Environmental Leader

Proctor & Gamble, Dell, HP, Better Place, Tririga, Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance and Harris Corp. are the winners of the 2009 AMR Research Leadership Awards. The research firm, focused on global supply chain and technologies, awards companies for top performance in four categories: corporate social responsibility, sustainable leadership, technology leverage, and small-to-midsize company.

AMR offers three Sustainable Leadership awards that recognize companies that exhibit leadership in environmental practices across the global supply chain. This year’s winners are Dell for Operational Sustainable Performance, Hewlett-Packard for Sustainability and Innovation, and Better Place and Tririga for Clean Technology.

The Operation Sustainable Performance award recognizes companies that have incorporated sustainable business practices into their core strategic and operational activities, which include energy efficiency and emission reduction programs, participation in the emerging carbon credit marketplace, product and process design for the environment, sustainable sourcing strategies, waste minimization and byproduct utilization, supply chain collaboration, and customer and supply chain education initiatives.

Dell earned the sustainability award by striving to incorporate sustainability into every facet of its business, fully integrating design for environment into its products, services, and operations, and accounting for end-of-life products, says AMR. Over the past 12 months Dell has succeeded in claiming status as the first operational carbon-neutral high-tech company, reports AMR.

Dell also recently took the top spot in the inaugural Corporate Sustainability Index, a survey of technology firms’ sustainability efforts conducted by Technology Business Research, a market research and industry advisory firm. Hewlett-Packard ranked number four on the index.

Hewlett-Packard, the leader in sustainability and innovation, has recognized the link between product and business performance, sustainability and a low-carbon economy, says AMR. Winners in this category focus on efforts such as product design aimed at reducing energy use and GHG emissions, as well as innovation for sustainability in products, packaging, and performance.

According to HP’s recent Global Citizen Report, the company made strides in 2008 towards sustainability including the recovery for reuse of 3.5 million hardware units weighing 75 million pounds, which is a 16 percent increase over 2007, and a 4 percent reduction of greenhouse gases (Normalized to revenue, the reduction totaled 13 percent.). HP also worked with key suppliers to gather data on energy use and GHG emissions, publicly announcing the emissions of certain suppliers.

Better Place and TRIRIGA both earned clean technology awards. This award recognizes companies that are trailblazers in clean technology development including alternative energy, clean tech market service provision, grid delivery systems, smart technology and information, energy storage devices and platforms, and other enabling technologies.

Better Place is promising to change what you drive with its innovative initiative to reinvent the electric car industry with cars that run on batteries that can be changed out at a network of “filling stations,” says AMR. Better Place recently demoed the interchangeable battery electric car and is testing the process for extending the mileage of electric cars by swapping out batteries at strategically placed stations.

Software provider TRIRIGA’s TREES (TRIRIGA Real Estate Environmental Sustainability) software sets the benchmark for efficient, fixed-asset management, and allows real-estate intensive companies to create energy efficient and sustainable operating performance, says AMR. The eco-building management software delivers automated analysis and energy demand shaping tools that identify underperforming facilities and processes, analyze economic and environmental benefits of capital investments, and automate energy demand-reduction actions to cut carbon emissions and reduce facility operating costs, says TRIRIGA.

TREES measures and assesses more than 24 metrics including energy use, water use, carbon emissions, energy cost per total cost of operations, and solid waste recovery to guide organizations step-by-step toward more sustainable business operations and practices.

Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance, Inc. has earned the leadership award for The John Fontanella Supply Chain Innovation Award (formerly the Technology Leverage Award), which recognizes the company that displays excellent capabilities to use technology across the global supply chain, and Harris Corp. is the leader in the small-to-midsize company category.

The winner of the Corporate Social Responsibility award — given to the manufacturer, retailer, or wholesaler/distributor that has led the way in incorporating socially responsible practices across the global supply chain — is Procter & Gamble. This is a turnaround for the company that was criticized in early 2008 for its eco-product targets.

AMR Research says P&G redefined itself and its corporate mission in the mid-1990s to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems. It’s Live, Learn, and Thrive philanthropic initiative was launched to fulfill some of that mission with the Children’s Safe Drinking Water program leading the way. Other programs include the Pampers tetanus shots for infants program and the Always keep-girls-in-school programs.

The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based research company also recently announced the winners of its annual Supply Chain Top 25.