The Supplier Cascade

Our Mission

To provide businesses of all sizes with a manageable way to address upstream Scope 3 emissions through Tier 1 supplier engagement and to enable climate action and transparency in areas within a company’s control.

Our Strategy for Impact

The Supplier Cascade was designed to kick-start climate action through the supply chain. Its approach involved helping businesses ask their Tier 1 suppliers to:

• Set a credible reductions target aligned with science;
• Start a “cascade” by asking all their own Tier 1 suppliers to do the same; and
• Report progress on their targets and supplier action annually.

How We Work

• Supplier Cascade was created by the We Mean Business Coalition in partnership with BSR, CDP, Ceres, Environmental Defense Fund, Exponential Roadmap Initiative and SME Climate Hub, and in collaboration with the Science Based Targets initiative.

• Supplier Cascade was made up of businesses of all sizes and from all sectors, including food, beverage and agriculture; healthcare; energy; retail; telecommunications; logistics; and Real Estate, among others. These companies committed to engaging their Tier 1 suppliers on climate action and working with these suppliers to ask their own Tier 1 suppliers to engage on climate action.

• The Early Adopter Group, a subset of participating companies, committed to road test the Supplier Cascade approach, agreeing to report how many of their Tier 1 suppliers have set credible reductions targets on an annual basis and to supply key metrics used to track the impact of the approach. This group was managed by BSR and We Mean Business.