Carbon collaboration

London - A group of leading UK utility companies is working jointly on an audited information system that determines environmental impact and helps both buyers and suppliers to more consistently measure, manage and reduce their carbon footprint.

The group, which includes United Utilities, Scottish & Southern, National Grid, E-ON, Anglian Water and Northumbrian Water, is employing a system developed by Achilles Group, an international services company that manages supplier information.

Among suppliers to the utilities sector, early adopters include Outward Bound, Elster Metering, Mott MacDonald, May Gurney, Clancy Docwra, Radius Systems, Bi-Water, Black and Veatch, Laing O'Rourke, MWH, Balfour Beatty, McNicholas and Flygt.

As the scheme develops, other types of process operators, as well as suppliers of pumps, mixers, drives, motors, system integrators and automation systems, are expected to join.

Called CarbonReduction, the initiative is a "collaborative model" developed for international use across all industries, explains Paul McNeillis, sector director, corporate responsibility, at Achilles Information Ltd, based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

The aim, said McNeillis, is to align suppliers with a buyer's carbon reduction strategy, offering visibility of carbon-related supply chain issues. This, he said, will enable managers to make better informed purchasing decisions towards meeting their sustainable procurement goals.

Buyers and suppliers can then work together to meet corporate objectives on reducing carbon usage within a framework geared to meet international standards on greenhouse gas emissions, he added.

CarbonReduction is based on CEMARS (Certified Emissions Measurement and Reduction Scheme) - an international programme connected to both ISO and World Resources Institute committees.

The CEMARS standard is built around an established certification programme run by New Zealand-based Landcare Research and based on its extensive research into greenhouse gas emissions and carbon monitoring.

Explaining how the UK scheme works in practice, Frances Darton, the programme's manager at Achilles Information, said suppliers start their involvement in the initiative by registering with Achilles.

"A starter pack takes suppliers right through the process from the very first steps and offers guidance on issues such as: 'Who in my organisation needs to be looking at this? What kind of things do we need to be looking at - electricity bills, transport etc?'."

Following guidance from Achilles on setting the boundaries, E-Manage - an online tool for recording and managing emissions data - is used to set KPIs, produce a baseline carbon footprint measurement and create emissions inventory reports.

"Essentially, E-Manage is a data repository, so once a supplier collects information on, say, their transport, mileage or electricity bills, they can enter that data into E-Manage," said Darton. "It will then do all the necessary back-office conversions and calculations, and will generate figures on carbon emissions for those specific activities."

As part of CarbonReduction, the supplier has to put together three specific documents. One is an emissions inventory that details everything that they have collected, all areas that they have looked at, what kind of boundaries they have drawn around the business, what business units they have included and any that they might have excluded.

Suppliers also have to put together a management and reduction plan to say what sort of actions and activities they are going to engage in over the coming year to reduce that footprint.

"This plan of action has to come with senior management support to ensure that it really is embedded within the business and that it isn't just a 'greenwash' where they are just 'talking the talk' without really getting involved," emphasised Darton.

The programme allows suppliers to manage their emissions, set targets and develop a long-term strategy. Finally, Achilles undertakes the audit and certification process and makes this available to buying organisations.

For buyers and suppliers alike, gaining visibility of carbon risk within the supply chain helps identify areas of inefficiency and by tackling these 'hot spots' financial savings result, as carbon consumption strongly equates to energy usage, according to the Achilles programme manager. The stringent nature of the auditing programme, she added, helps suppliers identify and tackle these inefficiencies and, of course, reassures buyers that standards are being met.

Only Achilles-employed auditors make site visits. A focus of the visit is to check that a supplier has included everything that they should within a footprint, ensuring that the supplier has gathered all the correct data, followed the right processes and made accurate calculations.

The audit, therefore, verifies that the supplier has done everything necessary to comply with CEMARS requirements. Only then will the company be certified and published as such for the buying community.

Darton concluded: "CEMARS certification of suppliers and the fully audited process creates a sound environment for sustainable procurement and the attaining of corporate goals."