Building a sustainable supply chain may have become a board level priority, but the conversation is all too often framed in terms of risk avoidance. Of course, that matters: a supply chain that destroys the environment, exploits workers, or falls short of basic ethical standards puts a business at serious risk.
But stopping harm isn’t the same as doing good. What if your supply chain could be more than just compliant?
Legislation like the Procurement Act 2023 and PPN 002 have embedded Social Value into public sector supply chains. but if even a fraction of the global economic activity generated by private sector supply chains were directed toward creating Social Value – through fairer employment, targeted local investment, or climate action – the impact would be transformative.
Building a sustainable supply chain with Social Value
So, how do you build a supply chain that’s not just compliant, but actively driving positive change?
Used by brands like Mars, Compass Group, and Equans, the Social Value TOM System™ provides a clear and measurable standard for sustainable supply chain management across both public and private sector organisations.
And to help stamp out greenwashing and social washing, it only allows businesses to claim value for outcomes that they’ve actively supported suppliers to deliver.
📃 Explore free of charge: The Open Access TOM System™
In this guide, we’ll explore some of the key approaches detailed within the TOM System that will help you build a sustainable supply chain strategy.
We’ve broken it down into four practical focus areas:
- Ethical sourcing and fair growth for a sustainable supply chain
- Employment and skills development across the supply chain
- Environmental stewardship for greener supply chains
- Supporting the communities your supply chain touches
💡 Need a refresher? Read our 'What is Social Value?' breakdown
1. Ethical sourcing and fair growth for a sustainable supply chain
Building a sustainable supply chain starts with who you choose to work with and backing them to do better. Here are some of the steps you can take to construct an ethical supply chain that empowers diverse businesses and raises standards.
Source suppliers ethically and responsibly
Adopt ISO20400 sustainable procurement standards
ISO20400 gives your procurement team a shared language and playbook for what good looks like, meaning they don’t have to rely on ad hoc processes.
For instance, rolling out ISO20400 might uncover inconsistencies in way organisations across your supply chain record sustainability checks and help you make targeted improvements.
Tackle modern slavery risks
Modern slavery won’t show up on a spreadsheet, but it exists (often in hidden or informal tiers) in supply chains across the world. This makes it a major focus for sustainability and supply chain management.
You can identify risks in your own supply chain and prevent exploitation before it happens by:
- Running proactive audits (not just once, but regularly)
- Having escalation routes in place when concerns arise
- Partnering with NGOs or watchdogs for specialist insight
Train suppliers on responsible and ethical procurement policies
Some suppliers may lack the capacity or knowledge to meet evolving expectations on ethical procurement alone. Consider helping your suppliers build internal expertise and implement best practices through webinars, toolkits, one-to-one mentoring, or other types of hands-on support.
📃 Deep dive: Guy Battle explores the rise of Social Value in private supply chains on the Procurement Show with Jonathan O’Brien and Paul Philpott.
Publish sustainability and Social Value data across your supply chain
Don’t just tell the market about the work your supply chain is doing – instead, make your position on supply chain sustainability real and credible by requiring your suppliers to measure and disclose their own data. This might include emissions, wages, or other Social Value outcomes.
Support local and diverse suppliers
Support, and spend with local companies, SMEs, and VCSEs
The businesses in your supply chain reflect your values. Instead of defaulting to large incumbents, intentionally seek out local and diverse providers. This is one of the most direct ways to create Social Value, and it pays off in agility and innovation.
Prioritise spending your budgets with:
- Local businesses
- Small to medium sized businesses (SMEs)
- Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs)
- Women and minority-owned SMEs and VCSEs
Spend is only part of the story, though. Social Value is also about providing SME and VCSE suppliers with meaningful support, such as:
- Volunteering
- Expert business guidance
- Support to achieve net zero
💡 Inspiration: As part of its far-reaching Social Value programme, Compass Group UK & Ireland has onboarded six socially and environmentally conscious suppliers, while driving a regional sourcing strategy with local suppliers in Scotland and Wales, like Wickedly Welsh Chocolate and Flawsome Drinks.
Hold ‘Meet the Buyer’ events to support SME engagement
Many small suppliers struggle to access large tenders. ‘Meet the Buyer’ events are a great way to break down those barriers and give SMEs and VCSEs the chance to understand requirements, pitch their capabilities, and build relationships.
