National Trust Transforms their Procurement Process Through a Materiality Assessment

The National Trust engaged Action Sustainability to support them with their transformation journey towards ever more sustainable procurement.

We were commissioned to undertake a materiality assessment of where sustainability risks and opportunities lie in the supply chain to support the Trust with being more effective in achieving its sustainability goals through procurement.

Our method was simple but effective. We reviewed existing documents pertinent to how the Trust procures. We then interviewed more than a dozen key stakeholders at Director level for their views and insight on how procurement is currently and how it could be better with respect to sustainability. Finally, we facilitated four in-person materiality workshops with key categories (Gardens & Outdoors, IT, Retail/Commercial/Marketing, and Construction & FM) to get their input and consensus on where significant sustainability risks and opportunities lie in the supply chain for the products and services they buy.

Aligned with the Trust’s Values, we covered the full sustainability spectrum of risks and impacts, encompassing climate and carbon, circular economy and waste, nature and biodiversity, as well as supplier diversity, employment, and labour standards.

The outputs included a series of heatmaps for each category and their sub-categories, highlighting the priorities within categories, but also the priorities between sub-categories.

The research and key stakeholder engagement that we led for the Trust culminated in comprehensive report that provides strategic insights.

It identifies where the key sustainability risks and opportunities exist at a sub-category level for reducing sustainability impacts and enhancing benefits through the Trust’s engagement with the supply chain.

Furthermore, it collates our findings and recommendations on how the Trust can move forward with implementing a more comprehensive and holistic approach to supply chain sustainability.

It therefore provides not only a toolbox on sustainability risk by category for those who have procurement as part of their role, but also a roadmap for where and how the Trust can strengthen its sustainable procurement in the future.