Levi’s is the latest global company to make its supply chain in China publicly accessible online.
The denim giant join China’s Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs’ (IPE) Green Supply Chain Map, an online transparency tool that ties companies to their suppliers’ environmental performance in China.
It’s a new level of transparency for the company, which this week set aggressive targets for reducing carbon emissions across its owned-and-operated facilities and global supply chain. Levi Strauss committed to a 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in all owned-and-operated facilities, and a 40 percent reduction in GHG emissions in its supply chain by 2025.
The Green Supply Chain Map is dedicated to showcasing brands’ commitment to supply chain transparency and environmental management. The map openly links brands’ supplier lists to publicly-available environmental data, offering real-time emissions data, feedback about corrective actions to improve environmental performance, and annual pollutant emissions and resource usage data.
U.K.-based grocer Tesco also joined the initiative. Brands like Adidas, Inditex, Gap, Target, Puma, New Balance and Esprit are already participating in the project, which launched earlier this year.
The Green Supply Chain Map is an initiative created IPE in partnership with the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). At the time of the project’s launch in January, NRDC stated that the map raises the expectations that suppliers will “actively maintain solid environmental management and transparency.”
The project could also reduce factory audit costs.
“When used correctly, the IPE Green Supply Chain Map can reduce the time and expense associated with factory audits, which often don’t identify hidden problems as well,” NRDC noted.
