Landsec are one of the leading real estate companies in the UK, with a £12 billion portfolio spanning 24 million sq. ft of well-connected retail, leisure, workspace, and residential hubs. From the iconic Piccadilly Lights in the West End and the regeneration of London’s Victoria, to the creation of retail destinations at Westgate Oxford and Trinity Leeds, they own and manage some of the most successful and memorable real estate in the UK.
After successfully developing their Supply Chain Commitment Charter in 2022, which allowed them to communicate their approach towards supply chain sustainability, Landsec wanted to develop a new Group sustainable procurement policy that would replace the old procurement policy and closely align with the Supply Chain Commitment Charter.
From the start it was clear that this would not become a traditional policy, this document was meant to encourage internal stakeholders to be positively engaged in the procurement process, allowing them flexibility of decision-making within a set of guardrails by emphasising guidance and autonomy over a restrictive attitude and limited authority.
To create this document from scratch, it was important to take a holistic approach. Performing a benchmarking exercise to get a view on approaches other organisations have taken, holding stakeholder interviews to gain insights from stakeholders on their needs and ideas, and a workshop to brainstorm and align on the most effective structure and content.
The benchmarking exercise was performed to compare and contrast best practice from within and outside the industry, analysing what made them good and determine how this can be incorporated in Landsec’s new Sustainable Procurement policy.
The benchmarking exercise reviewed: what is covered in the policies, how sustainability is incorporated in procurement processes, how they are future-proofed, and any additional good and bad practices.
Action Sustainability conducted nine interviews across six stakeholder groups with the aim of getting a better understanding of the needs across the business when engaging in procurement processes. These interviews looked at stakeholder needs for general procurement activities as well as sustainable procurement guidance, to ensure end users of the new policy feel supported in their procurement activities and understand how to procure sustainably.
A policy workshop was held where internal stakeholders from across the organisation, ranging from subject matter experts to end users, were invited to discuss the ideal structure of this document. First, the findings from the benchmarking exercise and the interviews were shared, after which recommendations for the new document were put forward and discussed.
This workshop provided an opportunity to hear and align expectations, as well as learn about potential concerns that should be kept in mind going forward. This stage was critical in determining the format of the document, a guidance based sustainable procurement document with tailored procurement sequencing and sustainability at its core.
Similar to the earlier stages, stakeholders across the business were closely engaged to ensure their ideas, views and concerns were incorporated. This meant that for each section of the guide, journey drafting meetings took place. In which the teams would discuss the sequencing of sourcing steps, the key considerations for each step, and what stakeholders can do to add additional value to Landsec as an organisation.
The Landsec Sustainable Procurement Guidance demonstrates Landsec’s principles and values and is closely aligned with their Supply Chain Commitment. The document invites stakeholders to think about how they can add value (beyond cost savings), through their procurement activities, and how they can utilise the Landsec procurement principles in their sustainable sourcing decision-making at every step of the process.
To ensure the document is easy to use, it was designed to be aligned with the Supply Chain Commitment, making the two documents complementary. This also means the guide makes use of icons, colours and interactivity, to make navigating the document a smooth process.
As close stakeholder engagement had been a critical element throughout the process, and is critical to everything we do as a procurement function, the launch of the Sustainable Procurement Guide carried on this philosophy. The guidance document was launched in conjunction with additional resources that together form the Sustainable Procurement Toolkit.
For this launch, stakeholders were invited to attend a session in which the procurement team introduced the resources and answered any questions or concerns stakeholders had. Moreover, to inspire stakeholders to engage closely with procurement, several stakeholders were invited to share their experience and successes of working with their procurement counterparts. This launch helped the procurement team showcase themselves as valued business partners and advisors to the business.
