Doing the right thing and mitigation of risk of supply chain disruption have formed the primary drivers for CR activities in Global Procurement.

Last year’s participation in the Carbon Disclosure Project supply chain initiative allowed us to get a better quantified and qualified understanding of the carbon emissions of 115 of our top suppliers.  Analysis of these data will steer our procurement sustainability objectives for carbon management in the coming year. We hope to influence change in our supply chain through raising expectations of our suppliers on sustainability issues and through sharing best practices developed in collaborative supplier relationships.

This year, National Grid increased the number of diverse suppliers in the US.  We have engaged CVM Solutions to manage our  supplier diversity programme in the US. This partnership enhances our commitment to supplier diversity by enabling a more efficient method to capture, analyse and consolidate diversity spend data via a web portal. Further successful developments have been made to integrate supplier diversity into the strategic sourcing process, including sourcing managed by National Grid on behalf of the Long Island Port Authority (LIPA). Specific measures have been taken to respond to the New York State Diversification Law 2010 and how it relates to the procurement-influenced spend National Grid controls on behalf of LIPA. 

Building on the successes of last year, we plan to partner strongly with corporate Inclusion and Diversity, develop strong alliances with the Minority and Women Business Enterprises (MWBE) community and the decision makers at the local and state level. We aim to further develop our partnership with New York City Small Business Services Corporate Alliance Programme and other diversity councils.