With the passing of 2022 and the advent of 2023, January is always a good month to take stock of where we have been and glean some clues as to where we are going. For many laypeople, 2022 was the year that climate change came home. The summer saw Europe struggle with drought and, in some places, the highest temperatures ever recorded.
Action is required, though optimism is not palpable. The year closed with COP27, the UN’s annual climate change conference. While rich countries agreed to financially compensate poor ones, there was no final deal reached on the reduction of fossil fuel emissions, leaving many shaking their heads in wonder.
But many companies have begun taking responsibility into their own hands, with climate pledges, ESG standards and B Corp certifications. Expect to see more of this in the coming year.
CAMERON SAUNDERS
cameron.saunders@bizclikmedia.com
Boscombe Down, UK
Rolls-Royce and easyJet have set a new aviation milestone with the world’s first run of a modern aero engine on hydrogen. The ground test was conducted on an early concept demonstrator using green hydrogen created by wind and tidal power – proving that hydrogen could be a zero-carbon aviation fuel.
Accenture and Planet Labs partner up for satellite monitoring Planet Labs is a satellite geo-image company that monitors what’s happening on Earth from above. Using its data, Accenture will be able to trace supply chain strategies and more accurately assess climate chain risks.
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The toothpaste company and the space agency are looking into how they can make teeth hygiene more sustainable in a microgravity setting. Testing will be occurring at the International Space Station.
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The Spanish company’s zero-emission buses will soon be rolling down the streets of the capital after Transport for London announced the purchase of a 20-strong fleet. One small adaptation: the EV manufacturer had to put the steering wheels on the right side for the first time.
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For centuries steel has been forged thanks to the burning of fossil fuels, most notably coal. And for centuries, steel production has been one of the biggest carbon emitters on the planet. A recent tally pegged the industry to 10% of the world’s carbon.
This is what makes the recent partnership between green steel company Electra and the US’ largest steel group in the world, Nucor Corporation, so exciting. The new partnership is going to allow Electra to scale, thereby popularising their new method of steel production that has no carbon dioxide emissions: its Low-Temperature Iron solution uss low-grade ores and renewable electricity.
As one of the most enduringly popular fast fashion brands on the British high street, Primark has received its fair share of flak over the years for being unsustainable. Happily, it’s turning around its bad record. According to a recently released Sustainability and Ethics Progress Report, the company is on track to transition to 100% sustainable clothing by 2030. It has also unveiled its Primark Sustainable Cotton Programme, which seeks to promote smart cotton growing methods as well as increased recycling.
2022 was the year of Shein. With $10bn in revenue, it became the biggest clothing brand in the world. In 113 different countries, it was the most Googled clothing brand. Unfortunately for the planet, the Chinese company has an atrocious ESG record: nail varnish that poisons, employees working 75-hour shifts in rooms with no fire exits, just over $500 a month to make 500 pieces of clothing a day. And this is not even mentioning the 10,000 different products it has on offer – all cheap and all with a very short shelf life.
We take a look at some of the milestones – and setbacks – of the United Nations’ Convention on Climate Change over the years
COP1: Berlin, Germany
The first ever COP is held wherein parties agree to the Berlin Mandate, which calls on specific, legallybinding targets to reduce developed countries’ emissions.
COP21: Paris, France
Delegates agree to the Paris Agreement, to keep the global temperature rise to well below 2°C. Critics state that COP21 completely failed to challenge the fossil fuel industry, and the power it holds over countries around the world.
COP3: Kyoto, Japan
The Kyoto Protocol is agreed upon, and this includes emissions’ targets for the six major greenhouse gases. The United States signs but fails to ratify the Protocol.
COP23: Bonn, Germany
Prior to this conference, then-US President Donald Trump announced his intentions to pull out of the Paris Accord, which he subsequently went on to do. Countries in attendance agree to the ‘Powering Past Coal Alliance’, with a coal phase-out planned for 2030 for developed countries, and 2050 for the rest.
The Bali Roadmap sets a timetable for negotiations for a new international agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol and include all countries, not only the developed ones. However, the Bali Action Plan did not require binding GHG targets for developing countries.
During a breakthrough agreement, developed countries agree to a historic lossand-damage fund, offering reparations to developing countries affected by climate change. Yet again, however, the conference failed to set real targets for clean energy transitions and reducing greenhouse gases. developing countries.
Anuj Saush is a man whose impeccable sustainability credentials helped him land a key role at one of the most influential sustainability organisations in the US: The Conference Board (TCB).
TCB is a global, independent business membership and research association working in the public interest. The organisation was founded in 1916 as the National Industrial Conference Board, as a way to cool explosive tensions between labour and management at that time.
But in Europe, TCB is a fairly well-kept secret – something that Belgium-based Saush is striving to change.
Saush is the TCB’s Governance & Sustainability Centre Leader and, as such, works with some of the world’s biggest companies, who are members.
“It’s a place where chartered environmentalists can make an impact,” says Saush, who brings drive and ambition to his role.
His passion for sustainability comes from his upbringing in India, where power cuts, water scarcity, and the need to live within one's means shaped him.
After gaining a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy from the London School of Economics, Saush decided to
make it his life’s work to align business and sustainability objectives.
“I’m ambitious, driven, and passionate in equal measure,” he says. “And I’d say I’m also something of a maverick. While others around me have made comfortable careers, I’ve continually sought change.”
In his early career, he took roles in environment consulting.
“This taught me to use my solutionsfocused mindset to help solve clients’ problems,” he says.
When one of his recommendations –to start a new sustainable product line – became a huge revenue generator for a client, he understood the powerful impact that individual conversations can have.
“Consulting naturally led to corporate roles,” he says. “This was a different challenge to the one I left behind, but equally motivating.”
He says that, at times, it has been difficult advocating environmental change in the face of healthy profits but says this remains his driving ambition “for the sake of the companies I work with and also the planet”.
He adds: “It was my desire for change that brought me to TCB. Its mission is to be a trusted source of insight, with a view
to helping members to anticipate change, improve their performance, and better serve society. This aligns perfectly with my own mission to create positive change.”
In his work, Saush helps senior executives think through the sustainability changes they need to make to remain relevant in the future.
“I also have a background in behavioural psychology,” he says, “and I believe that every conversation has the power to enable positive change.”
In the context of both digital and climate transition, there are multiple challenges facing business leaders, but Saush remains optimistic for the future.
“The way I see it, every challenge is also an opportunity. It’s just about making the right choices. I believe that every business leader needs both a microscope and a pair of binoculars – the microscope to examine and understand the problems, and the binoculars to chart the course ahead.”
He concludes: “Sustainability is a team sport. We need everyone to be on board.”
And perhaps a maverick or two to lead the way.
“I BELIEVE THAT EVERY CONVERSATION HAS THE POWER TO ENABLE POSITIVE CHANGE”
In 2022, we completed the first carbon footprint study undertaken across some of our growers, who produce over a third of the wheat supplied to make Weetabix biscuits. It estimated that their 2021 harvest was produced with significantly lower emissions than the standard factors for UK wheat production Weetabix used in previous calculations.
The study took place amongst a sample of our Growers’ Group and formed part of the efforts to measure our carbon footprint more accurately, working together with the wider agricultural industry to meet the sector’s target of achieving net-zero emissions
We are repeating the study for the 2022 harvest with a wider group of growers to build a robust database that provides information to our growers to enable a lower carbon supply chain.
Our inaugural carbon footprinting study demonstrated that we have reduced our carbon emissions in absolute terms by 13.8% since 2019. This follows on from the 24% overall reduction achieved between 2006-2019
that we reported last year. Based on the exploratory work we have undertaken over the past year, we expect to be able to make a formal commitment to Science-Based Targets that will drive further emissions reductions up to 2030 before the end of 2022.
This is part of our long-term macro planning for the business – but in the shorter term, smaller innovations also have a significant role to play. For example, we have progressed with our rolling programme of replacing lighting units across our sites with more energy-efficient LED alternatives and looking for opportunities to replace or upgrade electrical infrastructure across our manufacturing facilities.
A project is also underway to examine how we generate and use compressed air within our manufacturing process, with the aim of reducing its energy demand. This is after the success of our programme to capture and reuse the condensate (steam that becomes condensation) generated during our manufacturing process. This is predicted to reduce our annual water consumption by over 5 million litres.
» We take care to ensure that, at every step of the journey from field to breakfast table, we are dedicated to supporting people, society and the environment through our great-tasting British products.
