About our suppliers

Our business model of developing and operating properties relies on a network of suppliers. We work with around 170 UK-based companies on a contracted or annual basis, usually referred to as our ‘partners’. This includes maintenance services such as cleaning and security, construction contracting services and professional and financial services.

In addition to our partners, we source goods and services from a wider network of over 2500 suppliers. These are UK suppliers which provide everything from paper and stationery to seasonal decorations.

Our construction partners also source a broad variety of components and materials from companies all over the world on our behalf. Whilst these goods are not sourced directly by us, they are specified and procured in accordance with our guidelines.

This year, we launched a new questionnaire to gain better insight into our suppliers’ sustainability-related governance, performance and targets. The questionnaire has five sections: policies and governance, labour and human rights, targets and performance, energy and carbon reporting, and collaboration and asks for both current and forward-looking performance metrics. We sent the questionnaire to all existing
suppliers, and it now forms part of the onboarding process for new suppliers. Over 900 suppliers, representing over half of our total spend, have responded to the questionnaire. This primary supplier data has given us a much better understanding of our suppliers’ sustainability performance, our collaborative impact, and key areas for improvement. Indeed, in March 2021, Landsec was awarded the Supply Chain Data Award at the WDI’s Inaugural Awards Ceremony.  

Building on the results of the questionnaire, in 2021 we will be increasing our work with high-risk suppliers and ensuring it continues to have an impact. Our aim is to work with our suppliers to reduce our collective environmental impact, and improve the working conditions of those in our supply chain, and ultimately cascade this positive action throughout our supply chain.

The power of partnerships

To tackle problems such as poor labour standards, reliance on fossil fuels for material production and health and safety challenges, we’re working in partnership with our suppliers, using our experience to approach each new challenge.

Addressing these issues also helps create value for our business and our partners. Reducing carbon emissions, resource consumption and waste as well as improving diversity in our supply chain can improve efficiency and reliability which contribute to cost savings. It can also enhance our resilience to future climate related impacts and market volatility.

Supplier selection

Pre-qualification questionnaire

To be accepted onto Landsec’s supplier list, and subsequently transact business with us, all organisations are required to complete a pre-qualification questionnaire in which they must declare the existence of, and compliance with key policies including our Health and Safety Policy, and Sustainability Policy.

Tender process

We support robust implementation of our sustainability aspirations through additional procurement processes and procedures. As part of the tender process we issue our Sustainability Charter and policies, which partners must adhere to as a minimum requirement. Our Request For Proposal (RFP) document outlines expectations and requirements of a proposed supplier and requires full responses to a suite of sustainability questions which align with our sustainability strategy and charter. As well a standardised set a of questions, information is requested specific to the goods and services being procured such as requesting details of emission performance of a supplier's vehicle fleet.

Once partners are appointed they must then report against specific Key Performance Indicators on a quarterly basis. For goods and services which may have an impact on our sustainability programme we ensure members of our sustainability team form part of the tender process which include evaluating responses and attending supplier presentation.

More about how we work with our suppliers and our Purchase to Pay process can be found here

Supplier engagement

Sustainability brief and charter

Our Sustainability Brief for developments and Sustainability Charter for suppliers are designed to facilitate productive discussions with our supply partners, driving up minimum standards and increasing collaboration. Through application of our Sustainability Charter in procuring contracts and projects, we ask all our partners to commit to our partnership pledge which outlines our non-negotiables, such as providing safe, comfortable and healthy working conditions for our partners’ employees.

The charter also covers all twelve areas of our sustainability programme in detail, setting out what our commitments mean for partners - everything from community employment and fairness, to biodiversity and waste. Each area is divided into two sections: expectations, things we think our partners should already be delivering, and opportunities, areas for innovation that we’ve identified scope to work together.

Importantly, we’re not mandating complex targets through our contracts, instead we’re working to get everyone on board so our sustainability objectives become business-as-usual.

Supplier Code of Conduct

We’re committed to high ethical standards in the conduct of our business and to ensuring our behaviour and practices maintain our integrity. Our Supplier Code of Conduct within our Sustainability Charter sets out how we treat our supply chain and the standards of behaviour we expect of our suppliers in the way they work and treat their own employees.

Whistleblowing hotline

Our Whistleblowing Hotline allows anyone working on our behalf to report concerns about suspected impropriety or wrongdoing in confidence and anonymously. These include an independent third-party reporting facility, which can be contacted online or through a telephone hotline. You can report concerns by calling 0800 0903 653  or through the Navex Global website http://landsec.ethicspoint.com/
We actively promote our whistleblowing policy and facilities to raise awareness of this method of reporting concerns and have made this available to workers in all parts of our supply chain through our partner organisations.

