Thornton Tomasetti, the international engineering firm, has announced the acquisition of Fore Solutions, a green building consulting firm that will allow Thornton Tomasetti to significantly expand its sustainability consulting services and integrate green objectives across all its practices.
The new Building Sustainability practice will be headed by Gunnar Hubbard, Fore Solution's principal and founder, who becomes a principal at Thornton Tomasetti. Wolfgang Werner, formerly director of sustainability, becomes a vice president and head of the practice's East U.S. region.
The phenomenal growth of the green building movement in recent years means that sustainability is here to stay. By 2015, approximately half of new construction in the United States is estimated to incorporate some measure of sustainability.
The addition of Fore Solutions gives Thornton Tomasetti expanded experience and an established brand in the green building world.
With the creation of its Green Building Strategy Team in 2007 and a sustainability department in 2010, Thornton Tomasetti started offering sustainability services and performing sustainability project work. The addition of Fore Solutions will greatly advance Thornton Tomasetti's sustainability services effort to address clients' needs for high-performance, energy-efficient buildings.
The Fore Solutions team will remain based in Portland, Maine, which is now a Thornton Tomasetti office within the East U.S. region.
Joseph Burns, managing principal, Thornton Tomasetti, said, "This is a dramatic expansion of our commitment to sustainability at Thornton Tomasetti, especially our ability to support a new Building Sustainability practice. I look forward to working with our Fore Solutions team in expanding our newest practice, as well as integrating sustainable services in our existing practice areas."
About Thornton Tomasetti, Inc.
Thornton Tomasetti is a leader in engineering design, investigation and analysis serving clients worldwide on projects of all sizes and complexity. With practices in building structure, building skin, building performance, construction support services, property loss consulting and building sustainability, Thornton Tomasetti addresses the full life cycle of a structure. We have supported clients working in more than 40 countries, with projects that include the tallest buildings and longest spans to the restoration of prized historic properties. Founded in 1956, today Thornton Tomasetti is a 550-person organization of engineers and architects collaborating from offices across the United States and in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
About Fore Solutions
Established in 2003 by Gunnar Hubbard, Fore Solutions is a leading high-performance green building firm recognized for its expertise in assisting design teams, contractors and building owners to create or improve the environmental performance of their buildings and communities. Fore Solution's passion and experience enable it to serve as LEED consultants, facilitators, sustainability consultants, and energy modelers and daylight analysts.
Showing posts with label Sustainability Consulting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sustainability Consulting. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Deloitte Survey: CFOs Will Need to Take a More Energetic Role in Embedding Sustainability Into Business Strategy
While a majority of CFOs are aware that sustainability will profoundly affect their "mainstream" duties, almost one third of them--31 percent--say they are either rarely involved or not involved in sustainability strategy and governance at their companies.
This is among the key findings of Sustainable Finance: The risks and opportunities that (some) CFOs are overlooking, a global survey launched by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) today. The survey was conducted among 208 CFOs of large companies in 10 countries during the first half of calendar 2011.
"The findings of the survey suggest that CFOs can and should take a more energetic role in embedding sustainability into business strategy if they want to gain a competitive edge," says Nick Main, Global Leader, Sustainability & Climate Change Services, DTTL. "It is clear that volatility in commodity prices, new environmental regulations, calls for greater transparency about non-financial performance, and a range of other drivers are compelling management teams to deal with the sustainability imperative in a manner that supports their business goals."
At the tactical level, many CFOs are meaningfully engaged with sustainability right now. More than 70 percent of those surveyed expect sustainability to have an impact on compliance and risk management, and more than 60 percent foresee changes to functions like financial auditing and reporting.
Yet when it comes to sustainability as part of the overall business strategy, there are certainly blind spots. For instance, according to the survey, only 29 percent of CFOs believe that M&A activities would be affected by sustainability.
"M&A transactions often present immediate sustainability risks," comments Main. "These risks can range from asset impairment, remediation and indemnification expenses to environmental liabilities and regulatory sanctions. It is critical that CFOs build sustainability analysis into deal structures, post-transaction integration, and long-term planning for disposition."
The survey findings also show that nearly half of the CFOs surveyed are planning investments in equipment for increasing energy efficiency, generating on-site renewable energy, or reducing industrial emissions.
