BUSINESS STRATEGY: NMBS
NMBS COMMITS TO GROWTH THROUGH ESG
ESG bundles together key environmental, social and governance issues within a business. It’s a framework that can be used by any organisation to evaluate and manage its impact on society and the environment, as well as how it chooses to govern itself internally.
W 20
ithin the builders’ merchants sector, ESG is clearly increasing in importance, judging by the volume of sustainability
reports, wellbeing initiatives and responsible procurement policies being published by suppliers and merchants alike.
The movement to report on ESG is often driven by the demands of much bigger organisations in the construction value chain. Many of these bigger businesses may be required to report under SECR (streamlined energy and carbon reporting) regulations, or are applying for environmental accreditations, or simply want to know how merchants are responding to the same questions that they’re getting asked by their banks and investors. Follow the money. It’s a trickledown effect that will eventually reach every business in the industry, experts say. How about a business like NMBS, whose sole focus is on supporting the independent builders’ merchants in the industry?
Julie Langford, finance and operations director at NMBS, explains that the company is making good progress across all its current environmental, social and governance targets, but that ESG is also an ongoing commitment and risk mitigation strategy that the NMBS Board will keep at the forefront of its strategic priorities for years to come. “ESG factors have emerged over the years in response to both social and environmental pressures, and the risks they represent have grown,” Langford explains.
“Responsible business is now defined by the inclusion of these factors into core business practice, which includes topics such as climate change mitigation, diversity and inclusion, sustainable products, modern slavery, risk management, health and safety, and corporate governance. “We want to get real value from integrating ESG into all parts of our business, making sure implementation is much more than a tick-box activity.”
Moving towards Net Zero The ESG journey for NMBS started in earnest following a report by Mazars in 2022, which helped NMBS to identify material risks throughout the company’s processes and to implement strategies to mitigate them, to become as efficient as possible in order to derive full value from ESG.
On the environmental side, one of the first
steps was determining NMBS’s baseline carbon footprint for the 2022 financial year. Measuring carbon emissions has to be done diligently, in line with established protocols and standards such as ISO 14064 (the Greenhouse Gas Protocol), but it is becoming easier now with the development of more sophisticated carbon calculators. Mazars concluded that NMBS’s carbon footprint for that year (in terms of CO2 equivalent) was just over 636 tonnes, with the majority of carbon emissions coming from its scope 3 activities – that is, from purchased goods and services, business travel and other
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net February 2024
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