We work with our Growers Group of local farmers to source all wheat for Weetabix Original within a 50-mile radius of our mills in Northamptonshire. This significantly reduces the food miles involved in transporting our main raw ingredient, allowing us to work closely with farmers to establish sustainable farming practices. This practice is mirrored in other brands in the Weetabix portfolio – for example, all the milk for our Weetabix On The Go drinks comes from British dairy farms within a 50-mile radius of where WOTG is made in Somerset.
We’ve worked in conjunction with all our growers to develop our Weetabix Wheat Protocol, which sets high standards for best farming practice.
As we look to minimise our environmental impact and our own emissions, we also are reviewing the emissions from our major suppliers –this includes our packaging producers and logistics partners.
91% of our ingredient suppliers have signed up to our updated procurement standards (an increase from 82% last year). We’re now working towards 100% of suppliers signed up to new contracts with updated ethical standards in 2023.
» We have increased the amount of recycled PET (rPET) in our On The Go Drinks bottles to 51% in the past year. However, we see challenges ahead in being able to increase the amount of rPET we use in our packaging due to a lack of available high-quality sorted material and high competition among buyers.
Some large companies in the UK market have chosen to move to 100% rPET packaging, but this is taking such a large share of the available material, there is not suficient supply until the
UK infrastructure improves for the rest of us to make further progress. Collection infrastructure needs to develop for supply to keep up with demand.
At Weetabix, we believe the whole food sector needs to move forward in its use of recycled plastic in packaging where hygiene and safety requirements allow. We should be working together so that all manufacturers are able to get consistent supply and make progress in achieving higher targets, because this will benefit consumers more than just a few big players racing ahead to meet their own targets. Weetabix is proud of the progress we have achieved, but we want to play our part in continuing conversations around the availability of rPET so that we can help push everyone forward.
“WE WANT TO PLAY OUR PART IN CONTINUING CONVERSATIONS AROUND THE AVAILABILITY OF RPET SO THAT WE CAN HELP PUSH EVERYONE FORWARD”
PRODUCED BY: CRAIG KILLINGBACK
From empty terminals in 2020, to serving over 50 million passengers [so far] in 2022, Heathrow Airport has weathered some mighty turbulence in recent years. Now the UK’s hub airport is building back, Heathrow’s procurement team stands ready to ensure the airport’s growth is efficient, responsible and meets the needs of every passenger
From the outside, running a procurement operation with the size and variety of London Heathrow airport is an incredibly complex challenge. For Paul Doherty – the Procurement Director at Heathrow Airport –and his team, their job becomes clearer when they focus on the most important person in the building.
“The passenger is central to everything we do, every decision that we make and every project that we launch. Every operational change or operating procedure that we do has the passenger at the centre of those decisions,” he says.
With passenger numbers steadily climbing back higher, a hundred thousand priorities are walking through the terminal doors every day, each of whom need to be given the best possible travelling experience.
‘It is really important to us that, from the moment the passenger enters the airport, their holiday starts. So we want them to be comfortable, we want them to be enjoying the experience that they have,” he says.
Paul speaks passionately about customer care, about how every member of staff at the airport should support a passenger if
they see them in any form of confusion or discomfort. That mantra permeates right from the very top of the executive team down to all of Heathrow’s colleagues - including the airport's operators via their service signatureswhich provide a framework for the passenger service proposition, to notice and care, share what they know and ensure the passenger’s problem is resolved before they leave.
This is just an example of the variety of tasks that present themselves daily in what Doherty describes as a ‘city of services’, which features an enormous range of diversity regarding what they have to deliver on a huge scale.
“I've just come off of a call talking to someone who is at the party conferences, understanding the political landscape. Later on, I'm going to go and talk about cleaning performance in one of our terminals. This afternoon I'm going to talk about algorithm development and security products.”
Because of the incredible breadth of the services he speaks about, becoming a “specialist at being a generalist” is a given –there are few jobs where you can start your day dealing with politics and end with cleaning regimes, successfully able to pivot between the two as well as engage with everything else within that. It also necessitates having experienced people in post who can cope with operating under the pressures of one of the busiest airports in the world.
“ The passenger is central to everything we do, every decision that we make and every project that we launch”
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Rebecca Mupita, MD of Transdev Airport Services, says the future for the company will be green, and connected to local Heathrow communities
Rebecca Mupita is Managing Director of Transdev Airport Services and CCH Aviation Logistics, both of which are part of the Transdev Group, whose core function is delivering multimodal transportation services.
Mupita and her colleagues are based a stone’s throw away from Heathrow Airport, and provide innovative, sustainable passenger transport and fleet maintenance solutions for the aviation sector. “We deliver solutions that are aimed at providing clients and customers with complete transparency, so that they better understand their operational demands,” she explains. “With this insight, we can identify and tailor the right solutions to support.”
As well as managing and maintaining complex airport fleet and equipment, Mupita and her team provide scheduled and on-demand transportation services and manage airport bus and coach stations. Tailoring its services and solutions is just part of the company’s transformation journey,
as it continues its recovery from a brutally tough pandemic. “Covid hit Transdev very hard,” says Mupita. “It decimated the aviation industry.” In the post-pandemic era Transdev is not just rebuilding, but is “rebuilding green”, says Mupita.
“Reducing emissions is at the heart of our sustainability measures,” Mupita adds. “We are currently planning to deploy a new electric fleet at Heathrow Airport, and through our new technologies we are also designing passenger services that reduce unnecessary transfers, while enhancing the passenger experience.” And, she adds, the company will also continue to extend its outreach initiatives, working with local schools, colleges, and universities, looking to find the next generation of ‘journey makers’.
“We’re increasing our apprenticeship schemes to develop young talent,” says Mupita. “Typically, logistics isn’t a career young people think about going into. But we are looking to change that.”
Doherty speaks on the transformational challenges – caused in part by the pandemic – that Heathrow have undergone while continuously modernising and embracing new security technologies. “Our new security solution means you won't have to take your laptop out of your bag,” he says. “You can go through security and just put your bags through a scanner. It’s a much less intrusive journey.”
“We talk about a frictionless passenger journey, and it's just like a good doctor in the NHS: when you need us, we're there.”
Doherty’s route to being Director of Procurement started in a very different, but also incredibly demanding form of transport.
He worked in operations at the London Underground for seven years, but says he always found getting into the capital space appealing and, ultimately, took on a more junior role at Heathrow to expand his personal skill-set. From there, he progressed through different projects, including the airport's role in hosting London 2012 Olympics arrivals, baggage categories, heading up terminals and, when the pandemic arrived, closing down aspects of the capital portfolio before moving into the operational environment to focus on cost reductions and supplier management.
“We did that as caringly and as responsibly as we could with our capital supply chain partners, many of whom are still with us and working. Following that, I went over
Paul Doherty is the Procurement Director at Heathrow Airport, responsible for Operational, Infrastructure and Technology procurement.
Paul’s accountabilities centre around meeting the airport’s current and future business needs. His teams are focused on delivering value for money, data-driven insights and trusted advice to both internal and external stakeholders. Paul is passionate about empowering his teams to target continuous improvement and delivering results to advance the talent of the procurement team.
A constant focus for Paul is working with our supply chain partners and local community to ensure Heathrow’s strategic sustainability goals and targets are achieved to maintain the airport's licence to operate.
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Mitie prioritises decarbonisation and takes a flexible approach to sustainability through its Plan Zero, which supports its partner Heathrow Airport
As the UK’s leading facilities management and professional services company, Mitie is determinedly working on not only its own decarbonisation journey, but also supporting partners including Heathrow Airport. As Mike Sewell, Mitie’s Plan Zero Director, says, “if an organisation wants to drive real change in decarbonisation, it absolutely should be front and centre for their facilities management providers to be the party that’s helping them on that journey”. For partners like Heathrow Airport, Scope 3 includes their supply chain, which includes Mitie. Sewell’s approach to partner support is simple: “Just by operating better ourselves, we’re already helping reduce their Scope 3 emissions— and that applies to every single customer that we work with”.
Mitie has “committed to having net zero, from a Scope 1 and Scope 2 perspective, by 2025 and Scope 3 by 2035”. Mitie’s industry-leading Plan Zero initiative has three key focuses: eliminate carbon emissions from power and transport; eradicate non-sustainable waste; and enhance inefficient buildings.
For example, Sewell says that within Mitie’s operations the majority of emissions sits in our use of vehicles: “We’ve focused our efforts on decarbonisation of our fleet together with connected workplaces where we’re actually looking at better data connectivity, where we can actually monitor sites, understand sites and deal with things remotely.”
Mitie’s latest ESG report highlights its progress, centred around five pillars: Environment, People, Community, Responsible Supply Chain and Innovation. Among its sustainability successes Mitie reports a 33.4% reduction in emissions since the FY19/20 baseline year and how it has cut 11,445 tonnes of CO2 by investing in electric vehicles (EVs).
