Work with a greener supply chain
What counts as supply chain emissions
When measuring your carbon footprint, supply chain emissions are counted in the ‘Scope 3’ category. This means they are outside your business operations and come from assets that you don’t own or control.
This includes the energy used to:
- create the products your business uses
- transport what your business buys and sells
- treat your water and sewage
- process waste
Define the boundaries of your business
How you define the boundaries of your business will affect the supply chain emissions that get counted.
To help decide what Scope 3 calculations qualify, you can:
- use a Scope 3 evaluator (free)
- take a Scope 3 training course ($325 USD, complete in 8 to 10 hours)
- hire a sustainability consultant
Reduce supply chain emissions
To reduce supply chain emissions you need to consider what happens before and after your business provides a service or makes a product. Common ideas include:
Choose greener ‘upstream’ suppliers and products
- use suppliers that measure and reduce carbon
- help your suppliers with carbon reduction projects
- buy products that take less energy to make, transport and operate
You can use sites like Green Economy to locate products, services and providers with lower emissions.
Lower emissions ‘downstream’ of your business
- make products that take less energy to make, transport and operate
- reduce water consumption and waste disposal needs
- make investments in lower carbon financial products
- give incentives for lower emission activities in leased assets or franchises
Certify your supply chain action
If your business needs to prove it’s taking action, the Carbon Trust offers various certifications for:
Article courtesy of Zero Carbon Business
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