Expertise
March has been trusted by key UK industries for decades. We understand the challenges that business faces in terms of productivity, competition, cost control, safety, security and compliance.
Sustainable Procurement Policy
March is committed to delivering sustainable engineering services with a thriving and prosperous workforce and engaging leadership services in a manner that is socially, economically and environmentally responsible which supports our ESG ambitions:
Environmental Sustainability – Accelerate the business approach to Net Zero through industry leadership and innovation.
Social Responsibility – Ensure safe and healthy workplaces for our people, increase diversity and promote inclusion and develop our talent through training, coaching and mentorship.
Corporate Governance – Deliver the highest standards of governance through strong leadership geared towards creating value, driving transformation and delivering on our Environmental and Social ambitions.
To achieve this, we require pro-active support from our supply chain partners. The Sustainable Procurement Policy aims to incorporate March values and priorities around sustainability and our overarching sustainability strategy and objectives
Sustainable Development Goals
March is proud to have adopted the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and have mapped and prioritised these goals based on our business objectives and expect our supply chain to support us in the achievement of our selected goals: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 13
How can our supply chain partners contribute?
We ask our supply chain partners to sign up to this Policy as a first step in demonstrating their shared ambition and commitment to help in delivering our objectives and strategy, and that of our customers. We will apply a targeted approach focusing on specific impacts, risks and opportunities and will enter into dialogue with supply chain partners to understand and identify the most mutually relevant aspects of the Policy to their dealings with March.
Working together with our supply chain partners, we will be able to set challenging but realistic objectives. These include contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Health and Safety
Our policy is to buy materials that are not harmful to health in manufacture, use or disposal. We expect our supply chain partners to comply with all relevant legislation such as COSHH, UK & EU REACH and RoHS.
Supply chain partners working on our sites must comply with our health and safety standards and where applicable, we will seek evidence of compliance.
All supply chain partners are empowered to stop any unsafe work being carried out if they observe whilst on our sites, whether it be March employees, other supply chain partners or customers and report such practices. All supply chain partners must have in place effective health and safety management systems appropriate for the nature and scale of their business and services provided and ensure compliance with health and safety law as well as standards and codes specific to their industry. It is mandatory that all supply chain partners hold SSIP membership or an acceptable equivalent, and all are equipped with suitable Personal Protective Equipment appropriate to the task being performed.
Modern Slavery
In accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, we have published a statement addressing the risks of slavery and human trafficking in our organisation, including transparency in our supply chain. We have a zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking and expect all those in our supply chain to comply with our values, and to demonstrate the highest standard of business conduct. As part of our supplier evaluation process, all supply chain partners are required to comply with UK legislation and regulations, including the Modern Slavery Act 2015. We take a risk approach and identify those categories where the supply chains are more at risk than others, audit our supply chain partners to ensure compliance with our policies and procedures and to confirm that they are operating with high ethical business standards. As part of our tender process, we ask potential supply chain partners to provide detailed responses relating to labour standards in their own organisation, and that of their supply chain, and to provide a chain of custody for materials and products.
We ask all our supply chain partners to become active members of the Supply Chain Sustainability School, participating in the School’s learning and development programme
Modern Slavery – Supply Chain Sustainability School (supplychainschool.co.uk)
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
All our supply chain partners must respect the people they employ and to offer a safe workplace free from harm, intimidation, harassment, or fear.
We are committed to promoting equal opportunities for all our employees, customers, and supply chain partners. We treat all people equally, with respect and dignity, including those contracted to supply goods or services. We do not discriminate on the grounds of age, colour, disability, ethnicity, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, religion, faith or on any other unjustifiable or illegal grounds.
We welcome diversity within our supply chain partners and their supply chains in support of our strategic goals.
Labour Standards and Ethics
All our supply chain partners must respect the people they employ and to offer a safe workplace free from harm, intimidation, harassment, or fear, with labour standards met and living wages paid to all employees. The Ethical Trade Initiative Base Code, and the UN Global Compact Principles along with any local employment health and safety legislation, represent the minimum standards expected.
Our supply chain partners must mirror our ethical approach. We are bound by a value of integrity and are firmly committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethics, honesty, openness, and accountability.
