Leading businesses address ‘daunting’ scope 3 reporting

Leading international businesses including GlaxoSmithKline and MITIE have joined a campaign to encourage companies to measure and report sustainability in their supply chains.


Open-data sustainability platform Ecodesk, who is leading the campaign, has forecasted that LSE-listed firms could save £3bn in 2013 through supply chain measuring and reporting, based on savings already experienced through customer supply chain reporting programmes.

Ecodesk CEO Robert Clarke said: “This is the new economy where sustainability through the value chain has a resounding benefit in terms of profitability, business continuity and risk management.”

GlaxoSmithKline supply chain sustainability leader Matt Wilson argued that being transparent and disclosing data would lead to more accountability and a desire to improve

“GSK’s ambition is to improve the sustainability of its supply chain, which will see it inevitably preference the suppliers that are willing to come on that journey,” he explained.

MITIE head of sustainability Lynda Simmons added: “During 2013 we are taking a more progressive approach to collaboration with Ecodesk in which our suppliers will be linked to our e-procurement portal to record their emissions management, as well as access tools and information to enhance their sustainability agenda and facilitate a more robust Scope 3 reporting model for MITIE’s extensive supply chain.”

Ecodesk CEO Robert Clarke said that big businesses his organisation was working with to measure their Scope 3 emissions often found the scale of the task overly daunting.

“Many suppliers are already undergoing various compliance initiatives so the last thing they want is another massive questionnaire to fill out. Entering data into Ecodesk is simple. Businesses can then quickly build a picture of supply chain energy use and start to identify cost savings and efficiencies,” he said.

Conor McGlone

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