Driving a sustainable procurement transformation in a top Irish bank

PTSB is a leading provider of Retail and SME banking in the Irish market. Committed to serving its communities in a sustainable way, PTSB released its Sustainability Strategy in late 2021. It was soon estimated that Categories 1 and 2 (Purchased Goods & Services and Capital Goods) within Scope 3 emissions could equate to as much as 25% of PTSB’s total emissions, inviting Procurement to become a key driver in the Bank’s sustainability improvement journey.

Background

The PTSB-Efficio partnership has flourished since its inception in 2020, with the 18-month “Project Titan” transformation programme shifting the perceived position of Procurement from a reactive and tactical department to a proactive and strategic business partner.

Already armed with a strong understanding of the business’s supply chain, the joint PTSB-Efficio procurement team kickstarted its own sustainability transformation programme, integrating Efficio’s CarbonCube^® tool, with four key objectives:

1. Increase PTSB’s awareness, visibility, and reporting on ESG metrics across its supply base
2. Embed an ESG focus into the supplier onboarding phase, including sourcing and due diligence
3. Develop an ESG-focussed Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) process
4. Build a strategic carbon emission reduction roadmap, identifying opportunities across the supply base

Together, these objectives would support PTSB in achieving its target of being the first bank in Ireland to publicly declare all its Scope 3 emissions and commit to a science-based emissions reduction target (SBT) by 2024.

Results 

Harnessing the power of education and technology, the joint PTSB-Efficio procurement team:

• Increased visibility on carbon emissions data and streamlined reporting, therefore helping to identify priorities and build strategies
• Fostered a stronger understanding of sustainability across PTSB’s entire value chain – from its employees to its supply base
• Further cemented Procurement’s role as a key strategic partner in the business’s sustainability agenda

Challenges and approaches 

Rethinking the demand function 

Integrating ESG considerations into strategies and processes demands a mindset shift and background knowledge – but, unsurprisingly, driving change in a 3,000-employee organisation can be difficult, on the fronts of both education and resistance to change.

The PTSB-Efficio team rolled out trainings via workshops, webinars and focus groups to various stakeholder groups, including Procurement, Finance, and even Tier 1 suppliers. For instance, this included an education programme for the Bank’s Resource Managers, which outlined Procurement’s expectations for suppliers. Relevant stakeholders were also given access to external training resources (including the Efficio Academy) to deepen and cement their understanding of sustainability topics. Altogether, this significantly boosted stakeholder buy-in to Procurement’s sustainability transformation programme and paved the way for strategy execution.

Whether it was deploying the SRM team to fast-track supplier discussions or escalate roadblocks with stakeholders, a Bank-wide collaboration was crucial to the project – and this was made possible by the foundation of education and understanding created by the PTSB-Efficio team.

Leveraging tech with the CarbonCube^®

Best practices and widely used tools are yet to be established in the field of sustainability, and many organisations struggle to calculate their emissions (particularly Scope 3 emissions) accurately and comprehensively. This made validating supplier emissions data a challenge.

The CarbonCube^® was deployed to tackle this issue. The CarbonCube^® is a platform created by Efficio that combines spend data with category-specific emissions data to derive supplier emissions. With spend data already captured in its Spend Cube, PTSB’s procurement team leveraged the CarbonCube^® to quantify emissions from Categories 1 and 2 (Purchased Goods & Services and Capital Goods) within Scope 3. The CarbonCube^® became the Bank’s single source of truth for supplier emissions and all carbon reduction initiatives.

This approach was bolstered by working closely with suppliers, supporting them in their carbon emission calculations, so that the data could be as closely aligned as possible to PTSB’s specific circumstances.

Using the CarbonCube^®, Procurement was able to:

• Leverage spend data to identify priority categories with high greenhouse gas emissions
• Gain visibility on sustainability commitments (such as CDP disclosure) made by PTSB’s supply base 
• Support the development of the business’s sustainability strategy through targeted assessments and supplier outreach
• Streamline carbon reporting, integrating the CarbonCube^® data into existing reporting processes

Putting purpose into action when it comes to sustainability is no easy feat – but in continued partnership with Efficio, PTSB’s procurement team has built a strong foundation to help serve the Bank’s customers and employees in a more sustainable way.

We’re here to help  

If you would like support for your sustainable procurement and supply chain programme – from roadmap development, target setting, the CarbonCube^® and carbon reduction, and putting in place actionable improvement plans – please get in touch via our Sustainability and ESG service page.