Supply Chain Sustainability School
The Supply Chain Sustainability School (SCSS), established seven years ago by a group of top construction contractors, was formed to provide a common approach to promoting sustainability within their supply chains. Since then it has grown to encompass 84 Partners (including clients and suppliers) and 3,138 supply chain company members. The SCSS provides a unique free resource of e-learning materials on all sustainability subjects. An action plan which is bespoke to each user guides them to the correct level based upon the results of a self-assessment. In Addition to bi-monthly sector partner meetings, the SCSS holds regular national and regional events which focus on specific topics determined by the partners. The School is divided into sectors: Construction, Infrastructure, Homes, Offsite and FM. The learning modules and events are tailored for each sector but are shared by all.
As a partner member, Osborne receives a dashboard of key performance indicators on our preferred suppliers for each of our businesses and our internal staff. The dashboard shows us how our suppliers and staff are progressing through the School. It charts how their knowledge on sustainability is increasing, based upon resources used and tests taken. At specific milestones, based upon the number of resources completed and a re-assessment of their sustainability knowledge, the suppliers are awarded bronze, silver and gold status. Nominated Osborne staff can access this data through a portal at any time and it can be included in bids and in client meetings as evidence that we are upskilling our supply chain and staff in sustainability.
The scores, which are an average for each supplier, also help us identify areas where they could use added support. As a partner member, Action Sustainability, the supporting consultancy for the School, facilitate theme specific workshops on subjects that we choose to focus on. Both Infrastructure and OPSL have already held workshops on Fairness, Inclusion and Respect (FIR) with the School for their suppliers. Infrastructure is holding a carbon specific workshop in June for its supply chain.
It’s an exciting time for the SCSS as their brand-new website launches on April 23rd. It will be very intuitive and user-friendly. It’s also an exciting time for Osborne at the SCSS as our procurement team are heavily involved with the partnership meetings, are planning more supplier events and are engaging with the supply chain on how to actively engage with the resources the SCSS has to offer.
We are also active in Special Interest Groups (SIGs), which are of short duration and topical on plant and waste.
Now that Osborne’s Learning Management System is up and running, staff within Osborne will be required to carry out those SCSS modules that are relevant to their roles and all staff will take those modules that provide a basic understanding of sustainability.
Find out more about our Sustainability Policy and Strategy here.