"These findings suggest that over the next two years, capital investment in sustainability programs will reach a scale requiring CFO involvement," says David Metcalfe, CEO, Verdantix. "This is not surprising given the fact that these investments are critical to driving down operating and compliance costs."
Sanford A. Cockrell III, Leader, DTTL Global CFO Program, adds, "The vantage point that CFOs enjoy within organizations--given their responsibility for transparency in financial reporting and knowledge of overall strategy--means that they are well positioned to shape decision making while carrying out core finance functions. The findings of the survey demonstrate that CFOs will need to increase their recognition of the relevance of sustainability initiatives to their portfolio of responsibilities and seek a greater role in driving those initiatives."
About the survey
The independent, global survey of 208 CFOs was undertaken by Verdantix on behalf of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. All the companies represented by the interviewees report annual revenue of more than $2 billion, and their average annual revenue is $17 billion. Interviewees were based in 10 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, South Africa, UK, and US), with a minimum of 10 interviews per country, and represented companies in 15 industries, with a minimum of 10 interviews per industry.
About Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and its member firms.
Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. With a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries, Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and high-quality service to clients, delivering the insights they need to address their most complex business challenges. Deloitte's approximately 182,000 professionals are committed to becoming the standard of excellence.
This is among the key findings of Sustainable Finance: The risks and opportunities that (some) CFOs are overlooking, a global survey launched by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) today. The survey was conducted among 208 CFOs of large companies in 10 countries during the first half of calendar 2011.
"The findings of the survey suggest that CFOs can and should take a more energetic role in embedding sustainability into business strategy if they want to gain a competitive edge," says Nick Main, Global Leader, Sustainability & Climate Change Services, DTTL. "It is clear that volatility in commodity prices, new environmental regulations, calls for greater transparency about non-financial performance, and a range of other drivers are compelling management teams to deal with the sustainability imperative in a manner that supports their business goals."
At the tactical level, many CFOs are meaningfully engaged with sustainability right now. More than 70 percent of those surveyed expect sustainability to have an impact on compliance and risk management, and more than 60 percent foresee changes to functions like financial auditing and reporting.
Yet when it comes to sustainability as part of the overall business strategy, there are certainly blind spots. For instance, according to the survey, only 29 percent of CFOs believe that M&A activities would be affected by sustainability.
"M&A transactions often present immediate sustainability risks," comments Main. "These risks can range from asset impairment, remediation and indemnification expenses to environmental liabilities and regulatory sanctions. It is critical that CFOs build sustainability analysis into deal structures, post-transaction integration, and long-term planning for disposition."
The survey findings also show that nearly half of the CFOs surveyed are planning investments in equipment for increasing energy efficiency, generating on-site renewable energy, or reducing industrial emissions.
"These findings suggest that over the next two years, capital investment in sustainability programs will reach a scale requiring CFO involvement," says David Metcalfe, CEO, Verdantix. "This is not surprising given the fact that these investments are critical to driving down operating and compliance costs."
Sanford A. Cockrell III, Leader, DTTL Global CFO Program, adds, "The vantage point that CFOs enjoy within organizations--given their responsibility for transparency in financial reporting and knowledge of overall strategy--means that they are well positioned to shape decision making while carrying out core finance functions. The findings of the survey demonstrate that CFOs will need to increase their recognition of the relevance of sustainability initiatives to their portfolio of responsibilities and seek a greater role in driving those initiatives."
About the survey
The independent, global survey of 208 CFOs was undertaken by Verdantix on behalf of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. All the companies represented by the interviewees report annual revenue of more than $2 billion, and their average annual revenue is $17 billion. Interviewees were based in 10 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, South Africa, UK, and US), with a minimum of 10 interviews per country, and represented companies in 15 industries, with a minimum of 10 interviews per industry.
About Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and its member firms.
Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. With a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries, Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and high-quality service to clients, delivering the insights they need to address their most complex business challenges. Deloitte's approximately 182,000 professionals are committed to becoming the standard of excellence.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Deloitte Continues to Expand Sustainability Service Offerings Through Strategic Acquisitions and Key Hires
Building on its recent acquisitions of DOMANI Sustainability Consulting LLC, (DOMANI) and ClearCarbon Consulting, Inc. (ClearCarbon), Deloitte continues to expand its sustainability service offerings and strengthen its leadership team with today's announcement of key new hires, Daniel Aronson and Jacob Madsen.
