On Tuesday 18th October, sustainability ratings company EcoVadis hosted an event at the British Museum for the London stop of their World Tour.
Spanning across seven regions, this tour gives the attendees the opportunity to connect with procurement and sustainability leaders from companies in various industries, all over the world.
As a result of our close partnership with EcoVadis, K2 Corporate Mobility’s CEO Nick Plummer was among those asked to attend as a guest speaker. Nick spoke on the best practices in sustainable procurement, offered insight into K2’s ESG commitments, and how EcoVadis have guided our efforts, following recently being awarded a silver sustainability rating.
Nick’s talk – at which Mark Stevens from Ciena Corporation and Samiya Hirji from EcoVadis were also present – centred around the best practices in Sustainable Procurement. Looking to a future where sustainability is of growing importance within business, K2 understands that maintaining a positive profile on its contributions towards the environment is paramount. Spreading the word on to our partners and encouraging them to take action is a responsibility we take in ensuring our supply chain works towards being as sustainable as possible.
Nick explains:
“With many of K2’s contracts being FTSE and Nazdaq listed businesses, we have had some wonderful input into how procurement is invested into sustainability. We understand the weight that falls on a decision to work with service partners that meet the requirements of sustainable procurement, and the importance of a good profile on K2 and our partners.”
2015 saw K2 become accredited with ISO’s 9001 and 14001, with ISO 27001 certified only a year later. Commitment to all aspects of ESG and sustainability are evident in being recognised by these standards, of which K2 has manage to retain year on year. And more recently, achieving EcoVadis’ Silver Award in our first year of assessment cements that. The drive towards sustainability continues to be built upon as a result of Kinetic – K2’s five-year business plan (2021-2026). As one of the six main pillars of Kinetic, sustainability is intrinsic to the service K2 provides.
Nick continues:
“Our plan is to become net-zero by the end of next year, and to work towards a 40% reduction of our carbon footprint by 2026. I think they are very achievable results. Keeping open communication with those who we work with about our goals and values is fundamental.”
Additional targets that come with our Kinetic plan include becoming a United Nations Global Compact participant, supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and submitting transparent annual reporting via our UNGC Communication on Progress (COP).
Relationships are the foundation of which K2 is built upon. Our service quality is reflective in the longevity of our connections. It is a credit to how personal our relationships are that we are able help build bridges in sustainability with our partners and beyond. Yet, we know to be cognizant of our smaller partners as well. Leveraging their experience, their policies and their employees to bring them on a sustainable journey is as important to K2 as working with the partners who have existing measures in place.
Nick concludes his talk, outlining his hopes for the future:
“What I intend to do over the course of Kinetic is to take all of the great innovations of K2 – for example partnering with the University of Bath just this year – out to our partners to create our own ecosystem. It is what I believe to be the right thing to do.”
