From aspiration to action: a framework for manufacturers to gauge sustainable practices

Industry is in pursuit of net zero greenhouse gas emissions, but it is yet to achieve results on a large scale. Expectations from stakeholders and shareholders, however, are putting pressure on companies across the industrial spectrum to hasten their advancements.

Industries recognize the path to sustainability encompasses more than corporate commitments and strategy, it requires a grassroots transformation of business practices and new organizational dynamics, tools and even culture. This transformation is compounded when addressing the spectrum of greenhouse gas emissions, spanning scopes 1, 2 and 3, while also tackling waste reduction, water efficiency and pollution control.

Recognizing the need for operational transformation at the field level, the World Economic Forum has joined forces with the International Centre for Industrial Transformation (INCIT) and Capgemini Invent to scale the Consumer Sustainability Industry Readiness Index (COSIRI).

COSIRI pioneers a new sustainability maturity index designed for manufacturing industries. This index evaluates tangible dimensions of sustainability, quantitatively and qualitatively. It provides an in-depth field perspective of sites’ and teams’ sustainability performance in manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, engineering and IT by analysing business practices, governance, tools in place and results achieved. The purpose is to empower industries to better leverage bottom-up insights in order to scale their sustainable transformation in line with existing corporate strategies and emissions reduction targets.

Further, COSIRI makes it possible to draw a comprehensive multi-site and sectoral benchmark of best practices to help companies position themselves against industries’ best-in-class and further support knowledge dissemination.

Also, companies can deploy COSIRI with suppliers to draw a comprehensive view of their supply chain sustainability performance and to identify tangible insights to support their suppliers in their carbon reduction strategies.

COSIRI helps companies highlight their strengths, pinpoint areas for improvement and trigger concrete changes.

HP has set sustainability targets to reduce scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2025 (compared to 2015), reduce value chain greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 (compared to 2019) and achieve net zero emissions by 2040. Beyond greenhouse gas emissions, HP is focusing on circularity development, counteracting deforestation and the reduction of water withdrawal.

To ensure it is making steady progress towards its goals, HP wanted an alternative assessment of the sustainability practices of its manufacturing site in Singapore, and get insights from its peers through benchmarking. Collaborating with the World Economic Forum, HP leveraged COSIRI to assess its carbon footprint and sustainability efforts in Singapore. The assessment highlighted HP’s performance in strategic sustainability areas, such as:

Structured sustainability governance across the whole company

HP's sustainability governance plays a vital role in aligning the company's corporate goals with specific, locally-tailored actions for each site in a well-explained approach, forming a strong foundation for sustainability initiatives.

Circularity

Through a focus on circular materials and services, such as increasing the amount of recycled plastic in its devices and by redesigning packaging to reduce the use of single-use plastic, HP has reached more than 40% of product and packaging circularity by weight against its 75% circularity goal by 2030. HP also has a comprehensive HP Planet Partners recycling programme spanning 60 countries. As of 2022, more than 1 billion HP print cartridges have been recycled.

The assessment also pinpointed areas for improvement. In fact, HP collected data at the regional level and within its supply chain. The company acknowledged a gap in data consolidation at a site level, within logistics and warehousing – which was consistent with its internal assessment. HP has taken actions on this, aiming to better assess supply chain impacts at a local level, thereby enabling more effective and targeted sustainability actions.

The COSIRI assessment allows manufacturing firms to calculate the quantitative impacts of sustainability actions and track progress. It has helped HP to validate strengths in its sustainability transformation strategy, which can then be shared with other sites as best practices and improvement points that trigger action plans.

COSIRI empowers companies, regardless of their current position in their value chains, with a comprehensive sustainability maturity index, setting benchmarks and steering progress towards sustainability goals. In a world where sustainability is no longer a choice but a necessity, COSIRI serves as a valuable compass, guiding businesses towards a greener and more responsible future.

To get involved in COSIRI, please contact: Amira T. El Araki, Amira.tantaouielaraki@weforum.org; Stacey Weismiller, stacey.weismiller@weforum.org.