Aronson joins Deloitte's sustainability services group from IBM where he served as global offering leader for sustainability strategy and led corporate social responsibility consulting for IBM's strategy and transformation practice.
Madsen joins the group from Environmental Resource Management (ERM) where he managed the supply chain sustainability, life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting practice of ERM's North American sustainability and climate change team.
These additions complement Deloitte's influx of talent and service capabilities earlier in the year including the acquisitions of MarketPoint, Inc. and Altos Management Partners (MarketPoint/Altos) in January and MarketPoint/Altos, founded by Dale Nesbitt, Ph.D., well known in the energy industry for market analysis modeling solutions. Deloitte MarketPoint LLC enables clients to better understand future markets based on their assumptions about the market drivers, such as supply/demand and environmental/regulatory changes. Using MarketBuilder, Deloitte MarketPoint's suite of modeling applications, clients can gain insights into future market behavior, helping them to make more informed strategic decisions, such as investments in energy efficiency, clean tech, alternative energy, renewable energy, and carbon abatement projects.
Former DOMANI and ClearCarbon CEOs have joined Deloitte's team. Will Sarni, of DOMANI, is a director with Deloitte Consulting LLP leading enterprise water strategy for Deloitte's sustainability services group. Sarni has provided sustainability, environmental and hydrogeological consulting services to private- and public-sector enterprises for more than three decades. He is an internationally recognized thought leader on the topic and is the author of the book, Corporate Water Strategies (Earthscan) and the forthcoming book, Water Tech – A Guide to Innovation and Business Opportunities (Earthscan 2012).
Kyle Tanger, former CEO of ClearCarbon, joined Deloitte's sustainability services group in mid-December. Tanger, also a director with Deloitte Consulting LLP, brings significant experience in service delivery of complex carbon management efforts for Fortune 500 companies. Tanger recently served as an advisory board member for the Pew Center for Global Climate Change's upcoming report on corporate energy efficiency strategy.
The acquisitions of ClearCarbon and DOMANI have enabled Deloitte to take a significant step forward as a leading sustainability services provider. The combined offerings create a new hub of sustainability excellence, highlighting a combination of strategic insights and deep knowledge of complex challenges impacting organizations across all industries and sectors.
"Our focus is on working with clients to further embed sustainability into everything they do, helping companies drive growth and innovation, mitigate risk, reduce cost and improve brand – using energy, water, resources and emissions as levers for creating value," said Chris Park, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and national leader of Deloitte's sustainability services group. "Sustainability changes everything and represents a major opportunity for companies to improve business performance. Expanding our 'A' team reinforces the importance of these issues for many of our clients, and our belief that financially responsible environmental and social performance will increasingly drive investor, customer and business partner decision-making."
About Deloitte's Sustainability Services Group
Deloitte's Sustainability Services Group draws on the insights and experience of Deloitte's four primary businesses — Consulting, Audit, Tax and Advisory Services — and industry-specific services across corporate strategy and operations, supply chain, mergers and acquisitions, human capital and enterprise risk management. The result is a comprehensive set of capabilities to address a range of domestic and global business opportunities and risks related to energy supply, demand and efficiency, water and other resource scarcity, carbon and greenhouse gas regulation, and demand for increased transparency and assurance of non-financial performance. For more information, please visit: http://www.deloitte.com/us/sustainability
Aronson joins Deloitte's sustainability services group from IBM where he served as global offering leader for sustainability strategy and led corporate social responsibility consulting for IBM's strategy and transformation practice.
Madsen joins the group from Environmental Resource Management (ERM) where he managed the supply chain sustainability, life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting practice of ERM's North American sustainability and climate change team.
These additions complement Deloitte's influx of talent and service capabilities earlier in the year including the acquisitions of MarketPoint, Inc. and Altos Management Partners (MarketPoint/Altos) in January and MarketPoint/Altos, founded by Dale Nesbitt, Ph.D., well known in the energy industry for market analysis modeling solutions. Deloitte MarketPoint LLC enables clients to better understand future markets based on their assumptions about the market drivers, such as supply/demand and environmental/regulatory changes. Using MarketBuilder, Deloitte MarketPoint's suite of modeling applications, clients can gain insights into future market behavior, helping them to make more informed strategic decisions, such as investments in energy efficiency, clean tech, alternative energy, renewable energy, and carbon abatement projects.
