Morgan Sindall Group were seeking support in understanding the areas of existing good practice and gaps in their sustainable procurement performance across their business. There was a need for an in-depth and objective review of the performance in sustainable procurement for all business units, with wide internal stakeholder involvement and prioritised actions necessary to drive change forward.
Action Sustainability’s assessment, the subsequent findings from our report, and our recommendations will help Morgan Sindall Group bridge the gaps to ensure the golden thread methodology is followed, to allow procurement to fully manage all sustainability risks and opportunities.
We undertook a desktop review of documents and conducted interviews with relevant staff across various functions and departments from Morgan Sindall’s Group divisions. We produced a report based on the findings, putting forth recommendations for areas of improvement.
The first phase of the evaluation involved reviewing documentation such as policies, strategies, tender procedures (PQQ & ITT documents) and example tender exercises recently undertaken.
The second part of our process involved a series of one to one interviews covering sustainability, sustainable procurement, and contract management. The interviewees were key employees from the various business units, at different organisational levels and in different roles, all with an influence on spend. The interviews were based on the key elements of the ISO 20400 standard – Fundamentals, Policy & Strategy, Enablers and Process.
Through our discussions, we were able to explore how effectively our group sustainability objectives are deployed through procurement, along with the added requirements of the individual client and projects for each division.
The analysis provided a confidence in Morgan Sindall Group aligning its processes and approach to ISO 20400. The individual business units are established in their process with good examples of measuring and monitoring sustainability outcomes (social value).
The overall approach to sustainable procurement was assessed as being ‘mature’ with procurement and supply chain management staff being consistent and committed to achieving sustainable solutions via their process.
The evaluation results gave each business unit an action plan of activities to do, the timescales and complexity in carrying them out to reach their sustainability goals.
The recommendations also highlighted the synergies where some business units are excelling in the process and could help and support the other business units by sharing best practice.
