Climate Action Programme Case Study: Roman Baths & Pump Room
In this case study Amber Rochette, Sustainability Manager at Roman Baths & Pump Room, reflects on their learnings from their first steps in supplier engagement, highlighting the importance of adapting approaches and providing tailored support to facilitate positive supplier relationships. Amber’s role is to lead the Roman Baths & Pump Room to net zero, with a key focus on engaging and empowering suppliers to reduce their carbon emissions.
Initial approach
We started out with an industry standard approach of sending out a sustainability survey, asking for Scope 1 and 2 data from suppliers. The goal was to keep the first step simple, with no emission reductions requests made or asks for scope 3 data – just a general overview on their policies and what was in their direct control.
The first hurdle was finding the best supplier contact details, we didn’t want this survey to sit in the general enquiries’ inbox. Luckily, we already have some internal working groups that cover our retail operations, and general procurement. As well as acting as a sounding board, this set up brings together department and budget managers related to each spend area to help guide the engagement process. This was instrumental in getting set up to start the process.
To begin with, we prioritised reaching out to suppliers that we have the most decision-making control over at Roman Baths & Pump Room, which directed our attention to our retail suppliers. Contract length was also a deciding factor. For example, if a supplier’s contract was soon to run out, we didn’t reach out to them.
While the survey email came from my email address, I also copied in the internal contract managers, as they were the main point of contact for suppliers. Additionally, before the email was sent, the contract manager had given the suppliers a heads-up that I would be in contact, to open communication channels.
As this was our first attempt at supplier engagement, we approached it with an open mind – no specific targets, just see how suppliers respond.
Overcoming challenges
While we were aware that this request was new to our suppliers, we didn’t expect to receive so few responses — those that did respond did so with many questions and in some cases concerns about their ability to comply with our future ambitions. Most of our suppliers are small, local organisations who hadn’t ever considered carbon emissions before.
We realised that we needed to adapt our approach and move towards supporting suppliers, helping them understand the importance of carbon footprints and how to calculate them, before we could expect any data to inform our carbon reduction plans.
I approached this through multiple avenues, focusing on accessibility and relevance to suppliers. This included:
- A guidance pack, which covered the basics of emissions data collection such as why it is important and how to get started, signposting to both national and local support resources, including from the West of England Combined Authority and Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership.
- A webinar drop-in session, providing a space for suppliers to ask questions about both the guidance pack and the survey.
- One-on-one sessions. I have an assigned afternoon each week that suppliers can book a time to talk about any issues they may be facing.
Through these education and engagement approaches I have been able to identify further support that our suppliers find helpful. For example, they asked for templates to collate their energy data – this is a simple action that suppliers can take which helped them track and reduce energy consumption and begin calculation their carbon footprint.
Those that were less confident with the templates provided, requested more hands-on support to help them further their own climate action journey. We now have a series of workshops set up to support this for the remainder of the year, to support them with their carbon calculations and reduction planning.
The calculation templates received to date show that supplier specific data has mostly been much lower than the standard spend-based emissions factors we have been using. With these new approaches, we are now working towards a data-improvement target: 30% of our spend to be from suppliers who have a carbon footprint by 2028.
Building balance into supplier communication
We are still learning how to carry out effective supplier engagement.
We champion a supportive approach that eases suppliers into providing sustainability data and taking steps to minimise their impact. We ensured that all dialogues were supporting, reassuring and open for further clarification and discussion – whilst keeping it clear that this is supporting them to be resilient in a changing landscape where emissions data is going to become essential to continue operating.
One element we are still figuring out is getting the right balance of being supportive and not too pushy for data but also keeping the pressure on for data provision, as it is fundamental for our 2030 net zero targets. Framing and narrative we believe is key to this. We are keeping our ongoing asks:
- Simple and clear.
- Future-focused.
- Celebratory, using data requests to celebrate the good work of suppliers in and around Bath.
- Realistically time-bound. Suppliers have a year post survey to provide their scope 1 and 2 data. It has yet to be a year, but with the support measures put in place, we are remaining optimistic that this deadline will be met.
Another step we are taking is setting expectations of data emission provision for all new suppliers from the onset, with it being included in procurement contracts and requested upfront.
Recognising that the sustainability team aren’t the direct relationship holders for suppliers, we are now attempting to move the main sustainability push to come from the buying manager. They have received climate literacy training, and I am available for more in-depth questions should they arise. We have also created an engagement tracker document to streamline communication and to prevent duplication of contact and help chase data where required.
Top tips
- Start off small and engage with suppliers where you will have the most impact. We prioritised a small segment of our suppliers, but combined they equate to almost half of our spend.
- Don’t reinvent the wheel. When creating support materials and guidance for suppliers, utilise existing resources and information readily available on the internet.
- Reframe the narrative. Alongside emphasising why carbon footprints and data tracking is important, normalise the practice, positioning it as a one of the annual tasks that come with being a business, such as a tax return.
Through our Climate Action Programme collaboration with the City Centre and Redcliffe & Temple Business Improvement Districts, we’re keen to showcase climate progress and create more opportunities for businesses to learn from one another.
If you have an initiative or project we can shout about, please do get in touch with jasmine@bristolclimatenature.org
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