Collaboration is Key - The Supply Chain Sustainability School Summit 2025

Yesterday, our Katie Checksfield attended the Supply Chain Sustainability School (SCSS) Annual Summit 2025 – an informative and thought-provoking day.

Inspiring messages on driving the conversation around sustainability were shared by industry leaders across a range of sectors within the built environment. A drive towards greater specificity when asking for ‘sustainable’ and ‘responsible’ solutions was emphasised and as with many industry talks this year, ‘Collaboration’ continued to take centre stage.

Looking at how we are working together to tackle key issues on global sustainability – Katie’s highlights of the day included:

The main morning session on Building for Good – How New Ways of Building Can Tackle Key Society Issues provided a great overview of how we can build for good, sharing risk up and down the supply chain and removing the pressure from SMEs in implementing sustainable solutions. The interactive mentimeter polls proved an excellent way to capture the audiences’ thoughts and opinions on the issues currently affecting our organisations. Prominent results included:

Barriers to innovation in construction:
1. Risk aversion
2. Thin profit margins
3. Poor leadership

Factors impacting upskilling:
1. Funding
2. Better leadership
3. Clarity of need

What is stopping the uptake of energy efficient technologies and low impact materials?
1.  Upfront costs
2. Lack of knowledge
3. Risk aversion

Jez Sweetland from the Housing Festival gave some interesting overall thoughts on the topic:
> He argued the need for an agreed methodology on quantifying qualitative benefits in procurement between the procurement teams and financial officers/commercial teams
> Jez reiterated the importance of courageous leadership for embedding sustainability throughout our organisations
> Finally, he highlighted the need for making your values mean something and being honest about those values

Katie particularly enjoyed the breakout session on The Role of Low Impact Product in Sustainable Construction.

Ben Stone, Group Head of Environmental Sustainability at Kier, gave a brilliant example of truly understanding what we mean by low impact.  His example of a sustainable product, Solar PV, highlighted the disparity in this understanding. While solar panels are cost and energy efficient, require little to no maintenance, and continue to operate at around 80% efficiency after 10 years – the procuring of these products have cause for ethical and environmental concerns. Reliance on Chinese manufacturing for these products has muddied the water on their ethical and environmental benefits and has subsequently led the SCSS to release guidance on combatting modern slavery in Solar PV supply chains.

Group Head of Responsible Sourcing at Travis Perkins, John Bullivant, provided two calls to action for clients and customers:
1. Engage early: Too often we reach out at the point of need; by making contact prior to requiring a product we can improve our procurement outcomes
2. Be specific about what your sustainability requirements are – whether that’s carbon, waste and by-products, packaging, ethical sourcing etc. This ensures that you receive the right product, specific to your unique needs

Anna Baker, Sustainability Director at Holcim UK, named her three barriers to low carbon materials as ‘Cost, Process, and Specification’, talking about the need for data led decision making. Speaking eloquently on the matter, Anna argued the difference on knowing what low carbon means to your organisation vs your client and how collaboration is truly about compromise –everyone must take a bit of the risk. Finally, she left the audience with a golden nugget on the value of long-term legacy and social impact when (in most instances) you’re operating within and around communities.

Key takeaways for SMEs from Anna:
> Don’t try and boil the ocean, find your top three priorities and embed those within your company
> As certifications and schemes become the minimum – don’t let innovation stifle
> Share your carbon data statistics and options with your client irrespective of whether they’ve asked for it – it’s a key conversation starter

What to look out for?

Emma Allen from Action Sustainability gave us an insight into some upcoming work with SCSS partners. The school will be delivering a piece in November 2025 on batteries as EV vehicles are both encouraged and mandated by local authorities and national government – we must work on what we are doing to consider whole life product cycles.

A big thank you to the Supply Chain Sustainability School, speakers, and fellow attendees for an inspiring and engaging day.