🌟 Inspiration: STAR Procurement’s 2024 Meet the Buyer event at Stockport Council Town Hall attracted over 500 attendees for presentations and networking!
Pay invoices within 30 days
As small and voluntary sector suppliers are less likely to have significant reserves of cash – that means delayed payments can have a crushing impact.
30-day terms provide the stability these organisations need to plan and grow, ultimately creating a more stable and resilient supply chain.
2. Employment and skills development across the supply chain
Employment is one of the most powerful levers you can pull to generate Social Value in your supply chain. This is particularly true when the jobs created offer inclusivity, fair conditions, and long-term development.
Fair employment and inclusive working environments
Help suppliers create more diverse and inclusive environments
A truly sustainable supply chain should have a shared culture of respect and fairness – but this probably won’t happen by itself. Employers need to go the extra mile to ensure that it does.
You can set the tone here by offering expert-led Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training to your suppliers to help them build more welcoming and equitable workplaces. We also suggest working with suppliers to develop hiring practices that actively break down barriers for people from underrepresented groups, such as:
- Long-term unemployed individuals
- Homeless people
- Armed forces veterans
- Survivors of modern slavery
- Unemployed individuals with disabilities
- Women and ethnic minority groups
- Unemployed young people (particularly care leavers)
- Ex-offenders
💡 Inspiration: In 2024, Vita Health Group delivered expert-led EDI training across the business, with over 1,000 colleagues participating and 1,587 hours completed.
Help improve working conditions across the supply chain
You can’t enforce fair treatment in your own office and ignore what’s happening on your sites, in your warehouses, or across your logistics partners. Raise the bar by proactively driving high standards across the supply chain, including:
- The Real Living Wage: A basic but powerful commitment that reduces in-work poverty and builds more stable, motivated workforces.
- Union recognition agreements and collective bargaining: Safeguarding workers’ voices and contributing to improved conditions and positive industrial relationships.
- Good & Fair Work charters: An important way to improve labour standards and make ethical treatment the norm, not the exception.
Providing skills, experience and meaningful work placements
Work with suppliers to provide accredited training, apprenticeships, and upskilling
Training and development turn jobs into careers, giving workers confidence, skills, and qualifications, while driving better longer sustainability and supply chain management outcomes.
There are lots of ways to work with suppliers to offer training, apprenticeships, and upskilling, including:
- Jointly funding apprenticeship places
- Connecting suppliers to training providers
- Sharing learning and development tools or resources
🌟 Inspiration: In 2022 alone, Equans delivered 13,647 weeks of apprenticeships, 12,992 hours of career support sessions and 743 hours of work experience.
Help suppliers run work placements for NEET young people
For young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET), real-world experience can be life changing. Working with your suppliers to create placements – even unpaid ones – will provide important entry points into the world of work.
Placements paying the Real Living Wage go a step further, making work accessible to those who might otherwise be excluded.
Jointly run employment taster days
Sometimes, people don’t know what’s possible until they see it. Employment taster days are a great way to help demystify career paths and raise aspirations, especially for those from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds.
💡 Inspiration: Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield used the Real Estate Social Value Index to measure the Social Value created by its suppliers. In 2022, Grosvenor Services took the top spot at Westfield London, while OCS delivered the most at Westfield Stratford City.
Help provide expert advice to school and university curriculums
To close the skills gap, we need stronger links between education and employment – and your supply chain can help make that happen.
Invite your suppliers to share their expertise with local schools, colleges, or universities. Whether it's guest lectures, industry-informed projects, or curriculum design input, their insight helps educators prepare young people for real-world roles and expectations.
This kind of outreach is particularly valuable in sectors facing future skills shortages, like green energy, construction, logistics, and manufacturing.
💡 Inspiration: Through its Strategic Energy Partnership with Coventry City Council, E.ON delivers workshops to local schools on renewable technology and energy use.
3. Environmental stewardship for greener supply chains
A key goal of sustainable supply chain management is to minimise harm to the environment and actively facilitate the transition to a net zero future.
That means actively supporting suppliers to shift towards greener practices, not just expecting them to meet standards on their own. Here are some key areas you can work with suppliers to improve:
Reducing carbon emissions and promoting net zero
Prioritise suppliers that commit to measuring and disclosing Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions
Start by choosing suppliers who are serious about climate accountability. Ask whether they’re measuring their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, and what they’re doing with that data.
