P&G declares its suppliers sustainability supplier assessment program a success
The program, which was first introduced last year and has now been rolled out as an upgraded version for 2011, was designed to track and encourage improvement on environmental sustainability objectives in the company’s supply chain.
The company says that the first year focused on obtaining clear data from its suppliers to determine how feasible it would be to track, and furthermore jump start improvements in innovation related to this area.
The results of the scorecard and a more detailed explanation of how it works can be found by clicking here.
Collaboration increases level of innovation
"By urging collaboration and unlocking innovation to create meaningful environmental progress, the initiative has already been a success and is just another example of how we strive to touch and improve the lives of more consumers, more completely, in more parts of the world," said Dr. Len Sauers, Procter & Gamble's vice president for global sustainability.
"Working with our external partners is clearly critical to realizing our long-term environmental vision as a company, and this scorecard is a helpful tool to facilitate that collaboration. After all, using 100 percent renewable or recycled materials for all products and packaging will only be achieved through strong collaboration with our business partners."
The program has entailed nearly 400 global key suppliers and was designed to assess and improve environmental credentials in three key areas, including supply chain collaboration, environmental indicators and encouraging new ideas to help create more sustainable processes and products.
Essential measurements for the scorecard system included energy use, water use, water disposal and greenhouse emissions on a yearly basis and the results were assessed by 20 leading supplier representatives.
Many innovation ideas have now been taken on board
Looking at the results of the first year, P&G says that about 40 percent of its suppliers participating in the scheme offered innovative ideas, many of which have been implemented.
"It was the scorecard that jumpstarted those projects," said Larry Loftus, director of purchases capability and strategy and a leader in developing the program.
"I believe that many of the opportunities we identified through this process will result not only in environmental sustainability improvements but also in improvements to our bottom line as well as growth for our business partners."
P&G says that during the course of the next year it intends to extend the project to include about 600 of its global suppliers and that the new scorecard system for 2011 will include a more transparent and consistent rating methodology.
When it was first announced in May last year, the scorecard was said to be the result of 18 months of work and close collaboration with the company’s supplier sustainability board, which includes the 20 leading supplier representatives from P&G's global supply chain.
