Every business is reliant on goods and services but often we cannot be sure of their origins. The further afield they are sourced, the harder that can be. It is the responsibility of every company to ensure that every product, every service, bears the hallmark of ethical sourcing.
We require businesses to commit to the standards set out in the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code for Sourcing. This process of due diligence ensures that every link in GBC accredited organisations’ supply chains upholds the highest standards of fairness, dignity and human rights.
We spoke to some of our accredited organisations to explore how they are championing the ethical sourcing component, looking at how these organisations prioritise their suppliers.
Cascade Productions are a full-service brand and communication agency, based in Manchester, delivering events and films for some of the UK’s most recognisable corporate brands.
Cascade Productions sources locally and prioritises working with sustainable suppliers; what challenges do you face when looking for suppliers that share your values?
“Organising and delivering events means that we are always working in different locations around the UK and overseas. Historically we would favour regular suppliers and have them travel to wherever we were working. That could involve hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles of travel, however our sustainability goals changed that.”
“Over the last 10 years we have built our supplier base to enable us to source most services locally, close to the event. It takes time to build up relationships and trust with new suppliers, because we cannot allow standards to drop.”
Alan Wight, Founder
How has sourcing ethically made a difference to your business?
“There is a clear environmental benefit in having local suppliers. Less travel means fewer large trucks and vans on the motorway, even more so if the local suppliers also take the same approach. Local food suppliers provide a real difference, often with unique flavours and options, offering something a little different, which freshens our offer.”
“There is a clear financial benefit for us too. It takes less time for everything to get to site, which can mean fewer working days, less overnight accommodation and ultimately reduced costs – that is good for us and for our clients. Conversely, we do lose some of the benefits of scale we enjoyed using single suppliers.”
“The challenge for our team is identifying suitable suppliers, who have sustainability and business practices consistent with our own and who can provide the right offer at the right price. We often don’t have much time to pull everything together, so having a network of pre-approved supplier partners is the most effective solution for us.”
Alan Wight, Founder
Spark York C.I.C is a vibrant urban initiative located on Piccadilly in the centre of York, that has transformed an empty city centre site into a thriving community space supporting start-up entrepreneurs, creatives and social enterprises.
Spark York C.I.C has a positive procurement policy, can you share details on what this is and how it works?
“Spark York C.I.C and the businesses who are tenants within it, have an annual supply chain of over £2m a year. As a venue that supports local, early-stage businesses, this approach is applied to suppliers and contractors too. Spark York C.I.C has its own positive procurement policy, where it measures a supplier amongst a number of factors including locality to Spark, the size of the company, any environmental or social values that the business has, alongside best value for money. Clearly value for money is important, but so is reinforcing socially responsible practices and supporting smaller, local businesses. We have created our own threshold for seeking local partners when procuring a service such as a new contractor (including security and cleaning). We have our own internal target of more than 50% of our suppliers being local and smaller scale. If we side with a larger, more national partner, there must be demonstrable reasons for this that is not just based on price.”
“In addition to this, as a Living Wage accredited employer, for any contractor regularly working with us, they must ensure their operatives are paid at the real living wage. This is non-negotiable as our own status as an accredited organisation is dependent on these partners doing the same.”
Sam Leach, Finance and Development Director
You encourage your tenants to do the same, through your Social Commitments Clause, where rent reductions can be given for progressive procurement. How has this been received?
“Since 2022, we have been working with law firm Hogan Lovells in developing our Social Commitments Clause in the tenant leases. We believe that we are the first landlord actively incentivising tenants to display more socially responsible behaviour, where progressive procurement is a big part of that. We offer a 10% rent reduction each month for all businesses that conform to this. This includes being real living wage accredited for employees, following an environmental policy, working with a local community group or charity, attending our in-house tenant meetings and voting on arising matters, and finally, adhering to the progressive procurement policy.”
“We are currently working with our first three pilot businesses on this initiative. We hope within the next 18 months that 80% of our tenants are eligible for the rental discount, by adhering to the social commitments clause. We believe this approach will encourage and support early-stage businesses to be more socially responsible and connected to the community, and can use their commercial autonomy to strengthen community-wealth building and growth.”
Sam Leach, Finance and Development Director
Feeling inspired?
We are incredibly proud of the work our accredited organisations do within the ethical sourcing component, serving as powerful testaments to the transformative power of conscious procurement practices. These stories come as a reminder that every purchase has the power to shape a more equitable and sustainable future.
If you are feeling inspired by these organisations, visit our other component pages to see how organisations are embedding the other nine components and see how you can make similar actions!