By prioritising its own decarbonisation journey, Mitie put itself in the best position to support partners and proactively work to reduce its impact.
As Sewell states: “Decarbonisation: it’s not a challenge for one organisation, one customer. It affects us all.”
1944 - Construction of London Airport's runways begins 1946 - London Airport Officially Opens
1955 - Her Majesty The Queen opens the Central Terminal Area and Control Tower 1966 - London Airport renamed ‘Heathrow’ 1969 - Terminal 1 opened 1976 - Concorde makes its first passenger flight 1986 - His Royal Highness Prince Charles and Princess Diana inaugurate Terminal 4 1987 - The British Airports Authority is privatised as BAA plc 2003 - Three Concordes make their final touchdown at Heathrow 2007 - A new air traffic control tower is operational – the tallest in the UK 2008 - Terminal 5 officially opened by Her Majesty The Queen 2009 - Major refurbishment of Terminal 4 2014 - New Terminal 2 re-opens 2015 - Terminal 1 closed 2016 - Heathrow celebrates 70th anniversary
to our operations teams to support them in removing the costs that we needed to be able to continue operating through the pandemic,” he says.
It resulted in him being offered the Director of Procurement in 2021, a role for which Doherty thinks the breadth of his experience across both the capital and operational sides of transportation has positioned him well, as having both pillars of experience gives a better, more holistic outlook on the role.
“I always knew the benefit of broadening my portfolio. I had relative success at quite a young age in the operational space and knew that to actually really understand the business, you need to understand both the capital and the operational side of the company,” he says.
The pandemic presented all sectors with genuinely unprecedented challenges, and Doherty believes that the legacy of that time is the biggest single challenge facing all airports: passenger numbers at Heathrow had consistently climbed in the decade leading up to the pandemic, before dropping to 22.1 million in 2020. This created a situation when scale had to be quickly changed to cope with a 73% decrease compared to 2019, while still keeping planes in the sky and passengers happy.
“Speaking as a Procurement Director, the pandemic is the primary challenge. Aviation took a substantive knock during the pandemic period that we have to take care of over the coming three to four years. It’s not just the debt in terms of commerce, it’s the debt in terms of having had to make difficult decisions around assets, services, our service proposition, our security proposition; having had to slow down pieces of work to make them affordable means that we now need to speed them up to make them deliver.”
“The playbook for the pandemic didn't exist. The thing that makes the UK proud
about Heathrow as a piece of national infrastructure is that we run at a capacity that no other airport, globally, runs at. We run at 98% across our two runways, we have more air traffic movements during the day, we move and turn aircraft around quickly. We have operating procedures for if we have a busy day, we have an operating procedure for if something goes wrong during a day –we have an operating procedure for most things. Yet this isn't operating procedure, this is managing demand in a different way.”
Strategic partners and pillars to posts With demand fluctuating rapidly during the most acute months of the pandemic –followed by a gradual return to more familiar capacity levels – there has been pressure to scale engagement with suppliers and service providers around the Heathrow
“ We talk about a frictionless passenger journey, and it's just like a good doctor in the NHS: when you need us, we're there”
environment. This operates alongside a project called the Heathrow Partner Balanced Scorecard, which helps the procurement team choose the best strategic partners and convey the strategic aims of the business for prioritisation.
“It focuses on five main pillars: carbon reduction, social value inclusive of accessibility, inclusion and diversity, opportunities for local business, innovative solutions and behaviours. And that’s not just behaviours
“ The thing that makes the UK proud about Heathrow as a piece of national infrastructure is that we run at a capacity that no other airport, globally, runs at”
in terms of business-to-business behaviours, but also the behaviours between our supply chain and our passengers, should they encounter them, and also behaviours towards sustainability. So Heathrow’s role is incredibly influential and important in the supply chain, persuading them to contribute towards our aims.”
He describes the intention of creating a ripple effect with their partner organisations and the supply chains that support them, but making sure that that whole ecosystem is made up of organisations with sustainable practices built into their DNA as a service
provider, rather than simply raising their game to be part of the Heathrow environment.
“We are really keen that companies bring to bear, here at the airport, the best of what they're doing centrally. An account director reporting here at Heathrow, for example, will contribute towards their central numbers as a business.“
Doherty speaks about how the needle has moved rapidly on the subject of sustainability, due to matters such as the London living wage that are now built into contracts, yet wouldn’t even have been a discussion point a decade ago. He describes how sustainability is now a ‘licence to operate’ at an airport and how, if you do not have those strategies in place, it’s difficult to be part of the operation.
“It’s quite exciting how sustainability has kicked on and matured. It's absolutely the case that it is going to grow, not diminish. As an airport, we have to accept that we are historically polluters, so we have to take a responsible view of that. And we have an executive right now passionate about being responsible.”
These advancements in sustainability, and how it is inextricably linked to the supply
At Vanderlande, we’re committed to delivering sustainable solutions in every aspect of our operations. We do not want to do this alone, which is why we seek collaboration with our suppliers and customers like Heathrow Airport to maximise the impact of our efforts throughout the value chain.
When it comes to sustainability, there’s no doubt that close collaboration enriches discussions and allows all partners to learn from each other and align activities that support each other’s sustainability goals.
Want to know more? Read the blog about our partnership for sustainability with Heathrow Airport.
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chain and procurement operation, play a pivotal role in Heathrow’s sustainability strategy. Heathrow 2.0 is their plan to connect ‘people and planet’ and to work to build a better, more sustainable airport. The broad strategy includes net-zero aviation, creating a great place to live and work, and having responsible business foundations. It’s a piece of work that shows how far the airport has come since they took the step to publish their first environmental policy back in 1992.
There is a raft of commitments from Heathrow to make them a better neighbour to both their locality and the wider environment. They are committed to cutting carbon in the air by 15% compared to 2019, their ground level emissions by an even more ambitious 45% and an air-side ultra-low emission zone by 2025 for all operational vehicles. The targets also include doing even more for the region in which they operate, providing 10,000 external jobs, apprenticeships and career opportunities for local people, as well as 15,000 workplace experiences.
This strategy also aims to have a positive impact throughout the sprawling sphere of influence the airport achieves via its strategic partners, being part of the London Living Wage Foundation and a good neighbour to other local businesses.
“I also personally have an objective to grow our small to medium-size enterprises from
2019 levels,” he says. “There are a number of initiatives and schemes we are doing both in the local chambers of commerce and through business summits to help us achieve those aims.” A statement that demonstrates Heathrow and its procurement team's passion passion to deliver on the commitments it has made.
Lessons to carry into the future and beyond It is this culture of collaboration that Doherty feels is the best route to building mutuallybeneficial relationships between Heathrow and their strategic partners. If they are working with other organisations who can innovate and deliver more than would normally be expected, they can produce better and wider outcomes than the ceiling setting a defined target could engender. He believes the biggest piece of learning for the whole management team was for them not to mandate but to collaborate, as they do not just want their partners to deliver up to a set limit, but instead to bring the best of what they can deliver to the airport, with a level of quality that is centrally ingrained within the business.
“We go back to the mantra: ‘if you can make it work at Heathrow, you can make it work anywhere’.”
Ultimately, Paul Doherty returns to the key purpose of every operational decision the airport makes, which is the experience of every person who walks through the terminal door with a suitcase in hand.
“The way in which we work with our supply chain is to always make sure that we are listening, collaborating and challenging ourselves to make sure that we don't miss the opportunity to get something even better for ourselves, for our passengers and for our airport community and stakeholders.”
Currently, just 8.6% of the world’s economy is circular, which means around 91 billion tonnes of material each year is being left to its fate in the natural environment. Research conducted by SAP alongside the World Economic Forum shows that 61% of the world's population (4.9 billion people) lacks access to infrastructure around waste management or recycling. The numbers around sustainability – or rather, those showing how far we still have to go –are mind-boggling.
Speaking at BizClik Media’s Sustainability LIVE event in April this year, Stephen Jamieson – Global Head of Circular Economy Solutions at SAP – addressed the significant sustainability challenges that lie ahead.
STEPHEN JAMIESON GLOBAL HEAD OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY SOLUTIONS, SAP“We're using more resources than the planet can sustainably provide, and half of total global emissions comes from the way we use materials,” he told his live and virtual audience. “Shifting to a circular economy means a change in how we design not only products and new materials to eliminate waste, but also new policies, infrastructure and business ecosystems.”
The move away from wasteful and carbon-heavy
to
models is happening, albeit very slowly & with huge challenges ahead
“Shifting to a circular economy means changing how we design new products and new materials to eliminate waste”
Sustainability has never been higher on the agenda for businesses, both politically and operationally. In today’s world, organisations must make net-zero practices an integral part of their strategic thinking.
