Get your suppliers on board the climate train

Being a sustainable business is about the whole lifecycle of your business, including your suppliers. And that means supporting your suppliers, not dictating to them.

It’s a commercially sensible and forward-thinking thing to do. You will make yourself attractive to bigger businesses who will want to do business with you because you share their values. And you’ll be able to show them that your approach stretches into your own supply chain. Everyone’s happy and business can be done.

Why you should do this now

Your business might not be a climate expert. You might not be a climate expert. But you are a human being with an interest in the survival of future generations.

The first step is to list your suppliers and consider creating a questionnaire to find out their impacts on the environment and what they are doing to improve them. Consider asking for their scope 1 & 2 carbon scores.

You need to consider what answers are acceptable and what makes you reassess whether you work with them or not. This may be different for every business, and you need to create a supplier policy for climate impact.

Have a goal

It’s a good idea to have a date by which you want to source everything from suppliers who meet your requirements. When you’ve decided on one, share it as early as possible to give your supplier the best possible chance to meet your deadline.

And don’t forget to build relationships. You rely on your suppliers and it’s better if everyone knows they are ‘in it together’. You are changing the way you do things for commercial reasons as well as ethical ones, and part of that is to work with your suppliers to demonstrate the benefits for their own business.

You can find out more about how to talk to and support your suppliers, as well as loads of other resources to help your business become a climate-conscious business in our ‘Be Climate Confident‘ e-book , request a copy.

 

Please note: This is not meant to constitute professional advice. It is generic guidance only and things may have changed since it was written –please always seek specific & tailored advice for your circumstances.