1. Given the acknowledgement that the climate crisis is a global crisis, do the carbon emissions that are being calculated include the emissions we are responsible for through the whole supply chain or just those produced within Tower Hamlets?

The council’s calculated emissions do not include the whole supply chain due to the complexity of calculating this. However, we are very aware that we are responsible for emissions throughout the supply chain.

To tackle this our Procurement Team is developing a Sustainability Matrix to be used when procuring goods and services to ensure sustainability and climate change is considered throughout council processes.

Through embedding climate change considerations into the procurement process the Council will be encouraging, influencing, and rewarding businesses for climate action. This will also reduce emissions in our supply chain.

Summary

• The council reports carbon emissions in accordance with the Government BEIS/DEFRA Environmental Reporting Guidelines
• Reporting currently covers energy use and fuel consumption for buildings and transport
• developing sustainability matrix for all procurement processes to embed climate change considerations into procurement process the council will be encouraging, influencing, and rewarding businesses for climate action
• investigating how to accurately report whole life cycle of services, products, and processes into future reporting.