FM Sector Leads in Combatting Modern Slavery

In the survey – the second to be commissioned by the School, 86 per cent of companies included in the sample had improved their understanding of Modern Slavery, with 87 per cent indicating greater awareness of the issues surrounding Fairness, Inclusion & Respect (FIR). In addition, the percentage of respondents who attributed an increase in their organisation’s community engagement activities to assistance from the School, rose 15 per cent to 72 per cent.

For Rory Murphy, Commercial Director with Vinci Facilities, the survey shows how the School fully supports and enhances the attributes and attitudes vital to business success: namely, balancing the needs of customers, suppliers, teams and the communities within which companies work. She says:

“The Supply Chain Sustainability School continues to demonstrate its continued impact across the Facilities Management sector. Increasing the sustainability knowledge throughout our diverse supply chains and ensuring the continued focus on the key social and environmental aspects our delivery is fundamental to delighting all our stakeholders.”

The findings also illustrate some of the benefits organisations can receive by utilising free learning resource the School provides. Alison Bettany, Strategic Supply Chain Manager at EMCOR UK, says:

“It is encouraging to see the positive results from the Impact Survey, which confirm the business benefits of joining the Supply Chain Sustainability School. Within the FM sector, the highest impact has been in the understanding of Modern Slavery, where improvement highlights the benefits of the workshops, events and e-learning modules which have been developed.”

In 2018 the Supply Chain Sustainability School delivered 5,723 individual learners from 3,036 companies. Additionally, the School is supported by 86 Partner organisations that support its shared mission of world class collaboration to enable a sustainable built environment.

Despite the positive findings of the survey in the many areas, the number of respondents who reported their organisations had reduced CO2 emissions fell marginally to 34 per cent. Additionally, whereas 20 per cent of respondents reported improving indoor air quality (IAQ) by 20 per cent, the figure still represented an increase on last year.

Chair of the Supply Chain Sustainability School, Shaun McCarthy OBE, says:

“Our second Impact Survey presents compelling evidence that the Supply Chain Sustainability School makes a positive difference. It also enables us to learn and improve. Despite excellent results overall, I was disappointed to see relatively low figures on air quality and that the rate of carbon savings has actually gone down. These are two issues critical to our wellbeing and to the future of society as we know it. We shall therefore be making a determined effort to focus attention on these areas in the coming year, as we look to build on our impressive performance across the board.”

Sustainability Stats: 6 Key Findings from the Impact Survey 2019 

Major themes

71% of survey participants have an improved understanding of Modern Slavery issues — up 8% on 2018 — and 86% agree that the School has helped them achieve this progress (up 4%);
63% have an improved understanding of Fairness, Inclusion & Respect (FIR) — up 15% on 2018 — and 87% agree that the School has helped them achieve this (up 2%); plus
45% have an increased level of Community Engagement — no change on 2018 — and 72% (up 6%) agree that the School has helped them achieve this.

‘Must-try-harder’

Just 34% are reducing Carbon Emissions — down 3% on 2018 — but 58% agree the School has helped them do so (up 10%);
Of the 20% that improved on Air Quality — up 5% on 2018 — 70% agree the School helped them (up 15%);
Of only 16% that reduced their Water consumption — down 2% on 2018 ­— 53% agree the School helped them do so (up 3%).