Wal Mart's ambitious announcements last week (and M&S's new targets this week) show the growing trend towards greening the supply chain. While M&S have stressed that they want to see their whole industry drive down emissions (and related environmental impacts), they have acknowledged that they want to "outgreen" the competition. Lee Scott (CEO, Wal Mart) is very clear that he sees this as a key differentiator for his company. And for their suppliers that is already a reality.

Our panel will explain what is going on: the business case, the complexity of the challenge and where it is set to go. Paul Kelly will explain Asda's plan to introduce Wal Mart's "Sustainability Index" in the UK. Fiona Page and Paula Widdowson will explain the "supplier" journeys that they have undertaken at Pepsi and Northern Foods respectively. And Paul Dickinson will give his insights on the back of their project to get the suppliers to the world's bigger businesses to measure and disclose their climate change information.