Working with Suppliers
Our suppliers are important stakeholders in the business. We rely heavily on many key suppliers to deliver our services effectively.
All our suppliers are required to meet minimum requirements of behaviour as set out in our Code of Business Ethics and Supplier Code of Conduct.
In addition we have risk assessed our main commodities and provide guidance to our purchasing teams on where they should be looking to further reduce risks. We have updated our purchasing procedures to include evaluation of CSR risks and opportunities and all our purchasing teams have received training on these procedures this year. Where risks are considered sufficiently high, a full audit will be undertaken against our Supplier Code of Conduct before a contract is let.
For key suppliers we develop strategic partnerships through which we regularly review progress and set targets for improvement, evolving the partnership so that both parties benefit. Our supplier partners include suppliers of vehicles, engines and fuel, as well as waste management, cleaning and catering contractors.
In pursuing our sustainable procurement objectives this year we have looked at ways of further developing these partnerships to improve environmental performance, and in particular, to reduce carbon emissions from the supply chain.
Please click on the links below to find out more about our suppliers:
- Vehicle Suppliers
- Konica Minolta (printing equipment)
- Assured Performance Group (parts)
- Unipart Rail (parts)
- Atos Origin (IT)
- Waste Management
- Utilities
Working with our vehicle suppliers
Emissions from our vehicles contribute to over 95% of our carbon footprint. We are therefore working actively with our vehicle suppliers to ensure they provide us with vehicles that are best in class in terms of fuel efficiency, a central measure on the supplier scorecard. In both the UK and North America we are challenging our suppliers to ensure that the introduction of Euro VI technology and new Environment Protection Agency (EPA) standards do not lead to a reduction in vehicle fuel efficiency.
Reducing carbon emissions from printing
Konica Minolta provide and manage our printing equipment and have been helping us to reduce our associated emissions by reducing:
- power consumption, through the use of fewer and lower energy devices
- paper usage, by setting devices to print double-sided as default
- toner use, by setting all devices to 50% toner saver mode.
Carbon savings of between 25% and 45% have been demonstrated depending on location. The savings include a reduction in emissions associated with lower power consumption and reductions in indirect emissions from paper and toner manufacturing. In addition Konica Minolta has an active programme to reduce its own emissions. Its devices use less power than its competitors and have both Energy Star and Blue Angel accreditation. Konica Minolta is ISO14001 and ISO9001 certified.
Reducing the carbon footprint of our airbrake equipment
We are working with Assured Performance Group (AP) (providers of airbrake equipment) on an engineering remanufacturing strategy which will reduce our carbon emissions. At present AP re-uses the airbrakes twice, reducing the associated carbon emissions threefold. They are now redesigning the airbrakes for greater durability and to give at least one additional life. To achieve this, we are working with AP to track the most common reasons for parts failure and finding ways to reduce corrosion damage. All AP products are manufactured locally in the UK, reducing emissions associated with transport.
Parts purchase in our Rail division
We have a close working relationship with Unipart Rail, the parts suppliers to our Rail division. Monthly and quarterly meetings are held to discuss performance and measure progress against a compliance scorecard. We have developed a range of performance indicators for the contract linked to FirstGroup's vision to be the safest, most reliable, lowest whole-life cost operator. This includes targets to improve reliability, rationalise the supply chain and reduce the impacts of transport, which will in turn reduce the carbon emissions associated with the contract.
Reducing the impacts of our IT data centre
Together with Atos Origin, our IT services provider, we have been looking for opportunities to reduce our carbon emission levels. We have recently completed a project to move to a new managed data centre service, reducing the necessary physical devices from 218 to 40. Additionally, Atos Origin uses the latest energy-efficient, high-performance blade servers. As a result of moving to the new data centre we have reduced electricity consumption for this function by around 70%. The new data centre will use 100% sustainable power by the end of the year. This initiative was awarded the Best Contribution to Sustainable Procurement at our 2011 internal Environmental Awards.
Managing waste in North America
Prior to 2009 we had a wide range of waste management contracts across our operations in North America. With no centralised programme in place and each operation providing for local services, it was impossible to measure waste streams. In 2009 we entered into a centralised management contract with Oakleaf Waste Management, with whom we have established baseline 'waste arising' data. A waste right sizing programme ensured that we had the right size and type of waste receptacle on each site. Now that each location is optimised and continually monitored, data shows that our waste recycling rates have improved from 3% to 7%. We will continue to work with Oakleaf and the locations to further improve our waste recycling rates and waste management processes wherever possible. In particular, we are now able to determine the waste segment streams (e.g. glass, paper and cardboard) to ensure continuing improvement.
Reducing utilities use in North America
With over 1,000 facilities spread across the United States and Canada, obtaining accurate and reliable utilities data for our operations was a challenge. In 2009 we set up a contract with Cass Information Systems who broker utilities on our behalf for all those locations where we are responsible for paying the energy bill. The utilities primarily managed within this management agreement are electricity, natural gas and water. Thanks to this relationship we are now able to monitor month by month utilities trends across our operations, giving us a baseline for setting targets and monitoring performance trends. In addition we have engaged a number of companies to perform energy audits on key properties. Their recommendations will form the basis for our energy reduction programmes.