Doing better by the environment
Recycling, reducing emissions and investing in renewables are some of the ways we're working towards positive environmental change.
Helping reduce our supply chain emissions
We work closely with our suppliers to help lower our carbon emissions which come from the full range of products and services we offer you.
Telstra staff writer · 2 minute read
Accountability is building
We have a goal to reduce our scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2030 (from an FY19 baseline). We must work with our suppliers to reach this goal.
There’s still a long way to go but the momentum driven by our suppliers to date is creating a clearer picture of the way forward.
Working with CDP
As Australia’s largest telco, we rely on a large and complex supply chain to get our products and services to you. These suppliers range from small businesses in remote Australia to some of the world’s biggest companies.
To better gauge our environmental impacts, we’ve joined forces with CDP, a not-for-profit global organisation. They run an environmental disclosure system which supports thousands of companies to manage their climate change, water security and deforestation risks.
Helping suppliers lower their carbon emissions
Our partnership with CDP started in April 2020. As their first Australian Supply Chain Program member, Telstra has joined 330+ leading companies with a combined annual procurement spend of over five trillion US dollars.
This partnership allows us to deliver training, tools and support to our top-100 suppliers, helping them disclose their environmental impacts to Telstra via CDP reporting.
We work closely with CDP to uplift the disclosures of our suppliers too and we were named in CDP Supplier Engagement Leaderboard for 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Disclosing impacts gets us closer to a low carbon future
Between 2020 and 2024, 295 suppliers (approximately 80% of our annual supplier spend) have disclosed their environmental impacts to Telstra via CDP.
We use this information to help us understand our suppliers’ carbon emissions and to develop strategies with our suppliers to further reduce these emissions.
Why set reduction targets?
When we choose our suppliers, we think about their ability to meet or exceed emissions along with their energy standards (these decisions can also positively impact our customers as we offer energy efficient products in their homes and businesses).
Although our suppliers vary in how advanced they are with their decarbonisation plans; the momentum is building rapidly.
Corporate environmental leaders such as Telstra demonstrate how companies can leverage their purchasing power to identify potential climate-related disruptions and develop resilient supply chains that are prepared to mitigate risks and capitalise on business opportunities that will come in our transition to a low carbon future.
- Pratima Divgi, Head of Capital Markets, CDP North America
Decarbonisation’s domino effect
Customers who operate ‘downstream’ in our decarbonised supply chain are more likely to shop for low emissions alternatives.
On the other hand, suppliers who operate ‘upstream’ are more likely to talk about their investment, and (once they make the necessary investments) supply low emissions products and services to businesses and customers outside our supply chain.
Thank you to all our suppliers who help decarbonise our business – and for influencing others across the globe to make similar changes.
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