Supply Chain Sustainability School
We helped found an award-winning school that is building a sustainable future for the industry.
Our supply chain partners are responsible for delivering our projects on site. Their expertise, professionalism and engagement are critical to what we do.
Building stronger, more collaborative relationships with our supply chain partners continued to be a key priority for 2017. Our Better.Together.Academy and our Product Academy have provided platforms for our people and our supply chain partners to work more closely together. As a result, in 2017 1,500 people from from Cat A supply chain partners attend workshops on sustainability, social value, BIM, H&S, the design consortium, diversity and modern slavery.
We are a founder member and partner of the Supply Chain Sustainability School and remain committed to supporting this important and growing initiative. At the end of 2017, 1,472 of our supply chain partners were members of the School, including 317 from our Category A list.
We know how important cash flow is to our supply chain partners, many of whom are SMEs. So we aim to pay promptly. In 2017 over 60,000 payments to our supply chain partners were made within an average of 30 days from valuation. Our Category A supply chain partners continue to access their payments two weeks before the company's standard terms, through our Early Pay initiative.
Somerset-based groundworks company, G:WORKS, was our ‘sustainable supply chain partner of the year’ for their advocacy of apprenticeships, and the way they are playing their part in tackling the construction skills gap.
We have a key role to play in preventing hidden labour exploitation because many of the estimated 11,000 people, currently affected by modern slavery in the UK today, work in construction. In 2017 we launched Right to Work videos, in conjunction with the CITB, to provide guidance to supply chain partners on how to check that their people have the right to work in the UK. We trialed an audit process that can be used on sites. We also began to roll out training to our people, so that they can spot the warning signs of forced labour, and know how to report any suspected incidences.
In 2017 we signed up to the Gangmasters’ and Labour Abuse Authority’s Construction Protocol. This means that we have agreed to protect vulnerable workers, by sharing information with the Authority, and by working to raise awareness with our supply chain partners. We also signed up to the CIOB's Stronger Together initiative, which aims to tackle modern slavery in the construction sector.