Supplier Engagement HE Tool

A simple sustainable procurement commitment (buying 'greener' or more ethical products or services ) can be used to communicate what is important to your business. You may use certified products or services or choose to have your own certified. A public commitment demonstrates to your customers how you consider and address the impacts within your supply chain. Include them as part of your sustainability approach and report on progress accordingly.

There is a business risk attached to not having any understanding of your supply chain. There may also be opportunities to source more ethical or environmentally sound alternatives (those which produce less waste, have a lower carbon footprint, use less raw materials or are produced with less damage to the environment, and where good labour practices are followed). The starting point is understanding where the products your business depends upon come from and how they are made and transported. Don't be afraid to ask questions of your own suppliers.

The vulnerable in your community might be the elderly, at-risk youth, migrants or others living in isolation. Supporting or developing schemes to support these groups might be an activity you can link to staff volunteering or community outreach initiatives.

There are likely to be a range of ways your organisation could help reduce crime in your local community. From provision of surveillance to effectively managing spaces so they discourage anti-social behaviour. More information and suggestions can be found in this Bre Trust briefing paper

The national Rough Sleeping Strategy outlines ambitions to eradicate homelessness by 2027 and there are likely to be local inititives in your area. Consider how your organisation could contribute to these local efforts.

Many organisations already have a strong reputation for supporting community activities. From wildlife conservation or growing projects such as Britain in Bloom to volunteering at food banks or youth clubs. Consider how you can maximise your community contribution through your staff engagement programme.

Your business might be able to make a real difference locally by participating in work-experience schemes with more challenging audiences. These might equip young people, ex-offenders or other disadvantaged groups with new skills at the same time as improving the local area. Both the Princes Trust and the Career Transition Partnership have information to explore this.

From careers fairs to work experience placements there are likely to be a range of ways you can support skills developments in conjunction with local schools and colleges. The Young Enterprise Scheme is a well-established example.

Low-carbon skills across the whole of society are essential to meet the ambition of a zero-carbon future. A significant social value contribution your organisation can make is via outreach programmes and partnering locally to support skills development around carbon literacy. Consider if this is relevant to your organisation and how you could provide access to low-carbon training and/or development for the communities where you operate.

Inviting an expert speaker into your workplace can be an easy way to keep yourself up-to-date on what is important with regards to diversity. These can be linked to your industry and also support staff cohesion more generally.

Consider if your recruitment process and practice could be improved to help you employ more people from disadvantaged groups. You may be able to provide support that improves the chances of care-leavers, ex-offenders or long-term unemployed to access opportunities.

Create a workplace culture that supports good mental health benefits for everyone. The human cost of poor mental health is considerable but there are also business costs associated with poor performance. The Stevenson Review provides a comprehensive starting point with many no-cost or low-cost options that can be introduced to help support a thriving workforce.

Providing mental health resources in the workplace could save a life. The NHS signposts to a range of support and resources you could make accessible to staff or visitors.

Businesses can ensure payments are met by a specified date, and offer compensation or another gesture if this deadline is not met. Guaranteeing suppliers a date of payment builds trust across your supply chain as suppliers feel they will suffer less financial risk when carrying out business with you.

Even if your organisation was not forced to adapt to recent changes it is worth considering if best practice has shifted during this period of change. A review of workplace process and practice to consider this is likely to be a useful starting point. Include identifying if any groups of staff have been disproportionately affected.

The global pandemic has changed individuals as much as organisations. Considering how your customer needs have altered or whether attitudes have shifted is likely to be a useful activity.

Being pro-active about positioning your business to respond to tenders with fast turnaround times can be especially important to smaller organisations. The good news is there is help you can access to make this happen for your business.

Social innovation that benefits people, communities and the wider society are highly sought by customers and especially those in the public sector. Develop plans and embed practice that supports innovation in your business model.

Share examples of social innovation in practice to both raise the profile of your activity and provide inspiration to others. Leaders continue to push the boundaries of excellent practice and share their approaches for community benefit.

The Sustainable Development Goals were adopted to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. They will impact on business practice over the next decade at least as governments are challenged to demonstrate progress against the targets within them.

Identify how your business activities contribute to the global goals or how they could contribute. A mapping exercise may be needed to identify both risks and opportunities from the SDGs for your business operations.

