About
Achilles is a leading global supplier of services for sustainable procurement in 23 countries, delivering a wide range of supplier management and business solutions to hundreds of the world’s largest companies.
Achilles identifies, evaluates, and monitors supplier information on behalf of major organisations globally. They build and support supply chain communities in many industry sectors, creating unique and valuable global networks. Their services reduce risk in the supply chain and create new opportunities for business for both buyers and suppliers.
A trusted partner to more than 650 of the world’s largest companies and around 40,000 suppliers, Achilles delivers the efficient matching of specific buyers to their ideal suppliers. The availability of timely data within the Achilles system allows companies to improve the efficiency of their procurement cycles, and manage commercial, health, safety, environment and CSR-related risks throughout their supply chains so that they can accurately and confidently assess the total impact of their procurement decisions.
As part of Achilles services for sustainable procurement, Achilles has developed the carbonReduction programme. Achilles is working in partnership with Landcare Research, a New Zealand crown research institute, and the carboNZero strategic business unit to offer CEMARS certification through this programme. Achilles is committed to promoting its carbonReduction programme and CEMARS certification throughout its sustainable procurement networks of 650 buying companies and 40,000 suppliers over the next five years.
Strategy
Achilles has a strong commitment to reducing and raising awareness of carbon emissions in the global economy. This commitment is evidenced through the addition to Achilles sustainable procurement services of a world class carbon footprinting programme and certification standard to supply chains throughout the global regions in which it operates.
Achilles carbonReduction programme is an international, comprehensive and collaborative programme for organisations who want to engage in the measurement, management and reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions. The programme results in CEMARS certification (Carbon Emissions Measurement and Reduction Scheme) which enables businesses and organisations to measure their greenhouse gas emissions in compliance with ISO 14064-1, understand their carbon liabilities, and put in place management plans to reduce emissions in their organisation and more widely through their supply chain. The carboNZero strategic business unit is the world’s first ISO 14065 accredited greenhouse gas certification scheme.
The programme is being deployed through Achilles’ unique collaborative industry model initially in the UK. However, the broader aim is to roll the programme out to all other regions in which Achilles operates to companies who want a practical and cost effective solution to this issue.
The Achilles programme will allow companies who measure and manage their carbon footprints through the programme to obtain an accredited certification to share with their customers, investors and stakeholders. By harnessing the efficiencies of the Achilles community model, companies will measure and certify their emissions once a year and then share the results many times with all of their subscribing customers. The programme is supported in the UK by a number of leading Utilities and has been endorsed by Anglian Water, Scottish and Southern Energy, United Utilities, E-ON UK, and National Grid.
The programme aims to facilitate within the industry specific Achilles carbon communities the sharing of best practices to reduce emissions as well as benchmarking the carbon emissions of the industry's supply chain. This will enable industries to work collectively to reduce the industry’s overall carbon emissions. The long-term objective is to enable companies to validate their carbon emissions and satisfy all the global reporting requirements.
To demonstrate Achilles commitment, in 2008 Achilles UK operations became the first organisation in the world to be awarded CEMARS certification. In order to receive certification, Achilles measured the emissions from its UK operations and reported these via the carbonReduction programme. Achilles also put together a management and reduction plan detailing how emissions across our UK operations would be reduced in the coming years. As a signatory to the UN Global Compact and an organisation which promotes sustainability through its services, CEMARS certification is integral to Achilles core values and business strategy.
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