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Sustainable Supply Chains

A sustainable supply chain is one that considers environmental and social impacts across its entire value chain to ensure the protection of people and the environment. Presently, businesses experience the largest volume of emissions within their Scope 3 and are proactively trying to calculate and respond to this. But negative social impacts in a value chain can go unaccounted for due to a lack of traceability and transparency.

The shift to jointly assess the environment and social risks is occurring due to the new EU legislation such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the EU Green Claims Directive. These now require companies to be able to demonstrate sufficient evidence to support any sustainability claim across both social and environment.

BITCI support members to create more sustainable supply chains through

Using our Business Working Responsibly Mark as a framework, support member companies to map their supply chains, increase due diligence and transparency. Identify potential risks and provide guidance to mitigate.
Provide feedback on policies and procedures that are in place and identify any gaps.
Provide support with stakeholder engagement such as facilitate supplier engagement meetings and events or support internal working groups or committees.
Provide training for employees and or other stakeholders on human rights, modern slavery or climate action.

Many of our members have a complex value chain that includes many SMEs and while we do not offer a direct service for SMEs, we recognise that we can support SMEs indirectly through our members.

All-Ireland Climate Action Pilot Programme for SMEs Overview

This programme led by BITCI, in collaboration with Business in the Community NI, involved three of our members Bank of Ireland Group, Musgrave Group, SSE Airtricity, and a sample of their SMEs. This initiative delivered accredited carbon literacy training and tailored support to help participants develop effective climate action plans.

The programme was delivered through a series of group workshops and one-to-one mentoring sessions, using a ‘learning by doing’ approach to deepen understanding of both the challenges and the opportunities available.

Key findings and outcomes:

Improved Carbon Literacy and Climate Knowledge: By programme end, 93% of participants rated their climate knowledge as good or very good, up from 72%. Further upskilling, not only for SMEs, but for internal teams of larger companies to better support their supply chain decarbonisation and engagement is required.

Development of Climate Action Plans: Over half of the participating SMEs are now developing climate action plans, marking progress in actionable carbon reduction goals.

Supplier Engagement as a Key to Progress: Engaging with larger suppliers proved vital. Companies that engage suppliers are 6.6 times more likely to establish climate transition plans, essential for meeting Net Zero targets.

Sector-Specific, Tailored Support Benefits: Tailored, sectoral approaches to supplier engagement were particularly effective, especially for the 40% of SMEs in the food and drink sector.

Positive Outcomes in Decarbonisation and Supplier Engagement: The programme saw increased supplier engagement and steps towards carbon reduction, building capacity and readiness among SMEs for sustainable business practices.

This programme showed how powerful supply chain decarbonisation can be when we come together. Through collaboration, upskilling, and empowering BITCI member companies and their suppliers, real progress can be made in reducing carbon footprints. The work in this programme has informed the design and will influence the roll out of our Accelerate, The Business Pact for Climate and Nature.

Watch the videos below to understand how effective this initiative was for those involved.