Clifford Chance

Action on climate change is a key imperative for us as it not only affects the firm, it also affects our clients and our suppliers. Like many responsible businesses, we have set ambitious near-term science-based targets for 2030 improving our environmental performance and supporting us with our longer-term aim towards net zero. 

Our largest emissions reside in Scope 3 – those emissions indirectly impacting our value chain such as purchased goods and services, travel, waste and employee commuting. With 59.5% of our emissions sitting within purchased goods and services, it’s critical we talk to suppliers about how they can manage, measure and reduce their carbon emissions, and how we can work together to improve the way they deliver services to us.

Over the last year, we have been working to enhance our approach to supplier relationship management (SRM) and increase transparency around the minimum standards we expect from our suppliers. This includes an annual refresh of our supplier code of conduct and supplier standards, and an uplift to our standard terms and conditions to incorporate more detailed sustainability clauses. It also includes our annual supplier declaration exercise, which gives suppliers an opportunity to show they understand our values, principles and minimum expectations across the principles of environment, social and governance (ESG), and an external benchmark of our SRM programme, inclusive of ESG, which we’ve done for the last few years to help support programme maturity and growth. 

“Through engagement with sustainability ratings provider EcoVadis, we received sustainability and carbon scorecards for our key suppliers, which has helped us better understand their environmental and social impact and allowed us to work with them to see where they can reduce the emissions related to their delivery of services to us,” says Senior Procurement Manager (SRM & Sustainability), Louise Zabbar, who is responsible for the firm’s Global SRM and Sustainable Procurement Programmes. “From these assessments, we can see where they are on their journey and work with them to support corrective action if needed.”

One of our IT suppliers has already been through such an assessment, which identified environmental shortcomings.

Following the review, and discussions with Procurement and IT Contract Managers and Owners, the supplier engaged a thirdparty consultant to support its sustainability journey and has subsequently improved its environmental performance and reporting. 

Andy Hier, Head of IT Vendor Management Office, says: “Through the SRM programme, we have made some fundamental changes to the way in which we engage our IT suppliers and improve their sustainability performance. Capturing data and embedding it in our processes, procedures and reporting has given us greater insight and allowed for more informed discussions to further drive positive change.” 

The assessments are tailored to each supplier and how they operate – with the intention of building relationships that foster continuous improvement. The scorecards can be accessed by other clients, which means any improvements in performance can have a positive influence on suppliers’ business prospects as well. 

“Some suppliers have told us going through the assessment gave them the chance to reflect on their sustainability performance as a whole and shed light on where they needed extra work,” adds Louise. “Many have gone on to create their own ESG reports, which have enabled them to engage further with their other clients.” 

We also walk the talk when it comes to the sustainability assessments, making sure we go through them as well so we can benchmark our own performance. Not only that, we have used the opportunity to upskill our own people as part of the overall framework. 

“As this is a global initiative, we’ve engaged with our Contract Managers and Owners in all our regions and introduced a learning and development programme for them,” says Louise. “That’s given them the skills they need to maximise opportunities and support the education and continuous improvement aspects of our supplier relationships.

“If we want to meet our targets, we have to work collaboratively with all our suppliers, in particular those ‘high emitters’, and adapt how we connect with them for our mutual benefit and for the good of the planet.”