Carbon Disclosure In Discrete Measures

The Carbon Disclosure Project's first global supply chain report, due on March 5, should be an eye-opener -- not only for what it contains but for what it lacks. Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM are among the IT companies that joined the CDP Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration and will be represented in the report.The report, says the CDP, will include carbon emissions reporting as well as thoughts on "future-proofing supply chain for a low carbon economy." Just what IT and other companies have in mind should be of great interest to all -- not least of which, to their suppliers.

Acer, whose plans include selling more "low-carbon" products, reported that it is unable to say how much of the 19,659.38 MWh of electricity it purchased last year for its Taiwan operation came from renewable sources. "This cannot be identified in Taiwan because Taiwan Power does not verify the source to the end user," Acer states in its 2008 report to the CDP. Taiwan Power, also known as Taipower, is the state-owned utility in Taipei.

HP has previously stated a goal "to report energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in HP's first-tier suppliers, representing more than 70% of our materials, components, and manufacturing supplier spend." It estimates these GHG emissions "are on the same order of magnitude as the emissions associated with the energy used by [its] products during customer use."

Dell, for its part, requires its top-tier suppliers, representing more than 80% of its worldwide procurement, to publicly report their GHG emissions.

Thirty-four global corporations participated in the report.