Our supply chain partners are vital to achieving our sustainability goals. Since 2020, we have been developing and embedding our robust sustainable procurement strategy aligned to the ISO 20400 Sustainable Procurement standard.

1. Enhancing our contractual requirements to align with new legislation and support international expansions
2. Promoting effective and targeted supplier engagement to support improved risk mitigation through enhanced due diligence and realization of opportunities through collaboration
3. Introducing structured and robust reporting with the roll out of three new data platforms to support our internal, regulatory and legislative reporting requirements

Our Sustainable Procurement Code outlines the expectations and requirements on SSE's suppliers and contractors, and their supply chains.

You can see the full Sustainable procurement Code here and guidance for suppliers here.

Click here find out more about our Group Sustainable Procurement Plan and for more information about becoming a supplier to SSE, please click here.

Supply chains - partnerships and collaborations

We understand the importance of working collaboratively with suppliers and other external stakeholders to create additional value. We have partnered with and collaborated through the following organisations to drive and support change, promote standardisation of reporting and provide free training resources for all.

Collaboration around supply chain sustainability has many benefits including standardisation, best practice sharing and group thinking approaches, enabling organisations to collectively excel on their sustainability journeys.

EcoVadis

SSE pls is a partner of EcoVadis, a global sustainability rating company based on international standards, to conduct individual sustainability performance assessments of our supply chain partners. We are actively engaging with our strategic supply chain partners, using their EcoVadis performance data to increase our knowledge of key risks and appropriate mitigations being undertaken.

Supplier Data Capture Tool

This tool, run through Action Sustainability, is a cloud based system which enables us to collect, report and analyse sustainability performance. We are embedding this reporting requirements into new contracts for construction projects, which will provide a view of our sustainability impact and provide us the opportunity to work and monitor our Tier 1 suppliers and contractors.

Local Multiplier 3 (LM3)

The LM3 Online tool measures economic impact by analysing expenditure based on geographic area. We are implementing this tool from 2024 and the reporting requirement is being included in current and live tenders, where applicable.

Supply Chain Sustainability School

SSE is a proud partner of the Supply Chain Sustainability School, a collaboration between companies who have a mutual interest in building sustainability expertise and practices within their organisations and throughout their supply chain. Organisations can access the School’s wide range of guidance, resources and CPD accredited training materials completely free of charge.

SSE is using its partnership with the School to support its supply chain partners to mature their sustainability approach and may require suppliers and contractors to undertake training modules, attend training workshops, implement measures and access resources provided through the school where relevant. This year SSE are embedding learning pathways for suppliers to adopt and use across their business. More information about the Supply Chain Sustainability School and the free resources available can be found on its website Supply Chain Sustainability School

Powering Net Zero Pact

Launched in 2022, the Powering Net Zero Pact (“the Pact”) is an initiative created by SSE plc with 10 of its strategic suppliers as a legacy of COP26. The Pact brings together companies across all tiers of the power sector globally – including civils, shipping, renewables, electrical engineering, and others – to achieve a fair and just energy transition to net zero.

The Pact has welcomed 19 additional members in the following two years, bringing the total membership to 29 organisations.

The continued growth of the Pact demonstrates the appetite for industry collaboration on our most salient sustainability challenges. Over the last year, the Pact Working Groups have progressed their focus areas and delivered outputs, from a net zero supply chain training pathway to address carbon literacy in procurement teams, to creating a school engagement tool in the community values working group. The Powering Net Zero Pact Annual Report 2024 can be found on  Powering Net Zero Pact | SSE

Social Value in the Supply Chain

Core to a just transition is the maximisation of economic opportunity for people close to the places hosting renewables developments. An ongoing priority for SSE Renewables is to help create an environment where there is increased domestic content of projects. The ability to locally share the economic benefit of low-carbon investments through sustainable domestic employment, at scale, is a key component of delivering fairness: it means working people, particularly those currently in industries which are in decline, can access new skills and jobs. At the same time, this ambition must be balanced with the cost of delivering renewable power.

Socio-economic analyses were undertaken on a number of projects and SSE Renewables has started trialling socio-economic impact data capture tools, SCDT, LM3 and Loop, to better track and understand its local and regional economic contribution. Updates on these activities are included in SSE Renewables Sustainability Report.

All of SSE Renewables’ project-level socio-economic reports, along with the technical reports detailing the methodology used, can be found on here.