Companies are looking to their supply chains as they expand efforts to promote energy efficiency and other environmentally friendly business practices.
A new report from CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) reveals that some of the world’s largest companies are asking their networks of suppliers to disclose energy use and carbon-emission data.
The U.S. information technology company Hewlett Packard Enterprise, for example, helped its suppliers save more than $65 million by developing energy-saving action plans.
Wal-Mart, General Motors Company and Microsoft Corporation are among the 89 organizations that provided data for the report. The results show that suppliers who acted to reduce carbon emissions saved $12.4 billion in 2016.
Much of the savings in the top 100 projects came from energy efficiency.
“Lower emissions in the supply chain isn’t just about helping the environment; it’s a business imperative which boosts our competitive advantage and builds our resilience for a low-carbon future,” said Nicola Kimm, head of sustainability at Philips Lighting.
For more details, including the “A-list” of companies demanding greener supply chains, see the CDP’s 2017 Global Supply Chain report.