Responsible Supply Chain
Objective
Responsibly procure all goods and services
Goals
All procured goods and services to be responsibly sourced
Collaborate with our supply chain to capture the innovation required to deliver net zero carbon
Engage our supply chain to support our wider sustainability objectives
“The transition to net zero requires greater innovation as well as collaborative and behavioural change on a scale that we have never experienced before. It also calls for an improved appreciation of what effective supply chains and progressive procurement can achieve together.”
Jonathan Harry, procurement director for Tarmac
Tarmac procures thousands of goods and services each year, so it is important to ensure they are sourced, manufactured and traded legally, ethically and with careful consideration of their environmental, social and economic impacts.
Highlights
Aligning our supply chain with our values
It is important for us to work with our supply chain partners to share our commitment to the environment, ensure good ethical practices and manage their environmental impacts to drive improvements. In 2022, we held our second Supplier Sustainability Week to drive the net zero and wider sustainability agenda in partnership with our supply chain.
We had over 600 attendees, held 16 sessions and produced over 13 hours of content. To date, over 100 recommendations have been generated by our Supplier Sustainability Week, and 60% of these ideas use technology that is either currently available or will be within the next two years.
people attended
companies presented
sessions held
hours of content delivered
Supplier Innovation Challenge
Tarmac held our third Supplier Innovation Challenge in 2022, which was open to existing and new suppliers, university teams and all organisations and individuals with an idea to support the acceleration of the company’s transition to net zero.
For the 2022 challenge, entrants were encouraged to submit ideas focusing on energy efficiency or innovation resulting in improvements for the industry. Entries were scored against criteria including technology readiness, potential business impact and feasibility. The winning and highly commendable entries are refined, developed and brought to life by Tarmac as part of the scheme.
The 2022 winning entry was submitted by Prior Power Solutions for a hydrogen introduction system that can be fitted onto new or existing diesel engines to supplement cleaner hydrogen fuel into internal combustion engines, offering up to 8% CO2 reductions.
innovative ideas submitted
Working with our supply chain
Decarbonisation Club
In 2021 we established our Decarbonisation Club with 16 of our key suppliers. The club was created as a way of working with our suppliers to identify the actions they can take to reduce their carbon emissions and our scope 3 emissions (indirect emissions from our supply chain), as well as helping us to reduce carbon emissions from our operations and transport.
Throughout 2022, we continued discussions with these suppliers and started to prioritise projects and identify potential Tarmac sites for project trials. We also held a Decarbonisation Club session at our 2022 Supplier Sustainability Week to give these suppliers time to discuss their proposed solutions.
HVO trial and rollout
Chepstow Plant International partnered with several customers and organisations including Tarmac, to trial hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) at two of their sites and look at the potential benefits of switching their fleet from diesel to HVO. HVO can reduce:
- CO2 emissions by between 90 and 96%
- reduce particulates by 80-90%
- reduce NOx by 25-30%.
Following on from the success of the Chepstow Plant International trial and the knowledge shared, we started to rollout recycled HVO to some of our Tarmac sites. Towards the end of 2022, we started phase one of the rollout, and by the end of the year had switched over 20 sites to recycled HVO. HVO is a drop-in solution, meaning it can be added straight to tanks that have already been used for diesel, making it easy to switch over.
Recycled HVO rolled out to
UK’s first all-electric concrete mixer
In 2022, Tarmac placed an order with Renault Trucks for the UK’s first battery electric mixer truck as part of our commitment to net zero. The electric mixer was delivered in November and was immediately put to work at our Washwood Heath site in Birmingham supplying essential construction materials to customers across the West Midlands. We are also working with Renault Trucks and Total Vehicle Solutions (TVS) to develop the next generation of mixers, with ambitions for their eventual widespread use across our urban operations.
Supply Chain Sustainability School
Tarmac is a member of the Supply Chain Sustainability School (SCSS) to help embed sustainability not only within our own business, but throughout our supply chain. The school provides us with a platform to provide our supply chain with the knowledge they need to meet their sustainability goals. It also provides us with a way of collaborating with the other partners to share best practice of sustainability across the industry.
Throughout 2022, we continued working with SCSS to develop learning pathways for a broad range of our employees. We have also encouraged our suppliers to sign up and use some of the tools available, such as their free carbon calculator tool, to help both our suppliers and Tarmac to get a better understanding of our scope 3 carbon emissions.
Sourcing and selling with integrity
Tarmac implements the CRH Supplier Code of Conduct, providing core supplier due diligence processes to increase visibility and insights into our suppliers. This process captures a digital Supplier Code of Conduct acknowledgement and captures information on supplier performance in areas such as discrimination, workforce rights, human rights, workforce disputes and workforce health and safety issues.
We assess the sustainability risks of our major areas of spend in line with ISO 20400 - Sustainable Procurement best practice. We use 12 assessment criteria that cover the critical areas that impact our supply chain, such as health and safety, human and labour rights, environment, climate change and governance.
In 2022 we continued to maintain our accreditations across a range of supply chain assessments including Achilles, Sedex, RISQS as well as achieving a gold medal in recognition of sustainability achievement with Ecovadis. Maintaining these accreditations demonstrates our commitment to providing assurance to ourselves, our clients and our customers across the wide range of industries that we supply.
We continue to ensure that Tarmac’s whole product range is certified against BES 6001 for the Responsible Sourcing of Construction Products and rated ‘EXCELLENT’. This standard assesses if construction products have been sourced and manufactured responsibly. Certification to BE 6001 ensures sourcing risks are minimised across the supply chain, and provides customers with added reassurance about the sustainability of the products they are buying.
In 2022, we successfully maintained our ‘EXCELLENT’ rating through our annual verification, and ensured new sites were audited against the standard. This required collaboration with multiple teams and sites from across the business. It also means we can continue to give our customers confidence in the products we supply.
We also continued verification to BES 6002 Ethical Labour Sourcing (ELS) standard, demonstrating our commitment to ethical practices and ensuring we are continuing to meet our customers’ expectations for responsibly-sourced construction materials.
Looking forward
In 2023, Tarmac will continue with our rollout of recycled HVO, with the aim to ultimately convert all our sites over the coming years. We will continue to engage with our suppliers through our third Supplier Sustainability Week and aim to support customer sustainability ambitions. We aim to progress projects through our Decarbonisation Club by identifying sites and starting trials and encourage further innovation through a 2023 Innovation Challenge. We will continue to work with our suppliers to better understand our scope 3 emissions and how we can work together to reduce these.
