Following the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) and the subsequent approval of the Post 2020- Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in Dec 2022, there will be more stringent requirements on business to assess and disclose their impacts and dependencies on Biodiversity. This project aims to examine the supply chain risks and dependencies in terms of its impacts on nature across the full value chain. As an Electricity Transmission and Distribution sector, National Grid, SSEN and SPEN will draw from many of the same global suppliers, and therefore share many of the risks, upstream and downstream impacts to nature. There is an ambition as part of this project to develop a consistent approach and robust methodology for assessing the biodiversity impacts risks and dependencies across the global supply chain (supplying UK based activities) using innovative approaches that align with best practice frameworks in this area.
Benefits
- Supports delivery of National Grid's BIG Priorities – Enable Energy Transition, Build Networks of the Future
- Improved awareness of nature risks and opportunities across the sector
- Visibility of high impact / risk commodities and target areas
- Improved supply chain resilience across sector
- Supports future business nature disclosure requirements
Learnings
Outcomes
1. A clear, replicable methodology for assessing the network partners’ impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities as relate to nature, in the upstream value chain
2. An understanding of their individual and shared upstream impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities relating to nature
3. An understanding of which suppliers have a high exposure to nature-related risk, and which procurement categories are most material in terms of spend and the level of impacts and dependencies they have on nature
4. Action plans that can support the network partners to pre-competitively collaborate on actions that reduce the upstream impacts on nature of the products, commodities and assets of the energy Transmission and Distribution sector.
5. A customised and interactive dashboard in Microsoft Power BI, enabling the network partners Risk, Procurement, Sustainability and other teams to explore the results of the assessment, to further their understanding of the most material areas of their impacts, dependencies, risks, and opportunities as relate to nature, for ongoing focus and performance improvements.
Lessons Learnt
In future, we should:
1. Secure data in advance of starting, to maximise the time available during the project for data analysis
2. Ensure all stakeholders involved have sufficient buy-in to the process and had enough capacity to dedicate to e.g. review cycles, sharing data, engaging other team members to get involved etc. This would enable more insightful outcomes relevant to all partners
3. Gain the agreements relating to data sharing between partners in advance to ensure that the timeline is adhered to and that expectations are met from the beginning (i.e. in terms of what the possible outputs would be) and to manage expectations of the network partners throughout the project, and to reduce risk to the project timelines
4. Recommend working with suppliers or investing in tools / datasets to gather location data and any data further upstream (e.g. on who tier 2 through to tier-n suppliers are and where they are located), in order to enable a more granular assessment of the impacts and dependencies in the upstream supply chain