This means sustainability must be embedded in end-to-end operations, from design to consumption. Only this way will we be able to escape the ‘take, make, use and dump’ linear supply chain model, relying instead on a circular model built on reuse and recyclability.
Working closely with its customers, SAP helps deliver environmental, social, and economic impact, and its enterprise solutions are designed to enable a future with zero emissions, zero waste, and zero inequality.
As Jamieson points out, product consumption accounts for around 45% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“SAP's role in the world over the past 50 years has been to enable the end-to-end process of business,” Jamieson said. “The key steps are how we design, source, market, produce and deliver.”
JAMIESON“We need to help consumers play their role in delivering a wastefree future”
GLOBAL HEAD OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY SOLUTIONS, SAP
Data collection is barrier to the circular economy
But he says there are significant barriers to shifting to a circular economy, chief among which is “understanding at the design stage the environmental impact of the decisions that we make”.
Jamieson stresses that to drive solutions “we need critical interventions”, an says that, to this end, SAP is focusing on three areas:
• Eliminating waste to prevent destruction of nature.
• Circulating materials and products to keep them in use as long as possible.
• Having end-to-end insight to drive regenerative business, so decisions made by consumers link all the way through to ultimate land-use impact.
He says that, to achieve these things, policymakers, NGOs, investors, producers, designers, businesses, innovators and entrepreneurs must be able to unlock newtechnology solutions.
“To deliver a circular economy, we first need to measure it,” he says. “We need to understand the recycled content in materials and in products. We need to understand whether those things are reusable, compostable, whether they’re sourced from fossil-based sources, and what the CO2 content is.”
Packaging, he says, is notoriously complex when it comes to sourcing, interpreting and acting upon the data required to measure environmental impact.
“Take a chocolate box,” he says. “You have the tray containing the chocolate that sits within the primary packaging and then the secondary packaging around that. Then there’s the tertiary packaging, used for transportation.
“Being able to understand what materials are used at what point in time in the production of your products is an unbelievably complicated task, and the reality is that the data needed is often in disparate systems.”
He adds: “Sometimes, it might be in a SAP system, but oftentimes not. It could be across many different stakeholder groups within your organisation and across third parties, such as suppliers and packaging providers. Then the data might be in the form of an Excel worksheet or in a more formal system.”
This is why SAP is working with Nestlé on ways to access such data. “We want to solve the data problem to provide a view of the renewables in chocolate-box packaging. What's its recyclability? How compostable is it? What's the thickness? What's the weight?
“Once we understand such things, we can then start to aggregate analytics at a global level and help sustainability managers understand how they're performing against commitments.”
Of course, circularity isn’t just a challenge facing multinationals; small to medium-sized businesses must also toe the line. But how can SMEs adopt a circular approach when they lack the funding or technology of their larger rivals?
“If I were an SME right now,” says Jamieson, “I’d concentrate on scalable principles. You don't need to be a big enterprise to foster change. It’s all about embedding sustainable practices that can be scaled as you grow.”
Regulatory complexity on sustainability is ever-increasing Another challenge to circularity is regulatory complexity, which continues to evolve and change. At the last count, there were approximately 400 extended producer responsibility schemes worldwide, and this takes no account of the new and changing laws and regulations being introduced on a country-by-country basis.
“This is the world into which we launched SAP Responsible Design and Production at the end of 2021,” says Jamieson. “It’s all about addressing the key sustainability challenges, solving the data challenge, and unpicking complex packaging scenarios with a view to drive action.”
According to Jamieson, the company is looking to leverage its network-based solutions like SAP Ariba and SAP Business Network for Logistics.
“We’re currently working with 3.5 million businesses around the world and are starting to make connections between the people that have the materials, with the people that need those materials,” he explains.
“As we move forward in 2023, it's about innovating business-specific and industryspecific solutions that address the final mile, so we can help consumers play their role in delivering a waste-free future.
“We're also being very selective in terms of the materials we are focusing on. At the moment we have a real focus on plastics and packaging, but this will rapidly expand into textiles, batteries, food, building materials, electronic components, as further regulations come online and existing regulations change.”
WRITTEN BY: BECCI KNOWLES
PRODUCED BY: KRIS PALMER
Spearheaded by Group Chief Information Officer Wojciech Łącz, a digital transformation is taking place at AccorInvest with the entire company’s involvement
In a conversation with Sustainability magazine, AccorInvest's Group Chief Information Officer, Wojciech Łącz, provides an insight to the company's digital transformations and explains why the entire workforce needs to be 100% onboard and engaged for the company to reach its ESG goals and deliver a consistent and outstanding customer experience.
But first, let’s take a look at AccorInvest’s story and its current status as the leading* hotel operator and owner in Europe, mainly in the economy and mid-scale segments, with a presence in Latin America and Asia also.
The AccorInvest Group was created in 2017 as part of a reorganisation of the Accor Group, which owns internationally recognised brands such as Sofitel, Novotel, Pullman, Mercure, ibis. The objective of this reorganisation was to place the real-estate assets and hotel operation activities within a dedicated structure to enhance their value and development.
Today, AccorInvest distinguishes itself with the complementary nature of its two businesses, which combine realestate value and operating performance: the management of hotel properties and businesses, and the operation of these assets under hotel 14 brands owned by the Accor Group, covering a total of 122,000 rooms, and generating a high volume of annual revenues.
After the 2020-2021 crisis years, AccorInvest's strategy grew into consolidating its leadership within its geographical scope (Europe) and asset range (economy and midscale). It aims to promote new Group dynamics to transform its hotels from transit locations into key players in their regions, able to demonstrate strong commitment to all of their stakeholders, facilitate social cohesion, and respond to current and future environmental challenges.
With more than 23,000 team members covering hospitality and real-estate expertise, the global team is dedicated to AccorInvest’s success and growth with a “One Team” approach.
When it comes to changing the status quo, 23,000 team members is no small amount of people to convince. Such type of complexity and Wojciech Lacz previous experience and leadership qualities created perfect match as the man for the job.
* In terms of number of rooms, geographical presence and revenues ACCORINVEST
INDUSTRY: HOSPITALITY
LOCATION: WARSAW/PARIS
Wojciech Lacz is Chief Information Officer at AccorInvest, a position he has held since March 2021. After various experiences at L'Oréal and then for 8 years at Danone, Wojciech joined the Accor Group in 2018 as Director of IT & Digital Services for Eastern Europe. During this experience, Wojciech was responsible for defining and supervising key IT and digital projects for the Eastern Europe region (16 countries). Then he was appointed as SVP Technology and Digital and Executive Committee member for Accor Northern Europe. 6 months after he has joined Accorinvest as a Group CIO and ExCom member.His experiences in digital services and organizations, including building different scope of the shared services, major international infrastructure consolidation and execution of cloud strategy are key
For 36 years, IBM and Oracle have partnered to deliver business value. IBM offers solutions tailored to both industry and business processes, from consulting to implementation and managed services, employing the combination of Oracle platforms with emerging technologies.
Leaders from IBM and Oracle discuss their partnership and the combined strengths that enable cloud migration of AccorInvest Group’s global hotel network.
Hotels require great communication and accountability between departments, both in the office and in the foyer. In the digital era, hotels leverage technology to expand their offerings and encourage seamless operations across a network of branches. AccorInvest Group (AIG) is a key investor, owner and operator of a network of premises including those of Ibis, Novotel and Mercure. The company prides itself on creating more interactive guest experiences and leverages the Oracle-IBM partnership to facilitate its transition to integrated cloud services.
Oracle has a critical role in AIG’s digital transformation, providing its Oracle Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM)— leveraging its benefits for human resources (HR)—and Oracle Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which also provide advantages in financial planning.
“We led similar, successful projects at Hilton and Marriott, so we have strong capacity to advise and support clients to carry out that transformation,” says David Mihala, Vice President Applications for France at Oracle.
“I am excited by the power of the Oracle and IBM partnership,” says Robert Churchyard, who leads the Oracle practice inside IBM Consulting. “Together we are delivering enterprise-wide business transformation through the deployment of Oracle ERP & HCM Cloud.”
IBM is working with Oracle on the AIG transformation, delivering solutions to manage the maintenance and construction of its hotels, improving the employee and customer experience as well as the integration of Oracle cloud solutions to facilitate financial transformation.
Susana Rodriguez Puerta, VP Alliances EMEA Applications at Oracle†, highlights the three key differentiators of the company: focus on customer needs, developing innovation that matters, and commitment to customer success.
“IBM understands the customer needs very well, offering industry and business process tailored solutions from consulting to implementation,” says Rodriguez Puerta.
