Supply Chain Sustainability: TCS, Microsoft Research Reveals Scope 3 Challenges

Companies are pledging to reduce their carbon impact but struggling to measure progress across their supply chains, according to a research report from Tata Consultancy Services and Microsoft.

The research report analyzed 400 randomly selected public companies and found that:

• Only 16% of the businesses have publicly set science-based targets for operational carbon emissions.
• Only 11% of the businesses have committed to science-based targets for carbon reduction in supply chains.

The research report -- titled Supply Chain Decarbonization: The Missing Link to Net Zero -- recommended that companies leverage technology at scale to wrap their arms around supply chain sustainability. Example steps included:

• Curating supply chain data can help companies gain competitive advantage by making use of insights and intelligence;
• developing a shared understanding of problems or requirements in Scope 3 supply chain visibility; and
• working with experienced consulting services. 

For its part, Microsoft expects to be carbon negative by 2030. See Microsoft's complete sustainability strategy and timeline here.