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The task

British Land is a leading property company that has sustainability at the core of its Places People Prefer business strategy. Stakeholders such as investors and local authority planning teams are increasingly interested in property owners and developers understanding sustainability risks in their supply chain, as well as opportunities to drive social value for the communities where they operate.

British Land approached Action Sustainability for support mapping supply chain risks and developing a strategy to engage and support suppliers around risks and opportunities.

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    Action

    To facilitate this, we assisted British Land in:

    • Developing guidance for suppliers on the social and environmental standards expected of them.
    • Identifying, in consultation with key suppliers, social and environmental objectives that contribute towards the company’s overall business objectives.
    • Training suppliers from the development and managed portfolios, including face to face training.
    • Introducing a system for key suppliers to measure and report their social sustainability performance, using agreed metrics and KPIs.
    • Providing support for contractors and managing agents on how to engage local businesses and local people on British Land’s construction sites and managed portfolio
    • Undertaking annual spend analysis of British Land’s major retail and development sites.
    • Preparing British Land’s first modern slavery statement, compliant with the Modern Slavery Act (2015).
    • Helping small local businesses to grow stimulates the economies around British Land assets. This is not only good for local communities but can also contribute to asset value over the long-term.
    • Supporting local people to achieve their potential helps secure the skills that British Land and its supply chain need to maintain quality and grow in the face of emerging skills shortages.
    • British Land’s customer surveys show that people who feel a strong community association with a retail centre visit at least 30% more often and are over 50% more likely to recommend it to friends, showing how social value and commercial benefit can go hand in hand.

    The outcome

    The British Land Supply Chain Charter is recognised as a sector leading document by wider industry. The Charter has enabled British Land’s supply chain to effectively contribute to the attainment of the organisation’s 2020 sustainability goals.  The organisation remains on target to meet the majority of its sustainability objectives.

    A summary of British Land’s sustainability performance can be seen on their website here.