• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'

3

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'

3

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
ConferencesGlobal Sustainability Forum

Reaching a carbon-neutral supply chain won’t require massive price hikes, says study

Megan Leonhardt
By
Megan Leonhardt
Megan Leonhardt
Down Arrow Button Icon
Megan Leonhardt
By
Megan Leonhardt
Megan Leonhardt
Down Arrow Button Icon
September 28, 2021, 4:30 PM ET

Many of the world’s largest global corporations, including Apple, British Airways, Ford, Nestle, have vowed to reach net-zero carbon emissions for their supply chains and products by 2050 or earlier. But it turns out that doing so may not be as prohibitively expensive as once believed. 

“Sometimes we underestimate how much progress can be made in a very cost effective way,” Rich Lesser, CEO of Boston Consulting Group, said during Fortune’s Global Sustainability Forum on Tuesday.  

BCG analyzed the top eight global supply chains—food, construction, fashion, fast-moving consumer goods, electronics, automotive, professional services, and freight—and found that achieving zero supply chain emissions would only push consumer costs up 1% to 4%. 

For instance, a car sold in Europe is projected to cost €30,000 (or about $35,040) in 2030, Lesser said. But producing the car in a net-zero environment would only add about €600 (or about $700) to the end cost of the vehicle—a difference of about 2%, Lesser said. 

“Yes the steel, the aluminum, the battery, the plastic all go up meaningfully in price, but when you trace how much those things cost in a car today through to the end price, it still represents only a small fraction,” Lesser said. “And that same math held true whether you look at food, whether you looked at smartphones, whether you looked at a whole range of products that people buy.”

In fact, Lesser said that about 40% of decarbonizing the supply chain can be done for less than €10 a ton. Another 40% of the decarbonisation can be done for less than €100 per ton. The last 20%, however, Lesser said is really expensive and needs technological breakthroughs to bring down the cost. “But we shouldn’t underestimate that we can make a huge amount of progress without massive costs, leveraging technology that often already exists,” he added.

The affordability of making these changes, as well as the growing sense of urgency has really driven a real “step change” over the last year or two in how this issue is viewed at the top of leading companies, Lesser said. 

And major corporations are in the position to really drive change. “The large leading companies of the world with these massive global supply chains have enormous power to shape, not just what happens close to their corporate headquarters, but in the far reaches of their supply chains that extend all around the world,” Lesser said. 

If companies can get their supply chains and their key upstream and downstream partners to realize how important this is, the more organizations will make forward-thinking commitments “That gives me some optimism, that we can move the world forward more quickly, not just pockets of the world,” Lesser said. 

More must-read business news and analysis from Fortune:

  • What a modern energy crisis looks like and why no country is safe
  • Frustrated carmakers upend industry after chip shortage shatters their faith in suppliers
  • Portugal leads the world in COVID-19 vaccinations
  • A WHO-approved Novavax vaccine could upstage mRNA jabs—if it can solve its manufacturing delays
  • Bitcoin has another major pollution problem brewing

Subscribe to Fortune Daily to get essential business stories straight to your inbox each morning.

About the Author
Megan Leonhardt
By Megan Leonhardt
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest from our Conferences

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest from our Conferences

Clinical Psychologist Daniel Wendler
ConferencesWorkplace Innovation Summit
A ‘proudly autistic’ workplace expert says putting neurodivergent employees in a typical office is like dropping a polar bear in Austin, Texas
By Tristan BoveMay 20, 2026
21 hours ago
lucas
ConferencesWorkplace Innovation Summit
Trump’s EEOC chair is suing The New York Times because ‘we should bring it on behalf of white workers too’
By Nick LichtenbergMay 20, 2026
23 hours ago
Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit logo
ConferencesWorkplace Innovation Summit
Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit 2026 livestream
By Fortune EditorsMay 19, 2026
3 days ago
burke
ConferencesAthletic Gear
The CEO of Trek Bicycle reads 52 books a year, hates smartphones, and thinks Milton Friedman was wrong
By Nick LichtenbergMay 6, 2026
15 days ago
mark
ConferencesHospitality
Hyatt’s CEO has built a ‘family’ culture for 20 years. Now he’s leaning on it
By Nick LichtenbergApril 30, 2026
21 days ago
sweet
ConferencesConsulting
Accenture’s Julie Sweet blew up 50 years of company history. She says the hardest part is still ahead
By Nick LichtenbergApril 29, 2026
22 days ago

Most Popular

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
Workplace Culture
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
By Preston ForeMay 19, 2026
2 days ago
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
Success
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
By Preston ForeMay 20, 2026
1 day ago
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
Future of Work
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
By Mike Householder and The Associated PressMay 17, 2026
4 days ago
Pay transparency is exposing a bigger problem: Most companies can't explain why they pay what they pay
Workplace Culture
Pay transparency is exposing a bigger problem: Most companies can't explain why they pay what they pay
By Sydney LakeMay 20, 2026
22 hours ago
Dr. Bernice King on why companies that walked back DEI were never truly committed: 'If you retreat that quick…that reveals who you really are'
Workplace Culture
Dr. Bernice King on why companies that walked back DEI were never truly committed: 'If you retreat that quick…that reveals who you really are'
By Preston ForeMay 19, 2026
2 days ago
A 'proudly autistic' workplace expert says putting neurodivergent employees in a typical office is like dropping a polar bear in Austin, Texas
Conferences
A 'proudly autistic' workplace expert says putting neurodivergent employees in a typical office is like dropping a polar bear in Austin, Texas
By Tristan BoveMay 20, 2026
21 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.