New collaborative platform to engage with suppliers to halve GHG emissions before 2030

Businesses urge peers at COP26, to drive greater emissions cuts at speed in their supply chain:

COP26, Glasgow: Today we launch the 1.5°C Supplier Engagement Guide, a collaborative platform to engage with suppliers to halve GHG emissions before 2030, by the 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders, an initiative hosted by the Exponential Roadmap Initiative, founded together with Telia Company, Ericsson, BT Group, IKEA and Unilever. 

Corporate giants from various sectors such as telecommunications, home furnishing and consumer goods are today openly sharing tools and examples from their work to engage suppliers in climate action. Meanwhile, they are asking their peers to drive greater emissions cuts in their value chain and encourage their suppliers to halve emissions by 2030 – which is the speed and scale of action needed to get the world on track to keep a global temperature rise under 1.5°C. 

Executives of 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders stress the importance of drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions  as a first priority throughout the  value chain – Jarkko Sakki, CPO & Vice President – Sourcing, FSS and Supply Chain (Telia Company), Moti Gyamlani, Head of Group Sourcing (Ericsson), Gabrielle Ginér, Head of Environmental Sustainability (BT Group), Andreas Ahrens, Head of Climate (IKEA Group) and Marc Engel, Chief Supply Chain Officer  (Unilever), Allan Melgaard, Global CEO (Scan Global Logistics), Sandeep Chandna, Chief Sustainability Officer (Tech Mahindra), Carlo Manuel Drauth, Head of Responsible Business and Human Rights (Telefónica), Pär Larshans, Head of Sustainability (Ragn-Sells), Vanessa Miler-Fels, Director of Energy Innovation and Impact (Microsoft):

“We, the 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders, have all committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions across our value chain in line with the 1.5°C ambition. We commit to making climate targets a key factor in our purchasing criteria. Working together with suppliers is an absolute necessity for large corporations with net zero ambitions. Now we openly share our practical tools and learnings to enable other companies to do the same – big or small.”

“Halving emissions in less than a decade requires radical collaboration. We must openly and transparently share what we have learnt, to enable all of us to reach our destination quicker. In this spirit, we support additional collaboration on the 1.5°C Supplier Engagement Guide, with best practice and assets from frontrunners, that everyone can copy and use”. 

The 1.5°C Supplier Engagement Guide is an online collaborative platform providing best practise examples from large companies across categories of action ranging from management commitments, supply chain mapping, procurement, supplier engagement and reporting. Concrete examples include; 

• BT Group and Ericsson’s supplier letters from CPO – stating the expectations on suppliers and resources to support supplier transition
• Telia’s training for procurement teams on implementing the 1.5°C ambition with suppliers
• IKEA’s supplier sustainability solutions booklet providing concrete suggestions for suppliers to act on climate
• Unilever’s Climate Programme explaining the company approach to work with a subset of suppliers with the most significant impact on climate 

“The latest IPCC report is crystal clear: we have code red for humanity and all businesses need to step-up action now to stay competitive in the next decade. Exponential climate action, radical collaboration and innovation is required in order to reach the Paris Agreement. To get a critical mass of businesses taking action to halve emissions by 2030 in the Race to Zero, it is essential that all large corporations collaborate with  their suppliers and peers to remove blockers”, says Johan Falk, CEO Exponential Roadmap Initiative. 

“Delivering the promise of the Paris Agreement requires a radical transformation of our current systems, and disruptive innovation will play a critical role. Collaborative platforms providing best practice examples, and where companies can engage with suppliers to halve GHG emissions before 2030, like the 1.5°C Supplier Engagement Guide, can help us move faster. I invite everyone to commit their ingenuity, their resources, and their skills to help us win the Race to Zero emissions together”, says Nigel Topping, UN High Level Climate Champion for COP26.

The 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders are also committed to encourage their small and medium-sized suppliers to join the SME Climate Hub, a one-stop-shop for businesses with fewer than 500 employees to make an internationally recognised climate commitment and access best-in-class tools and resources to mitigate their environmental impact and build resilient businesses for the future. 

“Together with the SME Climate Hub, the 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders are taking the bold action needed to decarbonize their supply chains and build a better future — both for their business and for the planet. The initiative’s collaborative approach shows how corporations can stand up today to engage suppliers of all sizes to meet their shared climate goals,” says María Mendiluce, CEO of the We Mean Business Coalition.

“More than 3,000 businesses, large and small, have committed to build the net-zero value chains which can help us to halve global carbon emissions by 2030,” said Aron Cramer, President and CEO of BSR. “By weaving shared climate targets into purchasing and sourcing criteria, large companies can empower tens of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises to do the same. The 1.5°C Supplier Engagement Guide is an important tool to do that, and achieve the urgent transformation needed to dramatically reduce global emissions.”

About 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders:

The 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders was founded by the Exponential Roadmap Initiative together with Ericsson, IKEA, Telia Company, BT Group and Unilever and is supported by the International Chamber of Commerce and the We Mean Business Coalition. The 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders will work together to drive climate action throughout global supply chains and support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the SME Climate Hub, understanding the need to work with and support suppliers to halve emissions before 2030 and achieve net zero emissions before 2050. Find out more at: https://exponentialroadmap.org/supply-chain-leaders/

About the Exponential Roadmap Initiative:

The Exponential Roadmap Initiative is for innovators, transformers and disruptors taking action in line with 1.5°C, with the mission to halve emissions before 2030 through exponential climate action and solutions. The Exponential Roadmap Initiative is an accredited partner of the United Nations’ Race To Zero and a founding partner of the 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders and the SME Climate Hub. 

Find out more at: www.exponentialroadmap.org.

About SME Climate Hub:

The SME Climate Hub is an initiative of the We Mean Business Coalition, the Exponential Roadmap Initiative, the United Nations Race to Zero campaign and the International Chamber of Commerce. In collaboration with Normative and the Net Zero team at Oxford University, the SME Climate Hub provides small and medium sized businesses with a one-stop-shop to make a climate commitment and access best-in-class tools and resources to take action and measure their progress.​ This partnership is an exercise in radical collaboration that opens the doors for SMEs to join the United Nations Race to Zero campaign — an international campaign that brings together an unprecedented coalition of real economy actors and 120 governments committed to achieve net-zero emissions by no later than 2050.

About BSR

The online guide has been developed with support from BSR™, a global nonprofit organization that works with its network of more than 300 member companies and other partners to build a just and sustainable world through consulting, research, and cross-sector collaboration. 

For media to join the Event, with release of Supplier Engagement Guide: 

​​COP26, Glascow, 3rd November at 5-6 pm GMT, link to register

Program; 

Ericsson, Telia, Unilever, IKEA, BT Group

For more information or interviews, please contact: 

Anna Almberg, Press contact, Exponential Roadmap Initiative, Email: [email protected], tel: +46 (0)709816782