MOST SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATION – LOCAL AUTHORITY
HIGHLY COMMENDED West Mercia Supplies
Alternative transport week
COMMUNICATION
So far WMS has been involved with a wide ranging programme of communication and employee engagement on sustainability issues.
W
est Mercia Supplies (WMS) is a Local Authority owned purchasing consortium based in the West
Midlands, supplying stationery and school supplies to local authority customers, schools and not-for-profit organisations. The organisation was set up to deliver more effective bulk buying power and deliver better value for money. Although we were set up by the Authorities and can only sell to public sector bodies and not- for-profit organisations we have to compete with private sector retailers and therefore have to remain competitively priced in the market and deliver good value for money to consumers.
Through our commitment to corporate social responsibility, sustainability has become embedded in our corporate values, as documented in the WMS business plan. West Mercia Supplies (WMS) has recognised that it impacts on the environment throughout the scope of its operation. Directly through the impact of our warehouse and delivery operation and indirectly through the lifecycle of the goods and services we procure and place on the market. We have sought to address these issues through a variety of programmes and initiatives
WMS also recognises it can play a pivotal role in positively progressing the national sustainability agenda through communication with consumers and suppliers at both ends of the supply chain
24| SUSTAINABLE FM AWARDS 2010
and other market influencing procurement practices.
OUR APPROACH
Where many organisations have looked to their suppliers to move on their sustainability agenda, WMS has sought to lead by example and be pro-active. For small and medium sized organisations with a smaller resource pool the responsibility for sustainability is often delegated to a few individuals who have the role bolted on to their main ‘day job’. Through our hands on experience in this field WMS can play a supporting and mentoring role to other SME’s bringing them up to speed quickly. However before beginning any outreach and mentoring we realised we must get our own house in shape first. This has taken the shape of various ‘technical fixes’, an employee engagement programme and work on embedding sustainable procurement in our buying team.
WMS appointed Emma Dimelow as ‘sustainability champion’ and appointed a sustainability intern in Oliver Whitmore as her assistant. It is these two individuals who are responsible for delivering sustainability to WMS however it is also recognised that all employees are responsible and we have sought to embed this thinking in a number of ways through direct communication such as sustainability workshops for all staff, through our employee induction programme and through our employee ‘eco-committee’.
IN THE COMMUNITY We regularly update customers of environmental initiatives and promote green events happening within the local authority and schools via the environmental section of our newsletter. We support various green initiatives in the public sector, recently attending and displaying at the Shropshire Council green offices event and a Shropshire eco-schools festival where we promoted our ‘green list’ of environmentally friendly products. The emphasis here is on educating the market on the need for using environmentally friendly products rather than simply replacing standard products in the catalogue with products that have an eco-label. This will provide knowledge and a deeper understanding of issues and it is hoped allow for a more continued consumer engagement with buying products that are more ecologically and ethically sound.
STAKEHOLDERS
WMS holds sustainability meetings with the sustainability officers of our four Owning Authorities on a quarterly basis. This allows us to both give updates and progress reports on activities within WMS and provide a conduit for the Owning Authorities to share knowledge and raise issues with WMS. We also submit an annual report to the Joint Committee advising of progress on sustainability issues to ensure there is visibility of sustainability issues at the highest level.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT WMS sends out a carbon footprint bulletin to all staff once a month. This lets staff know how we are performing month by month with regards to our footprint. We also include tips and useful information on how to reduce their footprint in the office and at home and find this is a useful tool in keeping the agenda fresh in employee’s minds. On the 26th to the 30th April we held an event in conjunction with the Energy
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