Government suppliers face calls to disclose carbon emissions

The extent to which government procurement policy can help cut carbon emissions is to be highlighted today with the launch of the Carbon Disclosure Project's (CDP) first report on the carbon footprint of suppliers to the public sector.

The investor-backed lobby group, which aims to encourage businesses to publicly disclose their carbon footprint, worked with eight public sector bodies to request data on the environmental performance of their suppliers.

A total of more than 2,400 suppliers to Defra, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Office of Government Commerce, the Victoria & Albert Museum, Essex council, the London Borough of Islington, Gloucestershire council and Leeds city council received CDP information requests asking them to provide data on their carbon emissions and climate change policy.

Just under 10 per cent of firms responded to the requests, about half of which were classified as small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The report found that while two thirds of large suppliers responding to the information request have emissions reduction plans in place, only one in five small suppliers have similar plans in place and only a third were able to quantify emissions.

Paul Simpson, chief operating officer at the CDP, said that the relatively low response rate highlighted the extent to which the public sector can help drive climate change policy among SMEs, which together account for a quarter of UK emissions.

"The low response rate was expected given this is the first time we have done this and many of the businesses contacted were SMEs," he said. "A lot of smaller business are still struggling with climate change, which is why public procurement has so much potential to encourage them to put climate change policies in place."

He added that all suppliers to the public sector needed to address the risk presented to their businesses by government department's increased willingness to demand that the goods and services they buy meet strict environmental standards.

"Just like business public procurement generally aims for the most cost effective choices, but unlike businesses the public sector also has the freedom to make political decisions," observed Simpson. "They can say 'we won't buy from companies with above average carbon emissions'."

The report noted that with UK public procurement totaling £150bn a year and EU public budgets accounting for 16 per cent of GDP, the roll out of green procurement policies and carbon data requests across the public sector could represent the single largest push for firms to disclose their carbon emissions.