The Flannery team are excited to announce that they are the first signatories to The Supply Chain Sustainability Schools Plant Charter.

James Cadman, School Plant Group lead & Lead Consultant at Action Sustainability explains,

“The School’s Plant Group has been working on how our sector can collaborate to reduce both air quality emissions that lead to local health impacts and the global effects of carbon emissions from the plant and equipment we all use.

The Commitment Charter aims to encapsulate and communicate our approach: to lead the way for the UK’s built environment to drastically reduce onsite emissions to air such that they will reach net zero by 2040 and contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goals 3, 11 and 13.

We would like organisations up and down the value chain to collaborate with us in coordinating our efforts to reduce these emissions for everyone’s benefit.”

Flannery have been a proactive member of the school’s plant category group which was established by school partners and other key industry stakeholders to develop and facilitate the implementation of the school’s position on best practice sustainable procurement within the category.

Patrick Flannery, Managing Director commented,

“As a business understanding our environmental impact and managing these is really important. Sustainability and innovation are two of our key value drivers and underpin the decisions we make and ensure we can support clients in the delivery of the cleanest and most efficient hire solutions for their construction project.

It is, however, really important that there is a consistent approach throughout the supply chain and the Supply Chain Sustainability School are best placed to facilitate this. I am sure that this charter will have a great impact and as a business we wanted to confirm our commitment and support by being the first signatories.”

Driven by increased scrutiny from clients and the government on the negative effect engines have on the air quality of our towns and cities. Alongside policy and penalties pushing organisations to address these issues via a fleet and plant strategy, the construction industry has been looking closely at how it operates plant, what it invests in, and how plant is disposed.

As a result of these challenges, school partners (Flannery have been a partner of the school since 2012) are collaborating to identify and provide the supply chain with information and guidance on plant standards and management.

Chris Matthew, Strategic Manager said,

“Being part of the working group that has been involved in developing this charter has proved hugely beneficial for our business. Sharing best practise and ideas can only help to drive the behavioural change our industry needs to meet commitments to papers like this but also broader papers like Construction 2025.

It has identified, for us, key areas that we know we understand and can now help our supply chain partners develop and adopt. For example, our ECO-Operator program and our developing data offering for clients (the effective use of telematics to optimise their hire fleet). It has also supported the business as we forward plan, talking to manufacturers about investment and renewal of our fleet and the types of innovation we would like to continue seek out and bring to market.”

For more information on the Charter please click here.