Concluding, Olivier Reine, Partner—Global Business Services at IBM, says “IBM has the experience—and the right skills and knowledge in new cloud solutions from Oracle—to deploy the right tools.”
Are you ready to transform your business with the IBM Cognitive Enterprise for Oracle Cloud?
† Susana Rodriguez Puerta has moved into a new role as COO Applications ECEMEA but was the former Alliances VP for Applications at the time of the interview.
Meet Wojciech Lacz, Group Chief Information Officer, AccorInvest Knowing from the beginning that he “would be an IT guy”, Wojciech Lacz tells me that he started work in IT administration in 2005 after graduating from the Warsaw University of Technology.
After various experiences at L’Oréal and then for 8 years at Danone, Wojciech Lacz joined the Orbis Hotel Group managing the Eastern Europe Accor hotel portfolio in 2018 as Director of IT & Digital Services, responsible for defining and supervising key IT and digital projects for 16 countries in the region.
In October 2020, Lacz was appointed Senior Vice President (SVP) Technology and Digital and ComEx member for Accor Northern Europe. Just six months later, in March 2021, he was appointed AccorInvest Group CIO.
From a more sustainable acquisition and renovation to a more sustainable operation of its sites, AccorInvest's Environmental, Social Governance (ESG) strategy is present
“IN VIEW OF TODAY’S CHALLENGES, BE THEY ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIETAL OR ECONOMIC, ACCORINVEST TAKES VERY SERIOUSLY THE FACT THAT IT MUST BE COMMITTED AND RESPONSIBLE”
High-availability internet connection of your locations, setup and operation of your infrastructure and intelligent networking with SD-WAN and digital guest services such as WiFi landing pages, Inroom TV and Digital Signage – we combine all of this in one powerful platform
the sustainability, efficiency and resilience of its hotel portfolio
AccorInvest, Accor and m3connect have partnered to launch a pioneering hospitality project, which gives AccorInvest’s global hotel portfolio unique access to industryleading technologies.
The achievements and future scope of the digital transformation project
Shaheen represents a complete cloud transition project, bringing with it an exceptional degree of digital transformation. Through the partnership, AccorInvest has been able to create more efficient, sustainable and resilient processes, which it is now working to deploy across its entire portfolio. In fact, the transition to the cloud has unlocked huge benefits for AccorInvest, including some invaluable sustainability improvements.
Behind the scenes, hotels contain a lot of hardware. But, AccorInvest has optimised these operations by streamlining the required hardware down to the minimum.
one device for everything,” Dragas added.
“After we’ve finished this project, the hotel will have one cabinet. We will have saved up to 70-80% of power consumption in the server room. Plus, you are able to have one standard everywhere, which makes support and maintenance easier as well.”
And, for the next phase of the project, AccorInvest and m3connect will keep working to deploy the new cloud system across the former’s whole portfolio.
“Now that we’ve started, there’s no limitation,” says Ahmed Disokey, Group VP Hotel Technology at AccorInvest. “Right now, we’re creating a full ecosystem that not only focuses on the hotels, but also the back office, to be a corporation where everything interfaces with each other, in line with our ESG approach and initiatives. And that’s one of the key pillars for us,” Disokey outlined.
“We have a big journey up until 2025, and we are looking to build a strong relationship with really committed partners. So far, we are really satisfied with what we are doing with the majority of our partners, and, indeed, with m3connect.”
WOJCIECH LACZ CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, ACCORINVEST
throughout all of the Group activities and involves all of its employees.
Wojciech Lacz makes it clear from the very start of the conversation that for either the Group’s ESG strategy or its digital transformation to be a success, the two must work hand in hand.
“In view of today’s challenges, be they environmental, social or economic, and through its responsibilities as owner, investor and operator, AccorInvest takes very seriously the fact that it must be committed and focus, taking it as an important factor in any company action” says Wojciech Lacz.
As a young company, AccorInvest published in May 2022 its first ESG report, with the aim of sharing its ESG performance with all its stakeholders and in which it shared its ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
“Our ESG strategy is linked to the identity of the company we are and the company we would like to be in the future, which is about helping both our guests and our employees to make the right choice in where to work, or where to go,” says Wojciech Lacz. The ambition is clear: AccorInvest will be recognised as a benchmark ESG player in its sector.
Three pillars, eight commitments and nineteen challenges certainly sounds very robust. “It is”, says Lacz, adding “The first pillar is about us acting as a responsible Group. The second is about respecting people and the environment - so how to boost the employee’s development and how to constantly reduce the environmental footprint. And last but not least, the third pillar is to deliver positive hospitality; positive not only from the customer experience point of view, but also in the way we are perceived by our customers, not only as hoteliers, but as part of the ecosystem in the city, by connecting with different
core communities and enhancing the environment for them.”
Acting as a responsible group, AccorInvest has four main commitments. This includes “a commitment to having the right governance in place, which will also serve our investor relationship,” says Lacz. “The second is about compliance and ethics; to ensure compliance we demonstrate our ethical values across the portfolio. The third is about responsible investment; every time we begin a new construction or renovation, we make sure that our properties are competitive from an ESG point of view.” The fourth, says Lacz, “is about monitoring ESG risks in the supply chain” to make sure that all suppliers comply with the Group’s values.
Employees are at the heart of AccorInvest, “so, the second pillar is something that we are really looking at from the people point of view. We strive to foster employees’ development and welfare, and constantly reduce our environmental footprint."
For Lacz, IT and digital transformation is key to transforming the employee’s experience of the workplace. For example, taking repetitive and manual tasks and automating them so that they can focus on other more enjoyable aspects of the job.
Respecting the environment, reducing the carbon footprint, and implementing circular economy practices is another area in which digital and IT can really help, says Lacz. “We have already started to sync the different sensors to monitor and manage water and energy consumption. This allows us to discover a water leakage for example, before it is too late” says Lacz, pointing to the unexpectedly high utility bill we all dread coming.
WOJCIECH
“AT THE HEART OF ACCORINVEST IS ITS PEOPLE”
LACZ CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, ACCORINVEST
As part of the goal to eliminate single use plastic by the end of 2022, AccorInvest is on track to substitute plastic room cards with those made of more sustainable materials. Lacz and his teams are looking at the possibility of getting rid of the room card all together and using the Internet of Things (IoT) to do everything it did and more. This, he says, “would enable us to detect the guest inside the room to manage the electricity, the humidity, the air conditioning
and so on - another example of how IT could contribute to the ESG strategy and the guest experience.”
We strive to foster employees’ development and welfare, and constantly reduce our environmental footprint. A key part of the hotel digitalisation plan is to move the majority of services and content into the cloud, using different cloud providers to deliver the same experience or better for hotel staff and our guests, while reducing its environmental impact.
The last one of the pillars is about delivering positive hospitality, which AccorInvest does together with the manager, Accor. “This is about taking care of the guests, their comfort, their well being, the way in which they perceive innovation inside the hotel, and improving accessibility to hotel services.”
There are two main systems in the hotels right now – a property management system
(PMS) and a point-of-sale system (POS), the latter of which manages everything ecommerce related. “In order to give our staff the possibility to develop themselves, we want to be able to move them between the hotels, without having to learn from scratch. So, the systems need largely to be the same in each hotel. The most important thing then is this concept of homogeneous use, an ecosystem, which gives us the possibility to plan the different external services into it.”
Lacz uses the contactless journey of the guest as an example. “I don’t need to go to the reception desk in order to register myself and obtain the room card. Instead I can do it myself and enroll a digital key on my mobile device. The system could recognise me from the past and thanks to that I can check myself in, I can check myself out, I can order some services, in or out of the hotel.
“For us, what’s happening around the hotel is important. So, in terms of ESG, it’s how we can integrate with the social life of the city. By being homogeneous and open, we can start to integrate some additional services in the hotel, which could be delivered by our hotel staff, or by anybody else and fully embedded into the guest experience and journey. Our property, if needed, could an electric car charging point, standalone restaurant, meeting point etc. that is fitting in the concept of the location we are present.”
“I
Identifying the need, meeting the demand It’s all about need and demand, but unless you are close to the operations, it’s difficult to decipher. “That's why when I'm travelling, every time I am trying to stay in different hotels,” says Lacz, adding that members of the IT team are also visiting various hotels and seeing for themselves if the tools they have deployed really work in action.
“The solution we are putting in place needs to be a solution in which hotel teams who have never had any hospitality experience will be able to deliver the basics of hotel operations within a few hours of self-learning.
"The same applies to our F&B service – this
their food and drink from their mobile phone. The technology also comes with different language options making life easier for international staff and guests."
