Six plastic-related questions needing to be addressed by CDP reporting companies

1. “Where is plastic in our company’s value chain and in what form?”  

• • Value chain mapping 

• • • Are you a buyer, producer, or supplier of plastics? 

    • Companies will need to map where and what type of plastic is produced, used, and disposed of in their value chain.  

2. “How can our company’s exposure to plastic be quantified?”  

• • Data collection and reporting

    • Mechanisms and tools are required to effectively measure, track, and report plastic-related data. Depending on business needs, this may need to be linked with other internal systems that are used across several functions in the company.  

• • Governance 

• • • Governance should be established and integrated as part of the business processes to support disclosure and holistic business decision data needs. 

3. “How vulnerable is our company to the use of plastic?”  

• • Impact and risk assessment 

• • • What is your current score in the CDP and how will the new questions affect your scoring? 

    • Have you assessed the potential plastics-related environmental and health impacts of your production, use and disposal of plastics across your value chain? Companies will need to include plastic considerations within their risk and financial impacts analysis. 

4. “How can we reduce our plastic impact?”  

• • Design and production 

• • • Assess sourcing strategy and establish purposeful design  

• • Supply chain 

• • • Rather than solely focusing on reducing plastic used for processing, packaging, distribution and retailing, companies should consider performing a full lifecycle assessment to ensure that changes do not result in less sustainable options e.g. increase in food waste or transport emissions.

• • Disposal and end-of-life processing 

• • • Companies will need a core understanding of circularity principles to assess and quantify circularity potential of the plastic within their operations. 

• • Shared goals with suppliers and retailers 

• • • Engage and collaborate with suppliers and retailers, setting targets and initiating granular actions to jointly reduce plastic-related impact within the value chain.

5. “What are our business targets for plastics, and how can we set ourselves up for success?”  

• • Business strategy integration 

• • • Plastic-related risks and impacts should be baked into the core business strategy, with the intention shared and communicated to relevant stakeholders.

• • Operational excellence and management 

• • • Review and, where necessary, reset business unit objectives, KPIs and process design with sustainability and plastic impact in mind.

• • Capability and people development 

• • • Review and, where necessary, redefine roles and responsibilities, assess capability, upskills and recruitment needs.

6. “What opportunities exist for my company to differentiate and grow consumer share by eliminating plastic from my products?” 

• • Opportunity to innovate products 

• • • Work with consumers to review the formulation of products and innovate to better meet consumers’ needs e.g. reducing the number of components in a box dye could reduce packaging and provide greater convenience to consumers when colouring their hair at home.

• • Consider alternative packaging 

• • • Differentiate your brand by considering alternative packaging for your product e.g. providing a reusable beach bag for swimwear purchases or enabling consumers to select an option for reduced packaging so as to reduce waste.

• • Grow consumer trust  

• • • Companies that are considered “kind” such as kind to the planet with environmentally friendly packaging can be more profitable. Read more on the Economics of Kindness.