How Climate-Clever RFx Processes Make the Difference - and Why Your Company Should Pay Attention.

Climate change is more obvious than ever. There is no ignoring the fires, floods, and extreme climates that have been experienced in the past year. It was therefore not a surprise, but still distressing to read the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report in August. The opening point under the heading “The Current State of Climate Change” is; “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land”. 

As humans, it’s time for us to take responsibility, and governments are stepping in to ensure this happens. The global temperature surface from 2011-2020 is 1.09 degrees higher than it was 1850-1900, and this pattern is showing no signs of slowing down.

The issue with Climate Change reports and mandates for net zero is that companies do not know where to start their journey and the lengthy reports can feel inaccessible - a mammoth task with no clear constructive steps to take. 

The first point under the heading “Limiting Future Climate Change”, makes clear that the relationship between CO2 emissions and climate change is almost linear. Therefore achieving net zero CO2 emissions, along with rapid and sustained cuts to other greenhouse gases is the solution - but let’s think about how that can be implemented practically by the individual. There are the obvious things; where you can take public transportation or walk, reduce meat consumption, save energy at home, but there are also changes you can make at work. 

Reducing emissions in the RFx process

In the RFx process (our shorthand for Request For anything) in particular there is a lot that can be done. As a Buyer you have the benefit of being a driver of business, and therefore the ability to hold your Suppliers accountable for their commitment to reduce emissions and to only use those that do so. An effective way to do this and to hold yourself and your company accountable is including it in your Supplier Evaluation criteria. 

Oystein Torlen, Director Supply Chain at Altera Infrastructure said:

‍We have a clear goal of evaluating every single 3rd party in the RFx process. Sustainability isn’t just about energy and climate change. For us, evaluating suppliers means everything from how suppliers treat wastewater, to their industrial processes, and how they manage their supply chain. It also includes supplier’s ethical standards: do they respect human rights and have decent labour conditions? Using DeepStream, we have clear visibility, transparency and auditability throughout the supply chain, allowing us to keep our suppliers and ourselves accountable to ESG commitments”. 

At DeepStream, we enable our partners to do this by using our flexible and customisable Evaluation feature. Our Audit trail, that logs all events on a request, ensures that your processes are as transparent as possible and that your commitment to including Supplier’s sustainability as part of your evaluation is memorialised. 

In a situation where every little counts, DeepStream’s ability to reduce the amount of time that users spend scrolling through and replying to 100s of email threads incrementally, but still tangibly, reduces the amount of energy used in tendering. Think about it, much like the straw that breaks the camel's back, if every individual in procurement used their computer 1 hour less a day (as an example), think what the overall impact would be over time- huge. 

DeepStreams commitment

As a company, DeepStream is committed to looking to reduce our carbon footprint, and to facilitating other companies to do the same. Our clients such as Xos Trucks, Britishvolt, and more, are paving the way to building a sustainable future. 

A couple of our clients are also in heavy industry, which often are targeted for their carbon footprint, however, their endeavors deliver critical resources that are necessary to progress a sustainable future. For example, Lithium batteries are going to significantly reduce emissions in transportation, but Lithium has to be mined and mining has a significant carbon footprint. However, these companies are proactively taking steps to mitigate this through a number of exercises- including using DeepStream. We offer them and any other company our full support in providing a tool which reduces energy consumption and makes evaluating suppliers based on sustainability not only possible - but incredibly easy to do. 

How do you work with reducing your carbon footprint? Are you, just like our partners and ourselves, committed to making a change? Well, then let’s talk. 

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