The Carbon Trust has launched a new international certification for organisations working to measure, manage and reduce carbon emissions outside their direct operational control.

Seven large businesses have demonstrated their sustainability leadership by becoming the first organisations to be awarded the new Carbon Trust Standard for Supply Chain.  The new certification is the world’s first independent certification to recognise organisations that have put in place a framework to measure, manage and reduce carbon emissions across their supply chain.

The pathfinder companies - ABP Food Group, Aviva, Central England Co-operative, Deloitte UK, Nationwide, PwC UK and Willmott Dixon – each have procurement spends that are measured in hundreds of millions, or billions of pounds. Their purchasing power gives them an opportunity to have a positive influence outside their operational boundaries, through engaging with key suppliers to get them to reduce their own carbon emissions.

In most sectors the direct environmental impacts of an organisation are dwarfed by the carbon emissions relating to the products and services in their supply chain.

Introducing the new Standard, the Carbon Trust said that large organisations often harness their procurement power to secure better quality or lower prices. However, if they also engage and demand higher environmental standards, they can change the behaviour of both direct and indirect suppliers, helping them to become more sustainable.

The Carbon Trust launched the Standard in recognition that in order for organisations to do this well they need a framework to support them to identify the most significant areas of emissions and opportunities for reduction in large and complex supply chains, often with thousands of individual suppliers.

The Standard provides a management system that helps guide efforts, drives continuous improvement and recognises success.

To achieve the Standard, organisations need to complete a detailed hotspot analysis to identify the most significant areas of carbon emissions within their supply chain.

This is then used to determine a quantitative baseline for emissions reduction and prioritise suppliers for future engagement. To retain the Standard on an ongoing basis organisations must demonstrate evidence of supplier engagement, demonstrate reductions in specified parts of their supply chain, and then expand their approach to engage different areas or suppliers.

Darran Messem, Managing Director of Certification at the Carbon Trust commented:

“Looking beyond just environmental impacts, going through a process of measuring the carbon footprint of a supply chain and engaging with suppliers can have hard financial or operational benefits. This can pinpoint areas of inefficiency and risk, helping to drive cost savings or increase resilience to threats such as the supply chain disruption, resource scarcity and regulatory change.”

Willmott Dixon first firm in construction sector to achieve Carbon Trust Standard for Supply Chain

With an annual turnover of £1 billion+, Willmott Dixon is the first organisation in the construction sector to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard for Supply Chain.

At the start of this month Willmott Dixon Group chief executive Rick Willmott announced plans to halve the amount of carbon emitted by 2020 compared to 2010.

The Group will shortly be issuing a new Energy and Carbon Management Strategy setting out how it will cut carbon produced by our construction projects and other business operations by half compared with the 2010 baseline.

The target now is to emit 50% less emissions per £million of turnover than 2010, when total emissions were 18,150 tonnes and emission intensity (tonnes CO2e per £m of turnover) was at 18.3. By 2020, that will reduce per £1m of turnover to 9.25 tonnes CO2e.

Rob Lambe, Managing Director, Willmott Dixon Re-Thinking commented:

“We believe that climate change is the single biggest threat to our planet, and that we must all play a part in tackling it. Over the past five years, we have reduced the impact of our own operations by over 30%. However, as a responsible business spending well over £3m a day on goods and services, we know that it is equally important that we support and encourage our supply chain to do the same. The Carbon Trust Supply Chain Standard has provided us with an excellent framework to guide and drive improvements, and we are delighted to be the first company in our sector to achieve it.”