Stepping Stones to Sustainability – Improve your supply chain in 5 steps
Introduction
Sustainability is increasingly high on people’s agenda and has become a buzz word in business circles. Measurable performance and tangible outcomes are becoming the standard across all sectors.
But what does this really mean in practice, and how do you make your business more sustainable in a meaningful way?
We break sustainability challenges down into manageable chunks to help our clients meet their ESG aspirations and to help them to take action on climate change and social injustice through the way that they operate.
Our Stepping stones to sustainability series will walk you through practical services that we can offer to help you make efficient and effective changes, and ultimately build more purpose and impact into your organisation.
Improve your supply chain in 5 steps
Being a better business can be a challenge, particularly when you think about all the interactions that you have no control of through your supply chain. You may have set a net zero target and taken steps to clean up your act, but all businesses have a range of suppliers that might not be doing the right thing, and therefore conflict with your values and aspirations.
Being on top of your relationships with your suppliers can reap dividends in terms of the impact your business has on society and the environment as well as on your bottom line.
So what can you really do to have an impact on your supply chain?
Stepping stones to sustainability Improve your supply chains in 5 steps
Click here to read the rest of the guides in our Stepping stones to sustainability series, with practical steps on how to embed purpose, add green clauses to your employment contracts, reduce your environmental impact through real estate, add a net zero contract clause, and more.
#1 What are your priorities?
Be clear about your values and what you want from your suppliers. Work out what your priorities are, then develop a plan to help you meet these through your dealings with your suppliers. If you want to reduce your scope 3 emissions*, you will need to work with suppliers who are more environmentally conscious.
*Scope 3 emissions are those emissions that you are indirectly responsible for, e.g. through your procurement of goods and services
#2 Focus on your values
Build your values and aspirations into your procurement processes. You could think about building in additional points for those companies that meet higher social and environmental standards, like B Corps and social enterprises, into your procurement scoring systems or looking to only appoint suppliers whose values align with yours.
#3 Get to know your suppliers
How much do you know about them and how they operate? If you are concerned about fair pay you can require your suppliers to pay a living wage. Think about putting supplier questionnaires and codes of conduct in place to help you get to the bottom of how your suppliers measure up to your values and priorities.
#4 Reporting and audit
When you review or renew your contracts with suppliers, think about building in additional reporting and audit rights to allow you to keep a track on how they perform and whether they continue to meet your needs.
#5 Build strategy
Contact us to find out how we can help you to look at your supply chain in a more strategic way.
Making a profit is core to all businesses but our goal is to combine this with a real social purpose. Our values are pivotal to us, they shape our decisions and the way we live and work.
We focus on positive social impact as much as we focus on being a successful law firm. Our top tier legal advice is coupled with a real desire to drive change and we were the first UK law firm to achieve B Corp certification, awarded to businesses that balance purpose and profit.
Today, our clients are diverse – from corporate household names, to public bodies, to start-ups. We’re also the firm of choice for thousands of charities and social enterprises. We continue to lead the market we helped to shape.
Bates Wells challenges what is possible in legal expertise delivery.
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