Transport for London:

Transport for London (TfL) is the integrated transport authority responsible for delivering Mayor of London Sadiq Khan's strategy and commitments on transport. We run the day-to-day operation of the Capital's public transport network and manage London's main roads. Every day more than 31 million journeys are made across our network. We do all we can to keep the city moving, working and growing and to make life in our city better.

Strategic Labour Needs and Training (SLNT)

To ensure value for money and enable Londoners to benefit from TfL spend, key suppliers are required to make employment, skills, and training opportunities more accessible to the communities they serve. Since 2009, Transport for London (TfL) has worked in partnership with suppliers to provide opportunities to people from a range of backgrounds, while also ensuring the deliverability of its future business plan. This has been supported with career programmes and in 2023the annual supply chain apprenticeship fair recommenced in person following the Covid-19 pandemic when the event continued online. There were over 1000 attendees, 25 employers and 10 employability partners who were all available for a whole day. Since 2009, TfL has helped to create over 8000 supply chain apprenticeship starts and over 6500 workless job starts, while 168 ex-offenders have been supported into employment.

Fairness Inclusion and Respect in the Supply Chain

TfL in collaboration with other transport sector client organisations has engaged in an initiative to improve diversity in the supply chain through cofounding the Sustainability School’s Fairness, Inclusion, and Respect (FIR) programme. The programme is designed to offer training, access to resources and a network of FIR ambassadors at no cost to the supply chain to help improve equality, diversity, and inclusion in the sector. In 2022, TfL suppliers accessed 582 online resources and 138 individuals attended training delivered through the FIR programme. In September 2022, suppliers attended an inclusive recruitment session with live actors that brought to life examples of biases and barriers in the recruitment process faced by those with protected characteristics.

Reducing Emissions with Recycled Plastic Railway Sleepers

Since 2019, TfL has adopted the use of recycled plastic railway sleepers across above-ground sections of the London Underground since 2019 which are made from 99% recycled materials which lead to a 200 tonnes of carbon emission saved per every 200 kilometres. The sleepers didn’t just reduce carbon emission but were also known to have increased durability, minimum maintenance requirements and significant performance enhancements.

Metropolitan Police Service:

With more than 47,000 officers and staff, MPS is the UK’s largest Police Service accounting for 25% of the total police budget for England and Wales. MPS direct procurement spend exceeds £1bn annually, with about 1.3bn spent in 2022/2023 financial year.

As a significant purchaser of goods and services, the MPS has the potential to generate considerable social and environmental impacts both directly and indirectly through our procurement activities and the supply chain. The MPS continues to minimise the impacts of its procurement decisions through the adoption of social, environmental, and economically responsible procurement processes which can also deliver greater value for money.

Promoting Digital Inclusion

The MPS through the “Get Online London” program donated 5600 refurbished smartphones and 7500 laptops which were distributed alongside other donations to community organisations, libraries, and charities across London 32 boroughs to benefit London citizens who did not previously own or have access to digital technology. The MPS worked in collaboration with the Good Things Foundation, Reconome and our IT Partner (Capgemini). This led to an estimate reduction of 868kg waste reduction, contributes towards MPS commitment to reduce its environmental impact and promote a more circular economy.

London Fire Brigade:

London Fire Brigade is the UK capital’s fire and rescue service - one of the largest firefighting and rescue organisations in the world.  The Brigade spends up to £271m in the recent year on a wide range of goods, services and works and aims to deliver improvements right across the sustainability agenda.  Work in this area includes continuing to pay some 180 contractors’ staff the London Living Wage; and delivering 109 job starts and 22 apprenticeships over the past 5 years.

Decarbonising Vehicles

LFB in collaboration with Babcock Critical Services and Emergency One has pioneered the development of a novel electric fire engine called ZEPA 1 (Zero Emission Pumping Appliance), which utilises similar control systems to conventional fire engines. The appliance has a range of more than 200 miles. It can pump water continuously at 3,000 litres per minute on battery alone for just under three hours (and over the legislated four hours on its back-up power source).

This is a further improvement to LFB’s decarbonisation of their vehicles in 2016. This programme replaced 100% of fleet cars with electric vehicles and a total of sixty-six diesel ‘blue lighted’ pool cars were replaced with fifty-two range extender electric BMW i3 vehicles, and 5 plug-in hybrid cars. 

The new fire engine is due to be used out of Hammersmith fire station during 2023,fulfilling part of the LFB sustainable development strategy 2023 to 2025  and helping to deliver LFB’s commitment to significantly reduce carbon emissions and achieve air quality improvements to meet London’s net zero 2030 targets.

Given the specialist nature of our vehicles, the supplier needed to devise a range of innovative solutions to meet the required needs. Solutions were identified through close working to ensure there was a clear understanding of the requirements and that the solutions would meet rigorous testing.

London Development Corporations:

The Mayor of London oversees two Development Corporations that are part of the GLA Group family.  The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC)’s purpose is to use the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of the London 2012 Games and the creation of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to develop a dynamic new heart for east London, creating opportunities for local people and driving innovation and growth in London and the UK.

On the other hand, Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) is a Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC)established to develop the old oak opportunity area which includes Park Royal industrial estate, the Old Oak development area around the new High Speed 2 Old Oak Common Station and protected land at Wormwood Scrubs. The Corporation works with residents, businesses and partners to shape and accelerate the full regeneration potential created by the arrival of High Speed 2's Old Oak Common super hub and other initiatives to make the Old Oak and Park Royal to become a thriving, inclusive and healthy urban district.

LLDC Tackling Modern Slavery

Much of the work carried out by the LLDC involves developing areas through construction, which gives diverse opportunities to embed sustainability initiates through employment, placements opportunities, tackling modern slavery and driving sustainable innovation. A recent and major project case study is the East Bank Stratford Waterfront site. Mace, the project management partner for Stratford Waterfront, is tackling modern slavery using online platform Sedex to assess suppliers for risk. Sedex uses pre-screened data of country and sector risks plus supplier-specific information to highlight potential issues. Mace also has access to audits from Clearview, a global social compliance certification scheme for labour providers, which are risk-assessed via the Sedex platform. This enables a more targeted approach to undertaking audits, highlighting the areas where potential risks may lie.

The LLDC includes standard clauses in above-threshold contracts that oblige contractors to comply with the Modern Slavery Act and with a certified ethical labour scheme. The LLDC also undertakes an annual audit of employers on the park in relation to the London Living Wage, which includes questions about business compliance with the Modern Slavery Act and related due diligence with their supply chains.