At the back end of 2021, AccorInvest realised there were a set of the different processes in the hotel that were still being carried out manually by staff members. “Some were painful, for example, the night audit. As you can imagine, consolidating all of the data and closing down the day in all the systems
IBIS STYLES SZCZECIN
manually was taking two-and-a-half hours of our team members' time”. That particular job in some of the hotels is now being done by robots with no involvement of staff, which is complementary to human work, and we will be rolled out across the remaining portfolio. “So at that time, around midnight, the team member could be doing something else or getting some sleep,” in another example of IT and digital feeding into the company’s ESG strategy.
Asked if guests like the digital innovations they see, Lacz is very clear: “Yes, but I think
it's not even that they like it, it’s gone beyond that, they demand it. Therefore, we need to meet this expectation. But at the same time, we can't just binary switch from a more analogue way of doing things to fully digital, because we still have different types of customers to cater for. It was natural that the digitalisation demands of the customer would increase during COVID-19. And I think the area in which this is most visible is payment. People do not want to pay by cash anymore.
“In some areas of the business I still believe we should work in parallel modes for a period, or we face losing customers who are not so comfortable with digital. For example, in some countries, there is no
phones in the rooms because this is part of the services that need to be delivered for the proper categorisation. However, in some other countries, like the UK, this is not a requirement. But even in those countries, for people who are less used to technology and need to call for emergency, we implement a specific type of the solution, which can be used for other hotel services too.”
AccorInvest Group (AIG) works hard to create interactive guest experiences. With help from Oracle and its professional services partner IBM, they can transition to integrated cloud services.
Oracle has a critical role in AIG’s digital transformation, providing its Oracle Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM)— leveraging its benefits for human resources (HR)—and Oracle Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which also provide advantages in financial planning.
Having successfully bid on the joint project with IBM two years ago, Oracle supports AIG from a cloud migration perspective, enabling the second stage of transformation involving HR and Finance operations at AIG.
“I am excited by the power of the Oracle and IBM partnership,” says Robert Churchyard, who leads the Oracle practice inside IBM Consulting. “Together we are delivering enterprise-wide business transformation through the deployment of Oracle ERP & HCM Cloud.” The conversation moves on to future partnerships, with Lacz telling me that in addition to consolidating suppliers and collaborating with different suppliers, by the time people read this article, thanks to creating homogeneous environment between new Oracle Fusion ERP and Oracle Hospitality, Accorinvest will improve operational performance leveraging smoother processes execution and data
extraction which offer “flawless operations” from the lobby to the back office. “I believe the digitisation of the company is core to it taking care of its people,” says Lacz, adding that ecosystem that is built on Oracle product will connect distribution, guest rooms management, Point of Sales (POS), finance and HR, delivering the integrations AccorInvest requires to offer a seamless experience for staff and very satisfied guests. This would give AccorInvest a market competitive advantage having all the data in one place and accelerate any decision taking process increasing company agility in the fast moving environment. “The companies that are flexible will survive,” he says adding, "we are creating this opportunity, this agility, for the future and this includes our innovation initiatives making sure we can customise and integrate solutions to meet our needs now and in the future.”
I ask Lacz what the next 12 to 18 months look like from his perspective. He smiles and says, “I'm smiling because it's what I'm repeating almost every month to my teams, that the next 12, 24 months will be the year of delivery". We know exactly what we'd like to achieve, thanks to the executive committees of each of the companies we were able to achieve our specific plans. Now we just need to deliver. And I'm saying that with a smile, because you can imagine how easy or not easy it is to deliver for almost 800 hotel properties within such a short period of time. So yes, we need to deliver the things that we scoped, both on site which right now, is 80% of my attention through the different suppliers, through the different partnerships at our core or in order, really, to be perceived as the modern and competitive hotel owner and operator for guests, and the first choice of our employees.
“Also offsite, looking at what we do with the data, how we track the customer experience being moved between the different properties and understand their likes and dislikes. And maybe we could be much more proactive than we are right now.”
Lacz is keen to point out that the success of this digital transformation is not down to just one or few people coming from IT, but the entire workforce, “because only that way you can do something which is sustainable and that really brings value.”
So that's key, the entire workforce needs to be completely onboard with what AccorInvest is doing and why it is doing it in order for it to reach its ESG goals and what it wants to reach in terms of delivering an outstanding customer experience - it all feeds back into the team.
We’re rounding the corner for a 5G future, and new technologies are being imagined faster than the infrastructure can keep up.
So, as our data demands show no signs of halting, could modular data centres be the solution that gets our data centre infrastructure 5G-ready?
We spoke to Elliott Turek and Joe Kramer from Schneider Electric to discuss the market benefits of modular data centres, how these solutions are rivalling the sustainability standards of their larger cousins, and Schneider’s predictions for the opportunities that will be unlocked by the future deployment of modular units.
As its name suggests, a modular data centre consists of modules and components that are purposeengineered and readily scalable. Usually, these components are prefabricated, as this allows for customised solutions that can be deployed at a fraction of the usual delivery schedule.
These units are portable and give the user the opportunity to choose their capacity, power source, and cooling solution. Plus, they can be designed and built at an impressive speed – usually within 3-6 months – and can be located wherever additional data capacity is required.
Can modular data centres solve the world’s growing edge demand? We speak to Schneider Electric about where modular prefabricated solutions are headingMODULAR SOLUTIONS, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC
As a result, modular data centres are becoming increasingly adopted, particularly as AI, IoT, ML and 5G drive an even higher data demand.
Edge computing has been a big industry topic for a long period of time. But it’s actually application-based computing that has advanced the cloud’s – and so, edge data centres’ – evolution.
“Certainly, in the cases of driverless cars, Google maps, or any other application where it needs to be working 100% of the time, you can't have downtime or latency issues,” asserts Elliott Turek, the Global Offer Manager for Prefabricated Modular Solutions at Schneider Electric. “With the advent of this increased demand, you need a data centre to provide such a service.”
ELLIOTT TUREKGLOBAL OFFER MANAGER FOR PREFABRICATED MODULAR SOLUTIONS, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC
“What I'm really interested in seeing is how we use this for efficiency and sustainability gains, and really start to build these data centres with a longer term purpose”
The speed and flexibility with which modular data centres are constructed gives these models a series of unique advantages.
Firstly, their small size means that modular data centres offer a very effective solution to the issue of space constraints. In fact, it’s not uncommon for modular data centres to be slotted into existing spaces in car parks or for mining companies to install a small, on-site data centre to support their operations.
“When you look at what we're working on, you think, ‘That could be deployed somewhere that's nearby my house or in New York City’,” Turek says.
The prefabricated building method offers greater predictability and consistency, which is a valuable trait for companies.
“For customers who are building up a consistent product for themselves – whether it's a distribution warehouse or a cloud
“There's been an assumption in our business that the deployment of 5G is going to be a big driver of the acceleration of more of these smaller data centres around the edge, and we've been waiting for that to happen for a while”
tier-one data centre – they want to have predictability across the board and be able to say that what is in Iowa in the US is the same thing that’s in the Netherlands’,” Turekexplains.
“Prefab offers that predictability. Plus you have more control of the overall process, as opposed to a conventional construction project, where you may have different labour in different countries and different zones, each of which may have their own practices for doing things.”
“For our customers, what they have at every site globally is cookie-cutter, so they know that, if there's some sort of firmware upgrade that they have to do, it's the same process each and every time.”
One critical element of this build process is the added flexibility, which applies to customers spanning a huge variety of industry use cases. These include everything from
logistics to food, manufacturing to maps –sectors that are increasingly reliant on 5G technologies and can use modular data centres to quickly achieve the necessary infrastructure.
Alongside this, the replicated building approach enables a significantly faster build speed than the standard new data centre.
“When you are building the whole data centre in the factory, everything that you would normally do on site can be done in parallel,” adds Joe Kramer, the Director of Sales and Marketing for EcoStruxure Modular Data Centres at Schneider Electric.
“Typically in a construction process, things have to follow a certain series of events. And with modular data centres, we turned that on its head and gave the customer different approaches, which manifest in being able to build faster.”
Alongside this, Schneider also deploys industry-leading sustainability standards across its modular data centres, ensuring its clients continue to meet their ESG targets, even with the adoption of a new data centre.
“Since we take a wide range of Schneider products and integrate them in the data centres, we have all the PEP (product environmental profile) documents ready,” Turek explains.
“We then do our due diligence when working with the vendors, to see how much we can get that's recycled, how much we can reuse from other projects and say, if we're building this for our customer in Sweden, determine what's the most effective way of shipping it to them.”