Former DOMANI and ClearCarbon CEOs have joined Deloitte's team. Will Sarni, of DOMANI, is a director with Deloitte Consulting LLP leading enterprise water strategy for Deloitte's sustainability services group. Sarni has provided sustainability, environmental and hydrogeological consulting services to private- and public-sector enterprises for more than three decades. He is an internationally recognized thought leader on the topic and is the author of the book, Corporate Water Strategies (Earthscan) and the forthcoming book, Water Tech – A Guide to Innovation and Business Opportunities (Earthscan 2012).
Kyle Tanger, former CEO of ClearCarbon, joined Deloitte's sustainability services group in mid-December. Tanger, also a director with Deloitte Consulting LLP, brings significant experience in service delivery of complex carbon management efforts for Fortune 500 companies. Tanger recently served as an advisory board member for the Pew Center for Global Climate Change's upcoming report on corporate energy efficiency strategy.
The acquisitions of ClearCarbon and DOMANI have enabled Deloitte to take a significant step forward as a leading sustainability services provider. The combined offerings create a new hub of sustainability excellence, highlighting a combination of strategic insights and deep knowledge of complex challenges impacting organizations across all industries and sectors.
"Our focus is on working with clients to further embed sustainability into everything they do, helping companies drive growth and innovation, mitigate risk, reduce cost and improve brand – using energy, water, resources and emissions as levers for creating value," said Chris Park, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and national leader of Deloitte's sustainability services group. "Sustainability changes everything and represents a major opportunity for companies to improve business performance. Expanding our 'A' team reinforces the importance of these issues for many of our clients, and our belief that financially responsible environmental and social performance will increasingly drive investor, customer and business partner decision-making."
About Deloitte's Sustainability Services Group
Deloitte's Sustainability Services Group draws on the insights and experience of Deloitte's four primary businesses — Consulting, Audit, Tax and Advisory Services — and industry-specific services across corporate strategy and operations, supply chain, mergers and acquisitions, human capital and enterprise risk management. The result is a comprehensive set of capabilities to address a range of domestic and global business opportunities and risks related to energy supply, demand and efficiency, water and other resource scarcity, carbon and greenhouse gas regulation, and demand for increased transparency and assurance of non-financial performance. For more information, please visit: http://www.deloitte.com/us/sustainability
Friday, March 4, 2011
FirstCarbon Solutions Acquires The Plan Consulting Group
FirstCarbon Solutions, a pioneer and industry leader in environmental business intelligence, today announced the acquisition of the utility optimization practice of The Plan Consulting Group (TPCG), a full service strategic management and consulting firm that assists companies in their efforts to measure and manage utilities, waste and spending and create measurable value.
Jim Beall, former CEO of The Plan Consulting Group, joins FirstCarbon Solutions as Senior Vice President and will continue to lead The Plan Consulting Group as a member of the ADEC Group of Companies. TPCG will continue to specialize in strategy consulting and program management. Prior to The Plan Consulting Group, Mr. Beall held a variety of senior management and business development positions with CB Richard Ellis, EMCOR Group, and Johnson Controls, Inc. TPCG provides clients with strategy development and revenue expansion programs in order to increase efficiencies and decrease costs. TPCG will continue to provide services to Kraft Foods, Trane Corporation and Cummins, among others.
The acquisition of TCPG will enable FirstCarbon Solutions to further enhance return on investment (ROI) for its clients by driving energy optimization programs and delivering measurable cost savings. Although the trend to become sustainable has increased dramatically, many companies still have difficulty identifying, justifying and implementing sustainability programs due to the burden it places on internal resources and capital constraints. Combining energy process and tools of TPCG, FirstCarbon Solutions enhances its performance-based return on investment (ROI) driven sustainability solutions.
“Our acquisition of The Plan Consulting Group broadens our offering and more closely links sustainability initiatives with bottom line impacts,” said Jim Donovan, CEO, FirstCarbon Solutions. “Companies have long struggled to define ROI and the implementation of energy management programs. In addition to helping clients make an environmental difference, FirstCarbon Solutions will continue to help companies be competitive, efficient and profitable.”
