies must make to play with the world's
biggest companies.
October 15, 2007
-- Joel Makower, Executive Editor
www.greenbiz.com
