Summary: Climate change is a business issue and the UK government expects that its suppliers should be taking it seriously. That is the message of a new report published by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) which reveals the need for better integration of carbon reduction strategies within suppliers’ organizational policies.
The report, CDP 2009 Public Procurement Report for the UK Government, written by leading climate change consultancy AEA, is the result of an unprecedented collaboration on climate change undertaken by 14 departments and executive agencies, including the Cabinet Office, Department of Business Innovation and Skills, Ministry of Defence, Office of Government Commerce, to encourage their suppliers to disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change related risk.
Just over 80% of the 164 supplier companies taking part in the report were able to disclose their emissions, with around 77% disclosing their scope 1 and 2 emissions. However, the report identified the need to understand all aspects of Scope 3 emissions , such as supply chain and product emissions for organisations to fully understand and appraise their potential weaknesses.
In addition, while two-thirds of organizations have put in place carbon reduction targets demonstrating an intent to reduce emissions, the majority of these are short-term and not in line with the aspirational targets that the UK has set itself.
Source: December 2, 2009 Press Release
More Information:
- The full press release is at https://www.cdproject.net/en-US/WhatWeDo/CDPNewsArticlePages/CDP-2009-PublicProcurement-Report-Launch.aspx
- A pdf of the report is at https://www.cdproject.net/CDPResults/CDP_PP_Final.pdf
Prepared by: This message was distributed by Kellen Mahoney, who may be reached at e-mail: kmahoney@eetnews.com
