Mumbai: Tata Steel has been recognised as 2022 ‘Supplier Engagement Leader’ by CDP, a global environmental non-profit charity, for its efforts in measuring and reducing environmental risks across its supply chain. This achievement marks the third time in the last four years that the Company has been rated at the highest level by its suppliers.
Tata Steel is among the top 8% assessed for supplier engagement on climate change, based on its 2022 CDP disclosure. The recognition reflects the Company’s commitment to implementing sustainable practices across its supply chain and for its efforts in engaging and collaborating with customers, suppliers, regulators, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders to accelerate the transition to low carbon economy.
The Supplier Engagement Rating (SER) is an initiative by CDP that measures the efforts of companies to engage with their suppliers on climate change. The SER assesses companies on their performance on governance, targets, Scope 3 emissions, and value chain engagement in the CDP climate change questionnaire. Tata Steel’s engagement practices have been recognised as exemplary, with its efforts receiving the highest rating ‘A’.
Commenting on the achievement, Sanjiv Paul, Vice President (Safety, Health & Sustainability), Tata Steel, said: “At Tata Steel, we believe that sustainable business practices are critical for creating long-term value for our stakeholders. Reducing carbon emissions isn’t just an environmental responsibility, it’s also a critical business imperative. We recognise that engaging with our suppliers and stakeholders is essential in driving sustainable business practices. We are honoured to be recognised as a 2022 ‘Supplier Engagement Leader’ by CDP and are committed to minimising our environmental impact to create a sustainable future.”
Peeyush Gupta, Vice President (Group Strategic Procurement and Supply Chain), Tata Steel, said: “Addressing emissions in the value chain is an essential step towards becoming net zero. We have taken several initiatives over the last few years to lower our Scope 3 carbon emissions and have plans to significantly reduce our footprint in the future. We are pioneering sustainability across our supply chain through partnerships for responsible sourcing and distribution. We continue to engage with our supply chain partners and encourage them to adopt and maintain benchmark management practices to improve their energy & resource efficiency and environmental performance.”
Sonya Bhonsle, Global Head of Value Chains, CDP, said: “This year’s report shows that environmental action is not happening at the speed, scale, and scope required to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees, with many companies still not acknowledging that their impact on the environment extends far beyond their operations and that of climate change. COP 15 couldn’t have been clearer in the call to action on corporate reporting on nature. If a company is not preparing for future regulations on nature in the supply chain, they are open to a wide range of risks and could also be missing out on the opportunities that safeguarding nature will bring. Quite simply, if a company wants to be in business in the future, they need to start embedding nature into the way that they buy and collaborating with suppliers to drive action in the supply chain. Therefore, we need to see environmental leadership from companies right now by tackling their impacts on climate change and nature together, working with their suppliers in an integrated way that includes nature as standard, and incentivizing this engagement within their organization.”
Tata Steel has a long-integrated value chain that extends from mining to finished steel products with an interconnected network of suppliers, mines, ports, manufacturing locations, stockyards, processing facilities, channel partners and customers.
With increasing focus on reduction in ecological footprint and de-risking supply chain from emerging regulatory and other climate change risks, the Company is focussing on a Green Supply Chain and exploring third-party logistics, modern state-of-the-art warehouses, use of energy-efficient and newer design eco-friendly ships, coastal shipping, and use of digital means to simplify the cargo flow of raw materials and other services.
Tata Steel has also taken several steps to ensure that its suppliers are aligned with its sustainability goals. The Company regularly engages with its suppliers to assess their environmental performance and encourage them to adopt sustainable practices. The key initiatives of the organisation with supply chain partners include engagements with customers to work on mutually rewarding initiatives, furnishing Life Cycle information of products, supplier engagements through sustainability screening and recognising them for taking relevant initiatives while sharing good practices with the fraternity and participation in global collaborations.