In data centre designing and construction, a lot of the consequent waste is caused by the making of one-off units. So, with the tried-and-tested approach of standardised, prefabricated modular data centres, waste is minimised and the manufacturer’s ability to recreate it in the same sustainable way becomes even more efficient over time.
Predictions for the growth and advancement of the modular data centre sector
So, what predictions does Schneider have for the growth of the modular sector?
“I think it’s really about being where the data is collected and processed. In this new world, edge data is going to have to be processed all over the place,” explains Kramer.
“We can't just centralise where all that processing is happening. And there's going to be so many applications that we haven't even dreamed of yet, which are going to drive the need for that.”
“But that's where I see the acceleration of modular data centres – when you think about all the new applications that are out
“We're seeing a lot of our bigger customers, which have been with us for a couple years now, expanding into other zones, because they're able to be that much faster at delivering their services”
AND MARKETING FOR ECOSTRUXURE MODULAR DATA CENTRES, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC
“
I think really about being where the data is collected and processed. In this new world, edge data is going to have to be processed all over the place”
there that need to have something other than a very small processing device – having an impact,” Kramer adds.
Alongside this, modular data centre providers will be using edge-enabled technologies themselves to achieve greater efficiencies and capabilities within their units.
“I think Schneider's at the forefront of using AI and, with a lot of the things that we're working on, we can be really successful in using that type of methodology,” Turek says.
Alongside smaller independent sites, modular data centres are also set to drive some major changes across hyperscale locations. In fact, Schneider has traditionally
worked with hyperscalers, including many of the industry’s big cloud players.
“Modular data centres have already had a really large impact, I'd say, in the large hyperscale data centre market,” Kramer explains.
“There’s a sort of race to build data centre capacity, which is being driven by everything that's happening on the edge. The real advantage in the hyperscale space is being able to meet that fast-moving demand and manage parallel activity, so that you can do more in a shorter amount of time.”
“The next frontier is going to be focused around the edge and moving all that processing power from those big data centres to lots and lots of places.”
Why is sustainable digital transformation and infrastructure modernisation important?
The world is on the verge of a recession with staggering levels of inflation, increasing energy prices, a climate crisis, and unprecedented disruption.
Digital Transformation underpinned by a modern, agile, flexible, secure, and resilient foundational architecture, is imperative for survival, but it is not enough.
Now, there is a legal, as well as a moral, obligation to reduce EU emissions by at least 55% by 2030. The Equinix 2022 Global Tech Trends Survey showed that over 70% of IT leaders said that reducing environmental impact is a critical driver of their technology strategy and 65% of digital leaders expressed that they will only work with partners that meet their carbon reduction targets.
Organisations are meeting this obligation head on with ambitious corporate sustainability goals in place alongside their digital transformation and infrastructure modernisation programmes. With only one IT refresh cycle left until 2030, the decisions made in 2023 will have a huge impact on the ability to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.
Yet, the backdrop faced by the digital leaders has never been more complex.
Supply chain issues, chip shortages, technical debt, legacy infrastructure, changing stakeholder requirements, and rigid infrastructure all create financial, operational and energy inefficiencies which threaten to overwhelm digital transformation and the infrastructure modernisation required to achieve it.
Equinix enables organisations to modernise their networks, move appropriate business applications and workloads to the cloud, minimise cloud egress costs, virtualise their digital footprint and house remaining legacy infrastructure within Platform Equinix®.
Organisations have the flexibility to run the workloads wherever it makes the most sense; on premises, at the edge or in multiple cloud locations around the world, whilst also ensuring security and data sovereignty requirements are met.
This composable infrastructure allows organisations the flexibility to address the operational and power inefficiencies whilst reducing cost which allows them to accelerate their digital transformation and achieve sustainability goals.
To understand how to facilitate a sustainable transformation, we turn to the experts at Equinix to uncover the steps along the journey.
Grace Andrews, Principal Product Evangelist at Equinix, delves into the organisation’s mission and how it approaches digital transformation.
“Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company. Platform Equinix provides the foundational infrastructure—data centres, interconnection, and digital infrastructure services—that power the digital economy.
“We’ve transformed Equinix from a colocation provider to a digital infrastructure platform, which supports the digital transformation of our customers.
“During the pandemic, we saw unprecedented demand for digital services. Platform Equinix, with vibrant digital ecosystems and foundational infrastructure
enabled via software, meets the needs of customers who now operate in a highly virtualized world.
“The coronavirus pandemic fundamentally, and in some cases permanently, changed the way we work, the way we educate our children, the way we interact with family, the way we shop and entertain ourselves… Enabling this digital transformation is what we do.
GRACE ANDREWS PRINCIPAL PRODUCT EVANGELIST, EQUINIX METAL“
We have a duty and the capability to help organisations achieve digital transformation in a way that supports our collective and individual climate goals.”
Platform & Product Marketing Director, Direnc Dogruoz tells us: “Organisations must start with optimising the core of their network; relying on shared, on-demand services and platforms powered by renewable energy. From that network hub, they can start virtualizing infrastructure and interconnecting to public and private clouds adjacent to mission-critical data in a way that is designed to be inherently more sustainable, secure, cost-effective and agile.
“Organisations can deploy with Equinix physically—in our core network hubs—to consume energy more efficiently. Our hubs in the EMEA region are covered by 100% renewable energy, supported by our stateof-the-art efficiency measures, such as software-optimised systems and industryleading power usage effectiveness (PUE), water management, waste heat recovery, liquid cooling and alternative fuel sources. By moving infrastructure into an Equinix facility, customers transfer the scope 1 emissions related to owning and operating their own facilities. For more information
DIRENC DOGRUOZ PLATFORM & PRODUCT MARKETING DIRECTOR, EQUINIX
on all of this please visit our sustainability website www.sustainability.equinix.com Mark Anderson,VP, Global Technical Sales at Equinix explains, “This shared network architecture helps to address the most significant conundrum in sustainable digital transformation: increasing the use of IT resources for compute and storage drives up power consumption and other digital emissions. Breaking the connection between increased use of IT resources and energy consumption is crucial.”
How can organisations integrate their digital and sustainability strategy into a coherent roadmap?Figure 2. Sustainable Digital Transformation with Platform Equinix
“
A well-designed digital transformation programme allows our customers to achieve not only their business goals but reduce the carbon footprint of their entire IT and networking blueprint.”
TITLE:
DIRECTOR,
LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM
Direnc leads the team responsible for all interconnection and edge service product lines in EMEA. He focuses on building product strategy and go-to-market initiatives to drive customer adoption of Equinix cloud connectivity and virtualized edge network services. Digital leaders around the world rely on Equinix’s trusted platform for everything related to digital, internet and clouds. Equinix helps the world's digital leaders exchange large volumes of data and includes companies such as Google, Amazon, Instagram, SnapChat, Crypto currencies, Uber, Deliveroo, etc.
LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM
Mark leads Global Technical Sales in EMEA and leads Equinix's Solutions Architecture, Digital Technical Specialists and Solution Engineering disciplines. Mark focuses on helping Equinix customers develop, adopt and enable their Digital Strategy by consulting on workload, data, interconnection and location opportunities on the Equinix platform to exploit Internet of Things, Cloud and Data Analytics capabilities. Prior to joining Equinix nearly nine years ago, he worked in the transformational IT outsourcing space around the world, as a consulting Enterprise Architect.
TITLE: PRINCIPAL PRODUCT EVANGELIST AT EQUINIX METAL
LOCATION: UNITED STATES
Grace is a seasoned storyteller with a passion for people and technology. Her career is deeply rooted in infrastructure, data and non-traditional models for training and enablement. As an enthusiastic technologist, she is always looking for ways to bridge creative technical solutions with deep understanding.
LOCATION: UNITED STATES
In her role at Equinix, Patricia manages global sustainability engagement and the annual reporting process for the Sustainability Program Office (SPO) with a primary focus to strategically elevate ESG value across the business to drive market leadership, stakeholder value, partner opportunities and business growth.
Under her leadership, Equinix has garnered recognition from global organisations and financial indices such as NASDAQ, CDP, US EPA and Just Capital. Patricia was also responsible for developing Equinix’s initial Corporate Sustainability Report, the first of its kind for the data centre industry. In addition to her role at Equinix, Patricia is an Advisor for the CSU Chico Women in Leadership Advisory Council.
“The idea behind the Platform Equinix shared usage, shared ownership model is to build more efficient infrastructures. Organisations running their own data centres, cannot get the size, scale, and skills they need to get the efficiencies that Equinix can.”
Direnc adds: “Deploying with Equinix is the first step in an organisation’s sustainable digital transformation journey and results in a considerable reduction in carbon emissions compared to a traditional on-prem enterprise infrastructure.
