The science is clear. In 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that, โit is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.โ If this statement alone does not drive companies to act on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions throughout their value chain, then we will not be able to curb the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. As demand for products and services continues to increase exponentially, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) believes that solutions to the climate crisis lie within innovations and standards that we develop and drive with our supply chain partners.
Almost one-third of HPEโs total carbon footprint is generated through the manufacture of our products, making it a business imperative to partner with our production manufacturers, including final assembly and strategic commodity suppliers. In 2017, HPE became the first Information and Communications Technology (ICT) company to create a comprehensive, science-based supply chain management program, complete with Scope 3 targets approved by the Science based Target Initiative (SBTi) to reduce the impact of our manufacturing suppliers.
For more information on HPEโs climate goals and progress, read the 2020 HPE Living Progress Report
We partner with our suppliers, providing training and tools, with the aim to have 80% of our production suppliers, by spend, set their own science-based targets (SBTs) by 2025. By encouraging our suppliers to set challenging targets and build their own internal sustainability capabilities, we will have a positive ripple effect upstream through the broader IT supply chain. HPE is also committed to reducing absolute manufacturing-related GHG emissions by 15% from 2016 levels by 2025 โa goal that we met in 2020, ahead of schedule. Due to our early success in achievements, we are working to reset these goals in-line with the latest climate science.
Availability and verification of our Scope 3 data is critical to the success of HPEโs climate goals. While we require our suppliers to disclose corporate-wide GHG emissions annually through the CDP supply chain program, we needed a method to aggregate, track and model our suppliersโ reported Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions. Manual data inputs in spreadsheets were inefficient to manage our large datasets and did not provide a streamlined mechanism for us to share transparent data requirements directly with our suppliers.
In 2020, HPE partnered with industry peers to design a customized supply chain data management software, developed, and hosted by Optera (formerly POINT380). This data management software feeds in company-specific supplier emissions data to track progress toward supply chain carbon emissions reduction goals. Through 2021, we are launching the platform directly to our HPE suppliers where they will have access to their own data (pulled from public reports), can track progress toward their publicly stated goals, and view their performance against their peers. Suppliers will also have access to a modeled SBT, based on their own emissions, which they can use as the basis for setting new and ambitious targets.
Once the data collection and modeling of SBTs became a clear process within the software platform, we were able to engage directly with suppliers through our annual webinar engagements and in-depth one-on-one conversations. This two-way engagement gave HPE the ability to evaluate our suppliersโ performance, understand their challenges in data collection and analysis, and meet them where they are on their journey to setting SBTs.
HPEโs work is far from done. Climate change poses an existential threatโ not just to our environment, but to our health, communities, global economy, and local business operations. The Race to Zero may sound like a competition, but it is a race we all need to win. In order to meet our commitment of becoming carbon neutral across our value chain by 2050 or sooner, we are in the process of resetting our manufacturing-related emissions goal and will continue to work with our suppliers to minimize their operational emissions.
Addressing the enormity of our climate emergency is a challenge that requires international cooperation and action. We hope to further cultivate conversations and catalyze the IT industry and beyond through ensuring accountability within HPEโs own supply chain, expanding our capability-building programs, and setting the standard for supplier GHG engagement and abatement. HPE is prepared to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
About the Author:
Hiba Mooney is Hewlett Packard Enterpriseโs Supply Chain Environmental Responsibility Manager, responsible for the strategic development and implementation of our supply chain environmental sustainability program, working directly with suppliers on their climate change programs, environmental capability building, water risk mitigation practices, and environmental, health and safety (EHS) best practices. She earned a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University and a Bachelor of Science in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of Virginia.
HPE-Editor
Editor-in-chief for the HPE Advancing Life & Work blog.