The SDGs could be at the heart of your sustainability activity with targets and evidence of progress part of your journey. Have a look at the South Yorkshire Police Sustainability Strategy to see how they have included the SDGs in the strategy.

Businesses should make an effort to seek out new innovations within their sector, especially in relation to resource or process efficiency. Are there new options that can future-proof your company from rising costs? Are your customers keen that you offer new and improved products and services. Keeping up-to-date can be crucial.

Your staff are often at the front-line when it comes to communicating with your customers. Make sure that communications messages are disseminated clearly and effectively so that messages are consistent no matter which messenger is used. Training for front-line staff is likely to be essential to ensure this happens consistently.

Find ways to ensure your customers can communicate with you and respond to the stories you are sharing with them. Social media can be a great way to establish dialigue with your clients but an old-fashioned feedback form can be just as effective. Think about what will work for you and your customers.

At least one of your customers has encouraged you to use this tool to generate an Action Plan. The simplest way to keep them informed is to update it regularly with your progress. You can also use the 'EXPORT PLAN' button at the bottom of the page to send it directly to individuals, such as potential new customers. You could also add it to your website, if you have one, to make a more public statement.

A policy is a simply written statement outlining your organisation's commitment to managing environmental or sustainability impacts. It outlines the key areas of your business you hope to improve and so can include environmental, social and/or economic considerations and targets. You could use this Action Plan as the basis of your policy as it provides an overview of sustainability areas for you to focus on.

A simple blog post, a conversation with your customers or an update on your website is enough to share your progress, large or small. Think about developing a case study to showcase your work. Even the smallest initiative can be an excuse to tell a positive story about your business.

Your governance structure will depend not only on the size and scale of your business but also how it is structured. Governance can range from a small group of staff to external committees with dedicated staff. It is also acceptable to embed sustainability into existing governance structures. Consider diversity and inclusion as part of developing your governance structures to ensure a range of voices are heard and scrutiny comes from a range of perspectives.

An increasing number of larger organisations are making commitments either to source 100% of their energy from renewables or to generate their own. Consider the feasibility of generating your own renewable energy

Understanding the carbon impacts of your business operations is an important first step in developing an action plan to help you manage and reduce them. Broadly this means looking at the energy you consume, travel and transport, waste production the type of catering you provide and the impact of the products you purchase. This activity is the first step in developing a carbon action plan. This survey developed by the University of Leicester is a useful way to identify the types of data you will need to gather and You can also use a carbon calculator tool such as this one from the Carbon trust

A carbon reduction plan will enable you to demonstrate your commitment to de-carbonisation and evidence that you are responding to the climate challenges in a focussed way. It will detail your key impact areas and detail your plans to reduce them. Use this editable template to get you started.

Changing staff behaviours is at the heart of reducing carbon emissions (particularly in the short-term). Providing meaningful training and support for staff so they can become carbon literate and understand carbon impacts as they relate to your organisation will help them take action. Many organisations are exploring the carbon literacy project as a way forward.

It may be appropriate for your organisation to obtain certification that provides assurance in relation to your carbon reduction activities. Organisations, operations and products can all be certificated, consider which might be relevant to your context. The Carbon Trust might be a good place to start this exploration.

Regular reporting of progress against carbon reduction commitments is recognised as good practice. This could include a mixture of progress against specific targets and case studies and examples of projects.

Important! It is best to look at carbon offsetting after you have reduced your carbon footprint as much as you can first. Carbon offset schemes allow individuals and companies to invest in environmental projects around the world in order to balance out their own carbon footprints. The projects are usually based in developing countries and often designed to reduce future emissions. However there are also options around offsetting projects locally to support the communities where you are based. For a fuller overview please see this briefing note NETpositive Futures has produced.

The food we consume comes with a large carbon impact across the whole life cycle of our food, from ground to plate. Whilst we should not try to control the diet of our staff we can reduce the carbon footprint of the events we might host or on-site catering facilities. This might be as simple as providing meat free options or plant based meals. Have a look here for more information on the carbon impact of food The University Caterers Organisation (TUCO) has developed a free tool to calculate the greenhouse gas footprint of your menu choices.