Wal-Mart: Give me a Gigaton
By Ronnie Garrett on June 22, 2017
News from Supply & Demand Chain Executive
In June, President Trump announced his intentions to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. In a speech from the Rose Garden, the president stated his belief that the 2015 pact imposes unfair environmental mandates on American businesses and workers.
However, environmentalists working for climate change have expressed a different point of view, namely that the decision will weaken efforts to prevent global warming.
As all of this plays out on the political stage, the private sector is marching toward a different environmental drum.
“We are seeing some real momentum in the private sector around trying to tackle climate change. I’m optimistic that the private sector is stepping up not backing down, and is sending an important message that they see climate change as a critical threat to their businesses,” says Sheila Bonini, who leads the private sector engagement team at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Dexter Galvin, who heads the supply chain program at CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), agrees with Bonini’s sentiment but cautions that companies still have a long way to go. He states corporations, while engaged in addressing climate change internally, have done little to impact carbon emissions in the supply chain.
Yet, CDP research finds that for average manufacturers, four times their emissions exist in their supply chain, and for retailers, up to 10 times their total emissions are in the supply chain. But Galvin says few companies are actually engaging suppliers in “any meaningful way” on climate change.
