Large companies will increasingly use only suppliers that are reducing their carbon footprint, according to research by the Carbon Trust.
The poll of 100 senior managers in multinational firms reveals that half will use a carbon performance metric to select suppliers in the future, with more than one-quarter (29%) claiming they will stop using suppliers that do not provide adequate performance records on their carbon emissions.
More than half (56%) of respondents from UK-based multinationals say that in the future they expect to drop suppliers with a poor carbon performance, although just 28% of US companies anticipate deselecting suppliers on that basis.
Pressure from shareholders is behind the drive to use only suppliers that are effectively addressing their emissions, finds the survey, adding that this influence will intensify.
“Going forward, as carbon becomes more widely understood as a commodity, there will be increasing pressure on companies from external sources, particularly shareholders, to address the carbon-intensive area of supply chain emissions,” says Hugh Jones, managing director of the Carbon Trust Advisory, which helps companies to harness opportunities and manage the risks of moving to a green economy.
The latest data from the Carbon Disclosure Project underline the importance the world’s biggest companies now place on securing reductions in emissions. The 2011 Global 500 report reveals that 68% of the 396 companies supplying information have put climate change at the heart of their business strategies, compared with 48% in 2010.
There is also a marked rise in the number of firms reporting reduced emissions – 45%, up from 19% in 2010.
Retailer Tesco is the only UK company in the top 10 best-performing companies in this year’s Global 500.