Responsible sourcing

Who we work with and who we purchase from is important at every level. From the design team and main contractor to the operatives on site and producing materials across the UK and abroad. But supply chains in construction are often fragmented and transient. That’s why we’ve got to work to clear guidelines.
We have a corporate commitment to source core construction products and materials from ethical and sustainable sources and our guidelines for developments are simple. Core construction materials including steel, concrete, hard landscaping and facades should always come with responsible sourcing certification. Where certification isn’t available, we ask for evidence of basic health, safety and environmental management. And for every development we always target FSC Project Certification, to guarantee timber is from responsible sources.

Monitoring supplier performance

Ongoing sustainability monitoring of our supply partners takes place in a number of ways across our business.

Contract review meetings

These are carried out at various intervals with our supply partners where we have the opportunity to raise and discuss key sustainability related issues:

• Six monthly reviews: Our Property Services Team meet with a supplier’s business MD, regional and account team to discuss contract performance.
• Quarterly reviews: Our Property Services team to meet with a supplier’s Account Management Team to discuss performance.
• Monthly reviews: Our Local teams meet with their respective Regional Account Managers to discuss performance.

Contract reporting and KPIs

We use our ‘Contract Reporting and KPI Requirements’ document, first to assess supplier performance at the point of on-boarding then on a quarterly basis to assess ongoing performance. Partners are then challenged to improve where performance is deemed to be insufficient or where the partner may not be exploiting opportunities available to them.  This applies only to service partners where we have an ongoing relationship which can lead to improvements over time.

The document requires our supply partners to provide statements and evidence that include:

• The percentage of contract staff receiving real living wage rate or higher excluding apprentices in the period.
• Current plans policies or programmes to reduce carbon emissions.
• Current plans policies or programmes to procure renewable energy
• Measurement and management of energy consumption including how this aligns with Landsec ISO 50001 standards, Environmental, energy and metering polices. 
• A commitment to addressing climate change and plans for its effects on their operations including but not limited to flooding, storms or overheating.
• The procurement of materials in a safe and healthy manner and that the materials purchased minimise environmental impacts, pollution or carbon emissions, by way of the manufacturing or transportation.

If a supplier meets the requirements we set out can result in performance pay which is a 5% increase in the contracted sum paid in excess of normal pay for the period. This ensures good sustainability performance is also met with improved financial remuneration which has a positive effect in creating a successful long-term partner relationship.

Assessing risk in our supply chain

We assess risks in our supply chain on an ongoing basis through a number of methods.

Tackling modern slavery

Slavery, forced labour and human trafficking has no place in a modern society, in our organisation or in our supply chain. We’re committed to zero tolerance, and we’re prepared to stop trading with partners and suppliers who won’t work with us to deliver on our policies. We’re also committed to working closely with our partners to seek and tackle Modern Slavery in our shared supply chains. To provide a basic level of support for our position, we have a combination of policies, processes and guidance in place.

During 2020, we again carried out due diligence across our business activity through our worker engagement surveys which are carried out by an accredited third party. This covered a range of issues including debt bondage, labour exploitation, fair payment, health, safety and discrimination. We targeted high-risk areas of our supply chain, focusing on construction labour in the UK. Due to the pandemic, we had to postpone some surveys, but resumed in August 2020.

We interviewed 91 individuals at three sites and found no instances of modern slavery. To further improve our approach to identifying and managing modern slavery risk in our business and supply chain, this year we worked with not-for-profit modern slavery specialist Stronger Together, who performed a gap analysis to identify areas for improvement. This reviewed all key business functions including procurement,
risk, operations and development, and provided recommendations for improved governance, training, and management systems. We have collaborated with Stronger Together to develop a strategic implementation plan to address the recommendations.

In March 2021, we launched our new Modern Slavery Working Group, to provide practical insight and feedback on this, and continue to develop our policies, processes and resources.

The surveys covered a range of issues including debt bondage, labour exploitation, fair payment, health, safety and discrimination. Each survey also requested specific information about hourly wage rates. No cases of modern slavery were found in this survey process, but this work is ongoing.

Read our full Slavery & Human Trafficking Statement here.

Asset specific auditing

Our combined environmental and energy management system is accredited to ISO 14001 and 50001 and covers 100% of our 72 managed sites. This covers all operations, including all activity that is outsourced to our service partners such as facilities management and building maintenance. All operations including those that are outsourced are audited by Lloyds Register on an annual basis and no major non-conformities have been identified for 2018/19.

100% of our managed sites are covered by our OHSAS 18001 health and safety management system, which is externally certified. Internal auditing is also carried out biannually for contractors and service partners for all sites through a Property Health Check.  In addition we regularly audit development contractors, dependant on size and risk of project, with the aid of our Development Team for Client Monitoring purposes.