ISG partners with Social Enterprise UK to drive industry change

ISG has strengthened its commitment to ethical procurement practices by entering into a partnership with Social Enterprise UK (SEUK), through its Buy Social Corporate Challenge.

SEUK counts many of ISG’s existing customer and supplier base as partners, and it was specifically through the contractor’s ongoing work with Nationwide Building Society, that this alliance with SEUK has been forged.

The Buy Social Corporate Challenge is a bold initiative to challenge high-profile businesses to collectively spend £1 billion with social enterprises, and is supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Business in the Community. There are approximately 100,000 social enterprises in the UK, contributing £60 billion to the economy and employing about 5% of the workforce. SEUK’s research shows that 47% of social enterprises trade with the private sector, underlining the opportunities for buying organisations such as ISG.

Paul Cossell, ISG’s CEO, commented: “Making ethical procurement decisions is something that I’ve been passionate about throughout my career, and what’s exciting about this partnership with SEUK is that it gives us the mechanism and focus to benchmark where we are today, and how we challenge ourselves to further enhance our procurement practices through the lens of social value.

“It couldn’t be any clearer that there is a significant cultural shift in society, not only in how we procure goods and services, but also the enduring legacy that these decisions make on our wider communities. Our industry has always been justifiably proud of the key role we play in delivering facilities and the very infrastructure that helps us thrive, but with a renewed focus across the entire spectrum of our operations, we can further inform those smarter, innovative procurement decisions that maximise social value outcomes to provide true generational legacy.”

Earlier this year, ISG revealed that its work with the Social Profit Calculator organisation, to ascribe a monetary value to the social and community benefit derived from its projects, had turned traditional thinking on its head. Instead of the long-standing belief that communities benefited by up to £2.84 for every pound spent on construction activity, the more sophisticated data analysis revealed that this figure was actually between 34p and 99p for every construction pound. The single most important multiplier factor for social value outcomes was procuring through local supply chains.

Paul added: “Through the use of increasingly sophisticated tools to measure and inform decision-making, ISG is consciously changing its procurement practices and sharing this knowledge with peers, supply chain partners and customers to drive change. The collaboration with SEUK builds upon this work and provides a clear framework to measure our progress on this key issue.”

Charlie Wigglesworth, Deputy CEO at SEUK, added: “We are delighted to welcome ISG to the Buy Social Corporate Challenge. Trading with social enterprise suppliers brings countless benefits to the business in terms of employee engagement, innovation in the supplier base and gaining a competitive advantage in key markets. We look forward to working together to maximise societal benefits and social value in ISG’s supply chain.”