Responsibility Our environment Our customers and communities Our people Responsible Business Fundamentals

Responsible Supply Chain

It’s our policy to procure goods and services competitively, ethically and efficiently in accordance with all relevant laws, regulations and licenses. 

Our suppliers must adhere to our Supplier Code of Conduct, including commitment to the Real Living Wage, compliance with the Conflict Minerals Rule and establishment of environmental and social strategies and targets.

Our Responsible Supply Chain and Category teams work to ensure social and environmental concerns are addressed at the appropriate time, for a defined purpose, and with adequate controls in place to achieve optimal outcomes within our supply chain. This includes embedding bespoke responsible supply chain questions into our sourcing system to streamline the process and improve our suppliers' experience, all aligned with our ambition to be the Client of Choice.

We’re also a partner of the Supply Chain Sustainability School, with the aim of enhancing the skills and capabilities of our suppliers. We have also transitioned our supply chain ESG disclosure to EcoVadis, a globally recognised platform widely used across the UK and US utility sectors. EcoVadis provides size, sector and geography‑tailored assessments across four dimensions: Environment, Labour & Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement. The resulting scorecards offer enhanced visibility, assurance and shareable insights into our suppliers’ sustainability practices. To date, over 50% of our key suppliers across the Group hold EcoVadis scorecards, with an average score of 62 across all dimensions. We will continue working with our business units to refine our supplier selection strategy and define specific supply chain measurements aligned with our wider ambitions, supporting scalable engagement and impact.

 

More about our supplier processes

 

Case studies

glightbox image

The Great Grid Partnership

Our colleagues in Strategic Infrastructure signed contracts with seven partners to help deliver major onshore Accelerated Strategic Transmission Initiative (ASTI) projects as part of the Great Grid Upgrade in the UK.

glightbox image

Our Peer Collaboration Efforts to Promote Human Rights in the Supply Chain

We've recently promoted peer learning on human rights through the UK Capacity Build Engagement Day and through our collaboration with King's Business School and the British Standards Institute.

glightbox image

Reducing Waste and Establishing Local Partnerships with Northeast Transformer Services

Northeast Transformer Services (NETS) is a long- time vendor of National Grid. Recently, National Grid signed a long- term contract with them to cement circularity in our distribution transformer supply chain.