About FirstCarbon Solutions
FirstCarbon Solutions is the only end-to-end sustainability provider, combining services, software and business process outsourcing into cost-effective solutions. Unlike companies that specialize solely in environmental software or consulting services, FirstCarbon Solutions allows organizations to completely outsource sustainability management. FirstCarbon Solutions is a subsidiary of ADEC Solutions (www.adec-solutions.com), a global enterprise with over 5,000 employees and operations in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information on FirstCarbon Solutions, please visit http://www.firstcarbonsolutions.com.
Jim Beall, former CEO of The Plan Consulting Group, joins FirstCarbon Solutions as Senior Vice President and will continue to lead The Plan Consulting Group as a member of the ADEC Group of Companies. TPCG will continue to specialize in strategy consulting and program management. Prior to The Plan Consulting Group, Mr. Beall held a variety of senior management and business development positions with CB Richard Ellis, EMCOR Group, and Johnson Controls, Inc. TPCG provides clients with strategy development and revenue expansion programs in order to increase efficiencies and decrease costs. TPCG will continue to provide services to Kraft Foods, Trane Corporation and Cummins, among others.
The acquisition of TCPG will enable FirstCarbon Solutions to further enhance return on investment (ROI) for its clients by driving energy optimization programs and delivering measurable cost savings. Although the trend to become sustainable has increased dramatically, many companies still have difficulty identifying, justifying and implementing sustainability programs due to the burden it places on internal resources and capital constraints. Combining energy process and tools of TPCG, FirstCarbon Solutions enhances its performance-based return on investment (ROI) driven sustainability solutions.
“Our acquisition of The Plan Consulting Group broadens our offering and more closely links sustainability initiatives with bottom line impacts,” said Jim Donovan, CEO, FirstCarbon Solutions. “Companies have long struggled to define ROI and the implementation of energy management programs. In addition to helping clients make an environmental difference, FirstCarbon Solutions will continue to help companies be competitive, efficient and profitable.”
About FirstCarbon Solutions
FirstCarbon Solutions is the only end-to-end sustainability provider, combining services, software and business process outsourcing into cost-effective solutions. Unlike companies that specialize solely in environmental software or consulting services, FirstCarbon Solutions allows organizations to completely outsource sustainability management. FirstCarbon Solutions is a subsidiary of ADEC Solutions (www.adec-solutions.com), a global enterprise with over 5,000 employees and operations in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information on FirstCarbon Solutions, please visit http://www.firstcarbonsolutions.com.
Friday, October 23, 2009
New IBM Sustainable Supplier Information Management Consulting Offering
A new IBM (NYSE: IBM) consulting service can help clients develop methods to collect, manage and analyze supplier information for energy use, environmental impact, quality, safety, cost, efficiency, and labor practices.
This offering draws on IBM's own experience running one of the largest, most complex supply chains in the world, including development of an expansive database covering 30,000 supplier locations in 60 countries to help collect and analyze data on a wide range of sustainability issues. This will allow clients to improve supply chain efficiency, lower costs, and reduce waste and environmental impact, and reporting sustainability information to business partners, regulators and other key stakeholders.
"A global supply chain with thousands of partners exposes a company to increased risk, waste, inefficiency, environmental impact and cost," said Eric Riddleberger, IBM's business strategy consulting global leader, who heads up the company's corporate social responsibility consulting efforts. "Being able to set sustainability standards and truly measure performance against them across such a large network is an enormous task, particularly in industries such as consumer products, retail and healthcare."
Companies are under tremendous pressure to continuously improve business performance and sustainability, and that extends to their entire supply chains. Inefficiencies and inconsistent practices can cause excessive use of energy, water and materials, increased environmental impact, variances in quality, product safety concerns and poor labor practices throughout the supply chain. These can lead to increased cost, compliance issues, and disenfranchising key stakeholders, such as customers, shareholders, partners, and current and prospective employees, who care about these issues.
To improve efficiency and consistency and reduce environmental impact, companies must use new "smart" technologies and processes that allow them collect and analyze large amounts of information from across their supplier networks. This allows them to apply uniform standards, measure compliance and performance, and take corrective action where necessary. IBM estimates that doing this effectively could improve supply chain efficiency by a minimum of 8 to 12 percent or more, with corresponding reductions in cost, environmental impact and risk.
