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Hewlett-Packard, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble and eight other global companies are going to be assessing supply chains emissions as part of efforts to cut greenhouse gases and inform investors of their so-called carbon footprint. The effort is spearheaded by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a nonprofit organization. The project coordinates environmental data requests on behalf of 315 investors with $41 trillion of assets under management.

Each company picked as many as 50 of their suppliers to reply to questions from the Carbon Disclosure Project by March, the CDP said in a statement.

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

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