Procter & Gamble is leaning on standardised supplier carbon data as it tries to turn its 2040 net-zero ambition into a more manageable purchasing strategy, using the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Partnership for Carbon Transparency to gather product-level emissions information from more than 100 suppliers.
The consumer goods group, which operates in about 70 countries and sells products in roughly 180 markets, said its climate programme began more t...
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han a decade ago with efforts to cut emissions at its own manufacturing sites before expanding across the wider life cycle of its products. In 2021, it set a goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across operations and the supply chain by 2040, alongside interim 2030 science-based targets that include a 40% reduction in supply-chain emissions per unit of production from a 2020 baseline.
According to P&G, the move towards product carbon footprints is intended to improve the quality of sourcing decisions rather than simply produce another layer of reporting. Jan Geisler, the company’s vice-president for purchases excellence and transformation, said P&G wanted to work with suppliers to understand their current position, their reduction plans and where future collaboration could unlock progress.
The approach reflects a broader challenge facing large manufacturers: supply-chain emissions are often the hardest to measure, yet they can account for the bulk of a company’s climate footprint. P&G said it began by holding workshops with suppliers to open up discussion about sustainability and the difficulties involved in calculating carbon footprints, including in categories such as fragrance raw materials where suppliers can be especially cautious about sharing information.
Virginie Helias, P&G’s chief sustainability officer, said the company’s environmental strategy is built around reducing its own footprint, helping consumers reduce theirs and scaling solutions across industries. The company also said it is investing with key suppliers in projects that could cut several million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next decade, with activity spanning carbon capture, hydrogen use, bio-based materials, advanced recycling and renewable energy.
P&G said the Greenchain platform it has developed helps collect product carbon footprint data from suppliers and feed it into internal reporting systems. The company added that the information is already being used to support sourcing and investment choices, even though not every supplier has yet reached a fully mature measurement system.
That point is central to the value P&G says it sees in PACT. The framework aims to establish common methods for exchanging emissions data across industries, with the goal of creating a trusted basis for comparing products and identifying where reductions can be made. P&G’s experience, the company argues, shows that businesses do not need perfect data before they start acting on it.
The company said it will continue expanding collaboration with suppliers through workshops and campaigns, with the aim of improving visibility over the carbon footprint of purchased goods and accelerating emissions cuts across its value chain. It also urged partners to adopt the PACT methodology as a practical framework for reducing product carbon footprints.
Source: Noah Wire Services
