NEW YORK – As more businesses focus on sustainable business practices that help protect the environment and reduce costs, 11 global companies have signed on to be a part of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).

Hewlett-Packard, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Cadbury Schweppes, Dell, Imperial Tobacco Group, L'Oreal, Nestle, Tesco, Reckitt Benckiser Group and Unilever are assessing the emissions of their supply chains as part of efforts to cut greenhouse gases and inform investors of their carbon footprint, reports Bloomberg News. Each company picked as many as 50 of their suppliers to reply to questions from the CDP by March, according to an e-mail statement. The nonprofit project coordinates environmental data requests on behalf of 315 investors with $41 trillion of assets under management, writes Bloomberg. 

The plan "will encourage suppliers to measure and manage their greenhouse-gas emissions," said Paul Dickinson, COO of the group adding, "This will enable large companies to work towards measuring their total carbon footprint, as this is the first step to managing and reducing it."

Companies are working to cut greenhouse-gas emissions as more state governments pass laws that limite the pollutants. Under emissions-trading markets set up to help countries meet international targets, firms are given limits on their gases and must buy credits if they exceed those limits, notes Bloomberg.

The global emissions credits market almost doubled in 2007, to $60 billion, two-thirds of it in the European Union, according to the research firm Point Carbon.

The CDP plans to develop a standardized methodology to measure supply-chain emissions so that all corporations can assess their impact on the global climate, according to the statement.

The data will be fed to banks and funds to help guide their lending and investment decisions. Goldman Sachs Group, Merrill Lynch and HSBC Holdings are among the investors cooperating with the project.

"Partnerships between companies, suppliers, stakeholders and customers are critical to making a real difference in protecting the earth we share," Tod Arbogast, Dell's director of sustainable business, said in the statement. "Our partnership with CDP will give us tremendous insight to help reduce not only our own carbon footprint, but ultimately that of our supply chain."