Two new international standards have been launched that allow businesses to better measure, manage, and report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions throughout their supply chains, and many household names are pledging to employ them.

Created by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the new ‘Product Life Cycle’ and ‘Corporate Value Chain’ GHG Protocol standards will enable companies using them to save money, reduce risks and gain competitive advantage.

"These standards are a breakthrough for business. For the first time, companies will be able to measure and manage the full scope of emissions in their value chain and products, so they can take advantage of new opportunities as they reduce greenhouse gases,” said Manish Bapna, interim president, WRI.

Supply chain GHG emission management is a means by which companies can spread their efficiency and carbon-conscious values throughout the catchment of their suppliers, and validate the results for their stakeholders.

The WBSCSD says that 42% of multinational companies who are not currently addressing supply chain emissions, plan to do so within the next 12 months.

Energy-intensive firm Alcoa is one company that expects to use the GHG Protocol Product Standard, its vice president and chief sustainability officer, Kevin Anton, says. He believes it "gives us a globally consistent approach to measure and manage our product emissions that will help us innovate and improve our products over time”.

Björn Stigson, president of the WBCSD, agrees. He says "the new standards provide companies with a comprehensive view of the emissions produced when making a product and across the value chain. They will help companies make better business decisions and stimulate innovation of products and production methods”.

Already, the standards are being taken up.

For example, The Consumer Goods Forum, which represents over 400 consumer goods companies and retailers, has recommended them to its members.

Furthermore, the Sustainability Consortium, whose members include companies as diverse as BASF, Coca-Cola, Cargill, Disney - and Defra, has adopted the Product Life Cycle Standard as the GHG methodology used in their tools to promote product sustainability.

And leading ICT companies such as Microsoft, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, BT, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard, who are involved with the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, which aims to reduce the environmental impact of ICT, are utilising the Product Standard as the basis for developing sector guidance for their products and services.

The standards have been developed by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol), a joint project by WRI and WBCSD with support from the Carbon Trust, especially to suit corporations with international operations and, the WRI says, are an important first step to obtaining a global consistency of approach to carbon footprinting which is vital to multinationals that operate in widely varying environments.

The standards have been piloted with three organisations already, to check their accuracy in real-world situations; with Mehadrin, Israel’s largest grower and exporter of citrus and other fruits and vegetables; Newell Rubbermaid, the global marketer of consumer and commercial products; and Suzano, a forestry based company that has been operating in market pulp and paper for the last 87 years.

Mehadrin's business development manager, Warmen Dov, said the experience "has been very positive", giving them "deeper insights into our products’ carbon footprint" and "highlighted some new opportunities to report our footprinting work to our customers and the wider public”.

The certifying service using the new standard, which embodies the PAS 2050 carbon footprinting standards, comes courtesy of the UK's Carbon Trust. Its clients will be able to use the internationally recognised Carbon Label, whether supported by Footprint Expert™ or other additional product specifications.

Footprint Expert™ is a software package developed by the Carbon Trust Footprinting Company to produce fast, reliable and certifiable product carbon footprint assessments.

It has already been used to calculate the carbon footprints of over 5,500 stock-keeping units (SKUs) with a combined value of £2.7 billion in product turnover.

Harry Morrison, director, Carbon Trust Certification, said: “Internationally-recognised standards, against which organisations can measure and reduce product carbon footprints, are vital to addressing climate change. We welcome the new standard and encourage organisations certifying to it to use the Carbon Reduction Label in order to robustly communicate their product carbon footprints and reduction performance.”

B&Q is an example of a British company with strong overseas supply chains. As part of its efforts to improve its environmental impact it has become the first major UK retailer to buy all of its wood from Forest Friendly-certified, well-managed forests.

This effort has taken 20 years to achieve because it involved tracking supply chains for nearly 16,000 products from garden furniture sets through to unseen wooden batons in baths through every point on their journeys to ensure their legality and sustainability.

Equally, B&Q, which came 18th in the 2011 Sunday Times Green Companies List, has to manage and reduce emissions from all of its 330 stores and at its head office.

It is just celebrating having retained the Carbon Trust Standard for doing so for the fourth year running.

It first started declaring its carbon performance to the Carbon Trust Standard in 2007, since when has reduced its assessed emissions by nearly 19%. The recertification shows that by putting low carbon growth at the centre of business strategy, organisations can improve carbon efficiency year-on-year.

In order to make these improvements in its stores, B&Q has invested in new lighting systems that use far less energy, and challenged its stores to cut energy use through the use of remote monitoring.

It is also trialling new technologies for managing energy based on customer movements and increasing the number of double-decker lorries and ‘dual fuel’ engine technologies used to cut road miles and transport emissions.