In accordance with the Bribery Act, we will not tolerate corruption, bribery and unfair anti-competitive actions and expect our supply chain partners to adopt the following principles as a minimum standard:
- They will comply with applicable competition or procurement laws.
- They will not, directly, or indirectly, offer or accept any undue payment or other consideration for the purpose of inducing any person or entity to act contrary to their prescribed duties.
- They will record the correct nature of all financial transactions in accordance with accepted accounting principles.
- They will have in place IT procedural controls ensuring adequate levels of data protection for our customers, employees, and supply chain.
- They will carry out ethical audits where appropriate.
It is our policy that bribery/suspected bribery can be reported via our whistle blowing procedure and shall be dealt with in accordance with our Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy. Any suspected acts of bribery can be reported to and will be treated in a confidential manner.
Social Value
We expect our supply chain partners to understand the potential impact of their activities in the local area and wider community, and we encourage them to make positive contributions and investments, for example by providing appropriate local employment opportunities, workforce volunteering and charity activities.
Counterfeit, Fraudulent and Suspect Items (CFSI)
We understand the potential risks concerning the supply of Counterfeit, Fraudulent and Suspect Items (CFSI) within the supply chain, and to this end we only choose supply chain partners that can demonstrate the quality and source of the goods that we require. All supply chain partners involved in the purchasing of goods on our behalf, should demonstrate that goods are purchased directly from the manufacturers or from agreed and official distribution channels.
Sustainable Procurement Standards
We work towards adopting leading industry standards and techniques in sustainable procurement and aim to be leaders in this field, by applying the recommended principles and process of the ISO 20400 standard for sustainable procurement, and request that our key supply partners consider doing the same.
Environment
Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
Where applicable, we expect our supply chain partners to offer solutions reflecting best practice in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Energy
Supply chain partners (including designers and engineers) whose work impacts our energy performance will take appropriate steps to offer solutions that reduce energy consumption over the planned or expected operating lifetime.
Manufacturers or purchasers of energy-intensive products must show an increasingly accurate understanding of the associated energy performance impact and embodied carbon footprint and will demonstrate their plans to continuously reduce this impact.
Carbon
We expect our supply chain partners to measure, manage, and reduce their carbon footprint and encourage their own supply chain to act similarly.
Supply chain partners are encouraged to use low or zero emission transport, optimise transport efficiency and/or minimise transport distances. We will expect some supply chain partners to measure, monitor and reduce their transport emissions related to the transportation of the workforce and materials.
Resource Use and Waste
We expect our supply chain partners to adopt the principles of the circular economy wherever possible. Supply chain partners producing waste on our sites should be able to measure and continuously reduce the waste they send to landfill, observing the principles of the waste hierarchy to prevent, reduce, re-use, recycle. energy recovery, incineration without energy recovery, with landfill as a last resort when all other options have been exhausted. Supply chain partners should maximise use of secondary materials in accordance with best practice using exemplar methodologies such as the WRAP Protocol.
Wherever possible, we avoid single use plastics and will work with our supply chain to eliminate where it is avoidable or reduce where no alternative exists.
We will work with supply chain partners of water-intensive products to progressively understand and reduce water footprints.
All timber products must be certified under Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)
Pollution
We expect all businesses in our supply chain to act to prevent pollution to air, land and water.
Biodiversity
Supply chain partners whose activities significantly impact natural habitats must comply with all legal/planning conditions and work with us towards to demonstrate best practice in biodiversity management.
Feedback and Complaints
We wish to hear from any individual or organisation holding a legitimate complaint about social and environmental conditions on our supply chain partners’, customers, or our own premises. We expect supply chain partners to ensure that any employee or subcontractor making such a complaint shall not be disciplined or discriminated against. Complaints can be emailed to procurement@march-engineering.com with the specific details of the case and we commit to taking the complaint seriously:
- We will investigate all legitimate complaints.
- We will reply requesting further contact to establish details, unless the complaint is anonymous, in which case we will act on the evidence provided.
- We will speak to all the other parties involved to establish the facts and determine if a supplier has a case to answer.
- If so, we will inform the supplier and specify remedial action for the supplier or licensee to take to address the issue.
- Unless the complaint was anonymous, we will contact the organisation or individual to inform them of the results of the investigation and the steps that are being taken.