Once you know what needs addressing, the path to net zero becomes clearer. There are lots of ways you could make improvements, including:
- Reducing car miles: Promoting alternatives like active travel, ride-sharing, and route optimisation
- Promoting zero-emission vehicles: Switch to electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles, especially for deliveries and service transport
- Implementing green logistics: For instance, consolidated shipments, low-carbon freight options, and smart scheduling
These actions support net zero goals while connecting the dots between your supply chain and sustainability strategies.
🌟 Inspiration: Benjamin Tuck, Social Value Programme Manager, reveals how E.ON is driving the transition to net zero while also building local skills and careers.
Retrain workers in the supply chain for a just transition to net zero
Reaching net zero will mean big changes for supply chains, but those changes must be fair. A just transition ensures workers aren’t left behind as roles shift or disappear, particularly in sectors like construction, energy, and transport.
You can play a key role here by supporting your suppliers to identify at-risk jobs and create training pathways into low-carbon careers. Examples include:
- Reskilling engineers in energy efficiency technologies
- Upskilling drivers to work with electric fleets
- Developing green apprenticeship programmes
Responsible waste management and circular economy
If your supply chain is still heavily reliant on single-use plastics, sending offcuts straight to landfill, or otherwise engaging in wasteful practices, then there’s work to be done.
Key interventions include:
- Minimising plastic use, and switching to recyclable or compostable materials
- Designing reuse strategies for packaging, fittings, or offcuts
- Finding specialist partners to divert niche waste streams from incineration or landfill
💡 Inspiration: Roche Diagnostics partnered with NHS Wales and a plastics recycling company on an innovative pilot scheme to reduce plastic waste in the healthcare sector.
Biodiversity, environmental conservation, and water efficiency
Help suppliers improve water efficiency and meet good waste and water practice benchmarks
Water scarcity is a growing risk around the world, but from construction to manufacturing, supply chains often use huge volumes of water inefficiently.
Water-efficient technologies and processes – like low-flow systems, leak detection, and rainwater harvesting – are key ways to lessen environmental impact. It’s equally important to establish and stick to recognised standards for waste and water efficiency (such as BREEAM), giving everyone a shared target.
Drive biodiversity and environmental conservation initiatives
Biodiversity can get left behind in sustainability plans, but its decline is just as urgent as the climate crisis. Whether it’s planting wildflower verges around depots or funding reforestation in supply zones, your suppliers can take tangible steps to protect nature. You can work with them to:
- Invest in biodiversity projects tied to their operations
- Back sustainable reforestation or afforestation schemes
- Avoid harmful land-use changes
🌟 Inspiration: Vita Health Group’s Facilities Team beach clean!
4. Supporting the communities your supply chain touches
Your supply chain is embedded in real places and touches real lives, especially when it incorporates local businesses. Helping your suppliers to engage with community issues and support public good initiatives ensures that the money you spend impacts local people positively.
Work with suppliers to take measures to reduce crime
Crime and anti-social behaviour remain real challenges in many communities. But your supply chain can be part of the solution – not just through funding, but through meaningful, on-the-ground engagement.
Encourage your suppliers to get involved in initiatives that address the root causes of crime: social exclusion, limited opportunity, and long-term unemployment. That might look like mentoring programmes for at-risk youth, creating jobs for those with lived experience of the justice system, or supporting local rehabilitation projects.
The actions may be local, but the impact can ripple far beyond the project site.
Help suppliers tackle homelessness
Secure housing is a foundation for stability, employment, and wellbeing. Consider how you can support suppliers in funding or partnering with homelessness prevention and housing support initiatives. Ideas to explore include:
- Funding short term accommodation through local partners
- Offering in-kind support
- Helping tenants transition into employment with tailored placements
💡 Spotlight: How Hays is tackling homelessness through Project Flourish
Work with suppliers to support health and wellbeing programmes
Local wellbeing programmes play a vital role in community resilience, whether they provide mental health services or food access initiatives. But they need practical support to survive and create a positive impact. Initiatives could include:
- Volunteering in schools
- Providing funding for community run wellbeing programmes
- Match employee fundraising for health-related causes
Want to build a sustainable supply chain that delivers real Social Value?
This guide is just a starting point. The Open Access TOM System gives you a full set of introductory Measures, along with practical guidance you can employ across your supply chain.
👉 Access the Open Access TOM System™
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