The importance of working with a responsible supply chain

Authored by RSA’s Andy Roberts

In the first of a series of articles on our Confident Futures strategy, our work to integrate responsible business practices into our everyday operations, Supply Chain Manager Andy Roberts explains the role suppliers play in our efforts.

Our environmental impact day-to-day basis is quite small – that’s because most of our activities are office based and we don’t produce goods that come with a hefty environmental price tag in the same way that something like manufacturing will.

However, we recognise that our impact on the environment isn’t just about what we do, but extends to our supply chain too.

The creation of a working group

The launch of Confident Futures last year was the first time we’ve linked our suppliers to our corporate responsibility strategy. By working with our suppliers, we can deliver sustainable solutions for our customers, meaning a better outcome for us, our policyholders, and the environment. This has a much bigger impact on reducing our footprint than simply focusing on our own work.

Last year, we created a responsible supply chain working group which meets on a monthly basis to discuss ways to encourage our partners to think differently about their environmental impact. The working group also considers best practice and collaboration with our larger suppliers.

“I work with suppliers to make sure they’re creating sustainable solutions that benefit our customers and the environment”

The impact of working with a responsible supply chain

We’ve been working with Autoglass for a long time, and we know that they deliver a high quality service to our customers for both windscreen repair and replacements.

Most people aren’t aware that encouraging our customers to get windscreen chips repaired in 30 days or less can also have a huge environmental benefit. By carrying out a chip repair, we avoid the windscreen ending up in landfill and we also save the carbon emitted as part of the manufacturing process for new glass. It also means a time and cost saving for the customer too, making it a win-win.

In the first in our series of Confident Futures videos, I caught up with our account manager at Autoglass to discuss the positive outcomes of our partnership:

To view the video from RSA's Autoglass Account Manager CLICK HERE

Encouraging ‘repair over replace’

It’s important that we’re there for our customers when they need to make a claim. Sometimes that means making a quick payment, but sometimes we’re involved in solving the problem directly, meaning that we can encourage them to make environmentally friendly decisions.

We already encourage a ‘repair over replace’ policy across many of our claims. This means we ask our customers to consider simple things like getting a carpet cleaned, rather than replacing it completely, or carrying out scratch repairs to worktops and sanitary ware.

Find out more on efforts to integrate responsible business practices into our everyday operations in RSA;s Confident Futures hub.