Sprint, in Association with Trucost, Releases Findings of Supply-Chain Carbon Report

Wireless and wireline communications services provider Sprint Nextel in association with Trucost, which helps in quantifying the environmental impacts of business activities, released the findings of a Scope 3 supply-chain assessment.

Sprint (News - Alert) is the first wireless operator to publicly release a comprehensive supplier carbon assessment. Sprint will use the Trucost data to implement plans to manage and reduce supplier emissions.

As per the study, Sprint’s supplier emissions total 2.08M metric tons of CO2, slightly more than Sprint’s total direct and indirect emissions of 1.95M metric tons in 2009.

The top 50 suppliers of Sprint’s supply chain account for more than 94 percent of the total carbon footprint. Trucost’s analysis covers 98 percent of Sprint’s supply-chain expenditure.

“Sprint is proud to be the first in the telecom sector to collaborate with Trucost to complete a comprehensive analysis of our supply chain’s carbon emissions,” said Ralph Reid, vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility at Sprint, in a statement.

“We believe Trucost’s approach is a breakthrough that finally facilitates a cost-effective, fast and timely assessment of a corporation’s supply-chain carbon impact. The barriers to completing a supply-chain carbon assessment have been substantial, preventing most corporations from taking this important step in understanding their total carbon impact,” Reid added.

“Measuring and understanding carbon footprints is the first step toward managing and reducing them,” said Cary Krosinsky, senior vice president, Trucost. “Carbon emissions are increasingly resulting in financial costs for companies, and by undertaking such a thorough carbon assessment of its supply chain, Sprint Nextel (News - Alert) is taking a major step toward effectively reducing its overall carbon footprint.”

Trucost’s Scope 3 supply-chain assessment outlines the source of CO2 emissions, giving an indication of where a supplier’s carbon burden lies.

Recently, Sprint Nextel revealed its leading role in collaboration with UL Environment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UL (Underwriters Laboratories (News - Alert)  Inc.), in the development of a new international sustainability standard for mobile devices. Sprint is currently the only wireless carrier to have participated in development of the new standard, which will set minimum environmental requirements for "environmentally preferred mobile devices."