Verizon
At a Glance
Industry
Telecommunications
Project Type
Engagement and Behavior Change
Year
2019
Location
Basking Ridge, NJ
Summary
Catherine Mullin worked with Verizon to improve their commitment to a sustainable supply chain, expand the supplier assessment program and establish a clear pathway towards their CSR and Environmental, Social and Governance goals
Goals
Verizon, one of the world’s largest telecommunication companies, has a diverse and global supply chain and a robust supplier code of conduct. To encourage commitment to sustainability throughout its supply chain, Verizon has set a public commitment to have 80% of assessed suppliers to be compliant with minimum CSR standards by 2020. To help meet this goal, EDF Climate Corps fellow Catherine Mullin was enlisted to assess the program and help Verizon establish a pathway towards its goals.
Solutions
To develop an assessment timeline Mullin worked with both internal and external stakeholders to strengthen partnerships to support Verizon’s supplier assessment initiative and assessment goals. She evaluated third party suppliers to expand the program by determining which platforms were equipped to support the program’s future goals at scale.
Mullin worked with the Sustainability Team to identify sourcing champions to support a cross-divisional effort to increase internal support and ultimately the initiative’s long-term success. Catherine engaged the sourcing division through emails and calls, to increase transparency about the sustainability goals of the program. In addition to supplier assessment, Catherine assessed the sustainability of 5G, Science Based Targets initiative and sustainability communications.
Potential Impact
As a result, over the course of her 10 week assignment, Catherine increased the amount of Verizon suppliers on the platform to be assessed by over 110%. The number of suppliers assessed also increased by 3% during Catherine’s tenure.