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Wayne Balta, Vice President, Environmental Affairs and Product Safety, IBM

By Wayne Balta

IBM yesterday was recognized for its supply chain leadership by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The company was presented with a 2013 Climate Leadership Award in Washington, D.C. by the EPA, the Association of Climate Change Officers, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, and The Climate Registry.

The award cited IBM for our ambitious emissions reduction goals, and for being at the leading edge of setting requirements for suppliers to measure, disclose and reduce their operational greenhouse gas emissions..

IBM takes environmental leadership very seriously, because it’s essential to building a smarter planet.  In the area of supply chain, the company is committed to doing business with environmentally responsible suppliers.

We run one of the largest, most complex supply chains in the world, with more than 23,000 first-tier suppliers in 90 countries. In 2010, IBM introduced new management system requirements to advance sustainability across our global network of suppliers.

(From left:) Mike Ray, IBM VP, Integrated Supply Chain; Beth Craig, Director, EPA Climate Protection Partnership Division; and Lou Ferretti, IBM Integrated Supply Chain Project Executive

Our sustainability initiatives go well beyond its corporate practices. Most recently, IBM is collaborating with the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, together with the World Environment Center, on a program that offers graduate students opportunities to work with leading global companies while pursuing their studies in sustainability development. The program, called the Erb/WEC Fellowships, is a part of IBM’s efforts to develop next-generation skills and real-life learning opportunities for the 21st century workforce.

Technorati Tags: Energy & Environment, Leadership, smarter_planet, supply chain