Willmott Dixon engages supply chain with the carbon calculator

What motivated Willmott Dixon to start using the Carbon Calculator across the supply chain?

Within our sustainability strategy, ‘Now or Never’, we have set a target for our supply chain to be net zero carbon in operation by 2040. Historically it has been challenging to access data from our supply chain, so the Carbon Calculator helps us to get this data into a single, accessible tool that is easy to navigate.

How has the Carbon Calculator enabled positive sustainable change in your organisation?

The Carbon Calculator has improved our ability to analyse our suppliers’ performance by giving us the data to start to measure our supply chain’s carbon impacts.

Once we are measuring, we can then work with our supply chain to identify and implement carbon reduction initiatives to start making progress towards this target. For example, we can examine the size of carbon emissions related to diesel use on-site by our groundworks suppliers and identify the extent of reductions possible if they all switched to HVO or fully electric plant.

Achieving your first 100 suppliers is not an easy task. What actions has Willmott Dixon taken to reach such a good response rate?

We’ve pushed the Tool internally with our supply chain teams, who, in turn, have promoted it to our supply chain. We also make use of targeted trade forums carried out across our operating regions to encourage the submission of data to the Tool.

We also use these opportunities to sell the benefits of reporting to suppliers; so, how will reporting help them to identify improvements? As an example, the need to submit data to the Tool might encourage our suppliers to start looking more closely at their energy bills, and subsequently give more thought to reductions.

Looking into the future, how do you envision the use of insights from the Carbon Calculator?

The Carbon Calculator will continue to help us target the supply chain in a more focused way. Willmott Dixon understands we need to guide and support our supply chain to understand and realise carbon reduction initiatives. So if we know, for example, that a specific trade results in a greater proportion of emissions, we can start to focus more on that trade with some specific collaboration and engagement activities.

Interested in how our Carbon Calculator can benefit your organisation? For more information, visit: https://carbon.sustainabilitytool.com/