How to Tackle Suppliers’ Emissions: a guide for procurers

• Circular Economy
• Net Zero Carbon
• Climate Action
• Healthy_Environment

This guide, produced by Business in the Community (BITC) in collaboration with CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), seeks to inform sustainability and procurement professionals on the best approach for managing Scope 3 emissions in their corporate supply chains. This toolkit is designed to show how procurement teams, supported by sustainability colleagues, can unlock faster progress on tackling supply chain emissions, demystifying some of the concepts some businesses find hard to interpret.

How to Tackle Suppliers’ Emissions: a guide for procurers references BITC members Danske Bank, Google, Santander, JLL, KPMG, Microsoft, Salesforce, Tesco and the Co-operative Group.

About How to Tackle Suppliers’ Emissions: a guide for procurers

This toolkit outlines three key elements of successful supply chain decarbonisation:

1. Know: gather data to measure, map, and target emissions in your supply chain.
2. Grow: increase engagement with your suppliers to collectively tackle their emissions.
3. Go: drive emissions down through projects and investments that reduce emissions.

This toolkit is aimed at those who are broadly familiar with the issues associated with Scope 3 emissions and want to get started on their journey of tackling them. It assumes a basic level of understanding of the Scope 3 emissions. For an introduction to understanding your Scope 3 emissions see BITC’s Addressing Emissions in your Supply Chain factsheet and CDP’s briefing How can companies address their scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions?

Supply chain decarbonisation

2021 will be remembered as a year of huge significance for climate change. Nations and leaders are urgently preparing for the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow while grappling with the social and economic recovery from the ongoing effects of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the groundswell of business action on climate change has continued to grow, with over a third of BITC members having committed to Race to Zero at the time of publication (October 2021). However, for many businesses, 2021 will also be when they stretch climate ambition beyond their own operations, to begin to take on the complex challenge of driving down greenhouse gas emissions generated by their suppliers (Scope 3 emissions).

To realise the transformational potential for businesses to influence their suppliers, we need to rapidly scale supplier engagement. But action can be challenging, with data being hard to find and emissions often ‘buried’ further down supply chains. However, as climate-related risks increase, costs associated with managing them will rise too. The snapshot of close to 8,000 suppliers submitting to CDP collectively estimate an increase in costs to their buyers of US $120 billion over the next five years¹. At a time when companies are also reviewing how supply chains should be reimagined in the wake of COVID-19, there is an opportunity to use climate action to build greater resilience and deliver a green recovery.

Business in the Community and climate action

By 2030 the UK needs to have delivered on its commitment to limit global warming to 1.5°^C, something many consider only possible by achieving a net-zero carbon economy. It will be companies that see tackling climate change as part of future-proofing their business that prosper in this changing world.

Find out more about how Business in the Community is innovating to sustain and repair our planet.

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