Supply Chain Sustainability Revealed: A Country Comparison

Climate change is once again rising up the global agenda.

Physical climate, regulatory and consumer preference changes expose supply chains to growing levels of climate risk.

Uneven responses among suppliers present threats and opportunities for companies at the top of supply chains.

This year’s supply chain program involved 66 corporations with $1.3 trillion in procurement spend. They requested that their suppliers disclose information on how they are approaching climate and water risks and opportunities, generating the largest ever set of such data, from 3,396 companies worldwide, up from 2,868 in 2013.

Supply chain climate risks compared
For the first time, CDP and Accenture have analyzed this data at the national level to assess the relative climate risk faced by supply chains in 11 key markets, the preparedness of these supply chains to manage these risks and the propensity of suppliers to work with their customers to reduce risk and seize climate opportunities.

Key findings from the analysis include:

High levels of climate risk in key supply chains, and inadequate supplier response.

• Supply chains in the US, China and Italy are considered ‘vulnerable’.
• Suppliers in India and Canada are not doing enough to manage climate change risks. Indian companies, in particular, demonstrate a low propensity to report on emissions.
• Suppliers in Brazil have done the least to manage climate exposures and recent water shortages indicate these may be higher than the risk/response matrix suggests.

But opportunities exist for collaboration and high-return investment.

This is particularly the case in developing economies. Suppliers in China and India demonstrate a high propensity to collaborate with supply chain partners to reduce climate risk and, where they do invest in emission reduction initiatives, they deliver the greatest return on investment.

Presented in a sustainability risk/response matrix, the information allows international buyers to quickly assess the sustainability of their supply chains at the country level. Pages 12-33 provide detailed country-level analysis.