Online conference: Defining the Delta: Supply Chain Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategies

Jul 22, 2021
Keynote: $25 (free for SPLC members); Concurrent workshops: $50 ($25 for SPLC members)
More information and to register

The Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC) is convening global sustainability and procurement leaders to discuss the challenge of curbing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in extended supply chains. As organizations scramble to find adequate tools and strategy for the immense task ahead, SPLC is forging a path, bringing sustainable procurement and supply chain leaders together to move the conversation forward with the virtual event Defining the Delta – Supply Chain GHG Reduction Strategies.

The Problem: The volume of most organizations’ greenhouse gas emissions related to supply chain far outstrips their operational emissions. Yet purchasers’ insight into and control over supply chain emissions varies widely. The current tools and strategies proposed to pursue emissions reductions in extended supply chains may not yet be equal to the monumental task of driving change through these complex and geographically distributed systems.

The Solution: To face this mounting challenge, SPLC is convening leaders in sustainable procurement and supply chain management to share best practices, and consider how to collaborate on strategy development to drive progress on radically reduced emissions. Join the critically important discussion of how procurement and sustainability professionals can effectively identify Scope 3 baselines, support suppliers in operational changes to reduce emissions, and accurately account for reductions as they occur. 

Key Questions to be Addressed

• How can indirect purchasers compel accurate reporting from suppliers over whom they have very little control or leverage?
• How can purchasers collaborate to obtain meaningful data from shared suppliers and ensure reduction and mitigation measures are not double counted?
• How can GHG accounting move beyond broad-based economic models to more specific information that supports localized supplier engagement and action?
• How can purchasers protect against harm, and support benefit, to frontline communities impacted by the climate crisis and/or by supplier GHG reduction strategies?
• Is single-sector or materials-based accounting the only way to effectively address suppliers’ production-phase emissions?

Keynote

Bill Weihl, Founder and Executive Director, ClimateVoice, Previously Google Green Energy Czar and Facebook Sustainability Director

Panel Participants

Anand Narasimhan – General Manager, Cloud Supply Chain Sustainability, Microsoft, focuses on innovations across the supply chain in support of Microsoft’s commitment to a sustainable, carbon negative future.

Cynthia Cummis – Director of Private Sector Climate Mitigation in WRI’s Business Center, co-founder of the Science Based Targets initiative, leading work with businesses to reduce GHG emissions, and GHG Protocol’s suite of corporate GHG accounting and reporting standards.

Patrick Flynn – VP, Sustainability, Salesforce defines and leads the execution of Salesforce’s climate strategy to create a more sustainable and equitable future for all

Workshops*

1. Getting Started on Supply Chain GHG reductions: Basic Issues/Strategy Development Orientation (WRI/SBTi)
2. Evaluating and Purchasing Offsets – how to ensure real climate benefit in a complex marketplace Led by Anastasia O’Rourke, Managing Director, Yale Carbon Containment Lab
3. Leadership convening: Facilitated Deep Dive discussion intended to identify and begin to address fundamental challenges to Scope 3 supply chain accounting, in service of developing replicable, broad-based rules and principles for consistent, comparable measurement of reductions, and avoiding double counting. (Invitation-only)

*All workshops are eligible for continuing education credits towards recertification for ISM certification programs.