But most companies are not equipped to do that kind of data collection and analysis, either within their own operations or across their supply chains. In IBM's 2009 global survey of c-level executives on green and sustainability, 29 percent of the respondents said they aren't collecting any of this data at all from their supply chains. Eight in 10 aren't collecting supplier data for CO2 emissions and water usage, and six in 10 aren't checking supplier data for labor standards.
Half the respondents said supply chain partners are requiring that they adopt new standards for carbon management, but only 19 percent are collecting CO2 emissions data often enough to effectively manage it. And three-quarters said supply chain partners also require they adopt new standards for energy management, waste and ethical labor standards.
IBM's Sustainable Supplier Information Management offering is designed to help them develop processes and systems for:
The Sustainable Supplier Information Management offering can be used with IBM's Sustainable Procurement offering, which helps companies define cost, efficiency and sustainability measurements and goals for their procurement activities. This covers all supplies, materials, ingredients, components, finished goods and services they purchase to run their operations and to develop, manufacture and deliver their own products or services.
To learn more about IBM's green and sustainability consulting offerings visit: www.ibm.com/gbs/sustainability
For more information on IBM's full portfolio of energy and environment offerings and products, go to: www.ibm.com/green
This offering draws on IBM's own experience running one of the largest, most complex supply chains in the world, including development of an expansive database covering 30,000 supplier locations in 60 countries to help collect and analyze data on a wide range of sustainability issues. This will allow clients to improve supply chain efficiency, lower costs, and reduce waste and environmental impact, and reporting sustainability information to business partners, regulators and other key stakeholders.
"A global supply chain with thousands of partners exposes a company to increased risk, waste, inefficiency, environmental impact and cost," said Eric Riddleberger, IBM's business strategy consulting global leader, who heads up the company's corporate social responsibility consulting efforts. "Being able to set sustainability standards and truly measure performance against them across such a large network is an enormous task, particularly in industries such as consumer products, retail and healthcare."
Companies are under tremendous pressure to continuously improve business performance and sustainability, and that extends to their entire supply chains. Inefficiencies and inconsistent practices can cause excessive use of energy, water and materials, increased environmental impact, variances in quality, product safety concerns and poor labor practices throughout the supply chain. These can lead to increased cost, compliance issues, and disenfranchising key stakeholders, such as customers, shareholders, partners, and current and prospective employees, who care about these issues.
To improve efficiency and consistency and reduce environmental impact, companies must use new "smart" technologies and processes that allow them collect and analyze large amounts of information from across their supplier networks. This allows them to apply uniform standards, measure compliance and performance, and take corrective action where necessary. IBM estimates that doing this effectively could improve supply chain efficiency by a minimum of 8 to 12 percent or more, with corresponding reductions in cost, environmental impact and risk.
But most companies are not equipped to do that kind of data collection and analysis, either within their own operations or across their supply chains. In IBM's 2009 global survey of c-level executives on green and sustainability, 29 percent of the respondents said they aren't collecting any of this data at all from their supply chains. Eight in 10 aren't collecting supplier data for CO2 emissions and water usage, and six in 10 aren't checking supplier data for labor standards.
Half the respondents said supply chain partners are requiring that they adopt new standards for carbon management, but only 19 percent are collecting CO2 emissions data often enough to effectively manage it. And three-quarters said supply chain partners also require they adopt new standards for energy management, waste and ethical labor standards.
IBM's Sustainable Supplier Information Management offering is designed to help them develop processes and systems for:
- Part number management, to ease part and product traceability;
- Process change management, to improve response and reduce costs associated with changing requirements;
- Supplier audit management, to ensure compliance on issues ranging from cost and quality to business ethics and environmental practices;
- Qualification management, to vet new suppliers for performance and sustainability standards;
- Supplier problem management, to ensure quick response when problems arise;
- Real-time quality management, to reduce cost, improve quality and ensure continuity of supply;
- Predictive quality management, using automated systems and virtual supplier auditing to head off problems before they occur.
The Sustainable Supplier Information Management offering can be used with IBM's Sustainable Procurement offering, which helps companies define cost, efficiency and sustainability measurements and goals for their procurement activities. This covers all supplies, materials, ingredients, components, finished goods and services they purchase to run their operations and to develop, manufacture and deliver their own products or services.
To learn more about IBM's green and sustainability consulting offerings visit: www.ibm.com/gbs/sustainability
For more information on IBM's full portfolio of energy and environment offerings and products, go to: www.ibm.com/green
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