Supply Chain Decarbonisation Partnership

The built environment is responsible for 25% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions and in order to rapidly decarbonise the industry must mobilise multiple sectors towards this common goal. At the core of any industry’s activity are complex supply chains that necessitate collaborative work to gain the clarity, agreement and support needed to implement the correct actions that deliver results. For the majority of built environment organisations, emissions within their supply chain make up the largest proportion of their carbon footprint, so simply addressing one’s own, direct emissions is not sufficient.
To address this challenge, UKGBC will work with industry experts to establish an ongoing stream of work that will bring cross-sector collaboration to overcome some of the barriers facing supply chains, as described below.
Defining the Project Scope
The overall stream of work will examine and identify practical feasible ways to address barriers and drive change to cover but not exclusive to:
- Stakeholders – Feasible supplier engagement and building alliances to drive change throughout the supply chain
- The role of procurement and effective implementation and management to accelerate decarbonisation
- Setting or evolving existing pathways and targets that incentivise decarbonisation
- Tracking, accounting and data, to show credible progress.
- Managing uncertainty and an evolving solutions base, while overcoming barriers such as upfront cost, return on investment, and resistance to change.

Supply Chain Complexity – Meeting the Challenge
Supply chains in the built environment can be incredibly vast, fragmented and complicated. It is clear industry must adopt multiple approaches to the issue. There are already several impactful supply chain initiatives underway, targeting specific problem areas including:
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- the Supply Chain Sustainability School
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- The Climate Group with initiatives such as ConcreteZero and SteelZero
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- UKRI’s Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge and the Mineral Products Association UK Concrete campaign
UKGBC’s workstream will align with and reinforce impacts initiatives and others in development or emerging to enhance their Impact.
Due to the member driven nature of the organisation, UKGBC can utilise the expansive reach it has in the industry and deliver outcomes (practical initiatives, actions and solutions etc) to fully encapsulate the needs and requirements of all stakeholders in the supply chain, facilitating an accelerated pathway to decarbonisation.

UKGBC is seeking five project partners to support this, at a cost of £5,000 per partner. Partners will have the opportunity to shape the scope of and be central to delivering this Supply Chain Decarbonisation work and will be recognised in all outputs and prioritised for engagement opportunities.
In addition to expert representatives from our project partner organisations, we will be calling for applicants to join our project task group, which will help to draft and review the guidance.
Download the Call for Applications
Enquire here

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