Carbon footprints in the supply chain: the next step for business

Abstract

Energy efficiency has succeeded, and will continue to succeed, in delivering valuable carbon and cost savings for business. Mitigating climate change, however, will require more fundamental changes to the way that business delivers products and services to the end consumer. The level of the challenge is reflected in the target, set out by Government in the 2003 Energy White Paper, to reduce carbon emissions in the UK by 60% from 1990 levels by 2050. We describe here a new practical approach to reduce the carbon emissions in the products we all consume, by understanding and optimising emissions across full product supply chains.