Working closely with our suppliers, contractors, and service providers is vital for driving down emissions across each stage of the value chain. Our suppliers are key partners who play a fundamental role in the smooth running of our business and collaboration is the only way we can fully decarbonise our operations.
So far, we’ve reduced emissions from purchased and capital goods or services by 35% since our baseline year of 2022/2023. Furthermore, in 2025/2026 – since the beginning of our strong supplier engagement programme – we marked a -23% reduction in carbon emissions. Via collecting suppliers’ emissions data, this has enabled pinpointed reductions through actual measurements of carbon.
Additionally, since 2022/2023, we’ve asked prospective suppliers across 20 different major tenders to tell us about their sustainability plans, projects, and progress. As well as sharing carbon data and roadmaps, suppliers set out how they would work in partnership with us to reduce energy and carbon across the length of the contract. This has been crucial for understanding environmental performance across suppliers, meaning businesses who are more sustainable and ethical have a better chance of winning contracts.
Once suppliers are in place, we work closely with them to explore their tender commitments and assess how to bring them to life. We’ve organised site visits and audits with waste suppliers, brought retrofit contractors into conferences and customer days, and challenged existing suppliers to bring more sustainable product alternatives to the table.
Moving forward, Sanctuary is implementing contractual clauses for suppliers to provide us with an annual carbon return, develop a library of tools to support suppliers in doing so, and continue to drive great conversations about sustainability with both suppliers and contract managers across Sanctuary.