Nottingham Trent University in partnership with NETpositive Futures

The Net Zero Carbon Supplier Tool

Having committed to net zero carbon (NZC) across all three scopes by 2040, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) allocated some strategic investment funding into supporting their NZC supply chain workstream. Some of which was allocated to developing a Net Zero Carbon Supplier Tool (Tool) with NETpositive Futures.

The Tool is an innovative online platform that benefits universities and suppliers by recognising, supporting, and increasing sustainable supply chains. As well as allowing universities to obtain improved supply chain emissions data directly from suppliers in one efficient and simple platform, it engages suppliers on net zero by supporting reductions in their own carbon footprint, which, in turn, reduces universities own scope 3 emissions.

A one-year collaborative action research project, being led by NTU, is seeing over 100 procurement and sustainability professionals come together from 32 universities to deploy it in their supply chains and contribute to its development, with impactful results.

Top 3 Learnings

1. Stronger together: there is conviction to collaborate on tackling the most challenging source of emissions.
2. Net zero simplification is imperative in successfully engaging large and diverse supply chains.
3. Powerful data enables sustainable procurement recognition and decision-making; whilst progressing suppliers’ sustainability maturity.