“Sustainability is at the top of the agenda for businesses, because now they have to demonstrate exactly what their carbon footprint is and demonstrate with complete credibility and transparency exactly what they’re doing.” – Melanie Blackmore, Founder & CEO Blackmores (UK) Ltd and Carbonology Ltd
There are many different reasons for an organization to prioritize sustainability – from branding and marketing to mission-driven values and, as we see quite often, also for compliance and regulatory reasons. As such, procurement leaders are increasingly tasked with building and optimizing sustainability programs. While the high-priority of this objective is clear, the path to achieving it can seem murky and even overwhelming.
In a recent podcast episode, I spoke with Melanie Blackmore, Founder & CEO Blackmores (UK) Ltd and Carbonology Ltd, about how procurement organizations can more effectively influence, measure, and improve upon supplier sustainability in a way that’s both meaningful and actionable for the business.
According to Melanie, one of the most powerful tools procurement has to accomplish this is the framework provided by ISO standards. Standards such as ISO 14001 and ISO 24001 offer a structured approach to sustainability measurement that goes beyond posturing or, as she says, “lip service.”
It can be difficult for procurement to define what ‘good’ looks like when working towards sustainability initiatives like carbon footprint reduction, and setting clear standards and guidelines on how to measure success can be challenging. ISO 14064-1 Carbon Footprint Verification Standard, for example, provides procurement with a robust methodology for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions across scopes 1, 2, and 3. It’s a standard that Melanie says is being widely adopted by leading organizations, including many in the S&P 500, as a means of defining organizational boundaries and systematically measuring carbon footprints.
“It is challenging for people working in procurement now. There is a lot more responsibility when it comes to getting that data and ensuring that suppliers can provide the data that is needed. In some cases, it is like trying to get blood out of a stone,” said Melanie.
When implementing ISO standards toward sustainability, procurement obviously plays a central role in data gathering, especially for scope 3 emissions. But, this key part of the process isn’t without its own challenges, as many suppliers might struggle (or in some cases, even refuse) to provide the necessary information. Fortunately for procurement’s sake, Melanie says it’s a process that gets easier over time.
Melanie, who is also earning a Master’s degree in research on carbon standards verification to help organizations make better progress to achieving net zero status, founded Carbonology nearly two years ago because, “we could see the rapid growth in demand for the carbon verification standards and carbon neutrality standards – for greenhouse gas emission reporting.” She has also seen an increase in regulations and legislation that is accelerating this so-called movement.
For organizations who are just starting to or want to get better at measuring the carbon footprint of their supply chain, the first place to start, Melanie says, is with the Carbon Footprint Verification Standard.
“You’ll want to start off by deciding what you’re actually looking at in terms of your greenhouse gas emissions reporting … things like sites and services,” she said. “Once you have that clear definition, you’ll then have to quantify the emissions across scopes 1, 2, and 3, which is where procurement managers pull in the right data and people.”
The next stage, she says, is the carbon reduction commitment: “this is where an organization needs to specify very clearly what they’re going to do next and what their carbon reduction plan is.”
This last step ultimately gives procurement “exactly what they need when it comes to selecting suppliers based on their sustainability credentials – not just now, but also based on what their plans are for the future and the progress they are making against those plans.”
The ISO standards, she says, help procurement monitor and measure that performance, and by leveraging them, procurement can more effectively drive sustainability initiatives throughout their supply chains and create value for the business by contributing to broader environmental goals. ISO standards help to build a baseline and a framework to get started and also to build off of, and they also provide a common language and methodology that can help procurement move the business beyond vague commitments to concrete, measurable results.
If you’d like to learn more about how to leverage ISO, Melanie suggests visiting www.iso.org or IsologyHub.
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