Sr. Manager, Global Sustainability Engagement, Patricia Stamos, adds: “By moving IT infrastructure to Platform Equinix, organisations also move their scope 1 and 2 emissions to scope 3 emissions—which means handing over the responsibility of greening their supply chain, keeping up with supplyside regulations, and the cost of investing in new sustainability-focused technologies and maintenance to Equinix.
“Organisations who deploy on Platform Equinix receive custom Green Power Reports (GPRs), based on third-party verified metrics, to attest to the carbon emissions associated with their data center operation deployments at Equinix for transparency.”
“ There's a roadmap to digital transformation that allows us to break the idea that increased workload equals higher energy consumption, as we look at more efficient architecture models.”
Direnc picks up: “Once an organisation deploys in Equinix’s core network hubs, they can virtually interconnect with more than 10,000 network service providers, clouds, partners, security services, customers, and suppliers over shared resources on demand via software-based portals and platforms in real time, in more than 60 global markets.”
“Organisations can then switch from their previous methods of connecting cloud services, via their network service provider through either private multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) or the public internet, to using Equinix Fabric®—our dedicated, virtual interconnection tool.”
This virtual interconnection on demand can improve efficiencies for organisations further compared to a traditional on-prem enterprise infrastructure relying on legacy IT and networking.
The final level of sustainable digital transformation maturity is when organisations take advantage of the full suite of digital services available on Platform Equinix to deploy their entire infrastructure as-a-service. This means that organisations eliminate infrastructure ownership, capex spend, and emissions related to IT whilst increasing agility through provisioning infrastructure on demand.
With multiple global brands, offices and production facilities spread across five continents, the Hero Group needed to evolve from a traditional IT model to a more agile, reliable and cost-effective digital-first operation. The company partnered with Equinix based on its strong focus on sustainability, and expertise in delivering a secure, reliable and interconnected digital infrastructure platform.
"Hero has set specific sustainability targets to become a net neutral business. Our automated digital-first model allows us to be more agile and to create and deliver healthier foods. With Platform Equinix we have a solid foundation for standardising our IT globally with greater predictability and sustainability." Bas Dijikhuizen, Head of Competence Center Infrastructure, Hero Group.
Digital Transformation
Digital services on Platform Equinix allow organisations to virtualise physical infrastructure according to their business needs, enabling a more sustainable overall outcome.
By deploying digitally on an ‘as-a-service’, on-demand platform, organisations can use what they need, when they need it; they can turn their services on and off as they see fit.
“Digital transformation and sustainability go hand-in-hand, enabling each other.”
“For example, Equinix Fabric can be used for software networking, data exchange and service exchange—all digitally rather than having to implement physical connections,” says Mark.
“Then we have Network Edge - virtual networking devices that dictate how we exchange that data securely at the edge. Equinix Metal®, is a private bare-metal-as-aservice solution, which is how organisations can deploy, store, and keep their data as a service in a private, cloud-like environment.
“The challenge for organisations right now is that they have data on public cloud, private cloud, and on their own servers and storage devices. Platform Equinix puts all this in a hybrid integrated environment, with the public clouds, for organisations to create a secure, optimised, virtualized sustainable infrastructure solution to underpin their digital transformation...”
Schneider Electric started its sustainable digital transformation with Platform Equinix. Schneider Electric has started using new models of “Platform-as-a-Service” and “BareMetal-as-a-Service”, which are covered with renewable energy from Equinix, enabling the
next evolution of its IT infrastructure.
These services are helping Schneider simultaneously improve performance and industrial automation, by improving operations and energy management. Additionally, at a time of unprecedented supply chain disruptions and constraints, virtual infrastructure built on Equinix’s digital services helped Schneider Electric to mitigate the delays on energy efficiency implementations.
"It always starts with a purpose: what is a company trying to achieve in terms of their
With multiple global brands, offices and production facilities spread across five continents, the Hero Group needed to evolve from a traditional IT model to a more agile, reliable and costeffective digital-first operation. The company partnered with Equinix based on its strong focus on sustainability, and expertise in delivering a secure, reliable and interconnected digital infrastructure platform.
Figure 3. Sustainable Transformation on Platform Equinixdigital transformation? For us, it was very simple. It was about making IT infrastructure modern because of the legacy footprint that we have. That organically translated into reduction of the footprint, thus reducing the carbon footprint." Xach Nimboorkar, Senior Vice President of Global IT Infrastructure and Operations at Schneider Electric.
Grace puts emphasis on mindful digital transformation and why digital services from Equinix are required alongside the public cloud.
“Cloud is only one piece of the puzzle. We have to remember that the cloud has a physical home and underlying physical resources,” says Grace.
“So, this idea of sustainable digital transformation is also an idea of efficiency within the way we design systems. With the tools and components that make up digital services from Equinix, we are maximising the physical infrastructure that already exists in a
way that allows us to build systems differently— to build systems that are sustainable, OPEX-driven, and flexible.”
Let’s look at workloads as an example: “Organisations have workloads and often they would have the same workload sitting in four or five different geographic locations in case of a ransomware attack, power outage or other disaster.
Another example might be an e-commerce website which needs to be able to handle many loads because of an upcoming holiday sale.
Traditionally, these organisations had to buy more physical infrastructure to architect the infrastructure for the worst-case scenario in the case of disaster recovery or maximum utilisation in the case of the e-commerce provider even though that infrastructure would be redundant 99% of the time. This redundancy is hugely inefficient, expensive and CO2 emissions heavy.
“This is where Equinix brings a unique value to organisations on their sustainable digital transformation journey. We help them identify what they need, when they need it,
Schneider Electric started its sustainable digital transformation with Platform Equinix. Schneider Electric has started using new models of “Platform-as-aService” and “Bare-Metal-as-a-Service”, which are covered with renewable energy from Equinix, enabling the next evolution of its IT infrastructure These services are helping Schneider simultaneously improve performance and industrial automation, by improving operations and energy management. Additionally, at a time of unprecedented supply chain disruptions and constraints, virtual infrastructure built on Equinix’s digital services helped Schneider Electric to mitigate the delays on energy efficiency implementations.
and make it available to them on demand, as-a-service, eliminating the costs and emissions related to owning and operating primary and redundant hardware.
“We're bringing organisations the components they already use, whether it's networking providers, such as Cisco, Juniper and Nutanix, storage providers like Dell, HPE or Pure Storage, or security providers like Fortinet and F5. We're bringing all of those components together; optimised inside of this virtual world. Sustainable digital transformation starts with modernising and virtualizing physical infrastructure, and Platform Equinix is the foundation from which to begin.”
GRACE ANDREWS PRINCIPAL PRODUCT EVANGELIST, EQUINIX METAL“
The big thing here is that the consumption model is where digital services from Equinix really disrupt.”
Like any other sector, consumers expect fintech to do its part in achieving net-zero. How difficult is that, and what are the risks if we get it wrong?WRITTEN BY: ALEX CLERE
When it comes to carbon emissions, we tend to think of fintechs as being a light touch. After all, they’re not burdened with the same physical infrastructure that traditional financial institutions have, they are more likely to be remote organisations with employees working from home, and much of their business is done either on the cloud or through APIs.
Yet fintech needs to demonstrate that it’s making a difference, just like other industries. There are still carbon footprints associated with the delivery of financial services, and fintechs need to show willing that they are playing their part. Consumers are paying more attention to climate issues than ever before, and consumer power is a huge incentive for businesses.
The main source of carbon emissions for fintechs is the energy required to operate data centres, servers and physical locations – either theirs, or those of their partners and suppliers – particularly when those facilities are powered by fossil fuels rather than renewable energy. Even renewable energy has a carbon footprint, particularly when building projects from new, although research in the journal Nature Energy has suggested that the carbon footprint of renewables is even more insignificant in the long term than we might think.
Simon Thompson is the author of Green and Sustainable Finance, a new edition of which, due out in January 2023, includes a chapter on sustainable fintech. “The increasing use of digital technology requires building the infrastructure –particularly the data centres required to
support cloud computing – to support this, which in turn need electricity for power and air conditioning,” Thompson says. “According to Greenpeace, in 2020 Amazon’s data centres emitted more than 44mn tonnes CO2e. Microsoft emitted some 16mn CO2e.
“Data centres can, of course, be powered from renewables. Greenpeace also gives the example of Google’s longterm objective of purchasing all electricity from renewable sources, with 2020 CO2e emissions of only 1.2mn.”
Bitcoin mining has a large carbon footprint Thompson also cites bitcoin mining as an example of the carbon footprint associated with fintech. Although bitcoin is a digital asset, and we often like to think
of cryptocurrencies as existing only in a digital sense, the carbon emissions associated with it are very real. Bitcoin mining is said to have the same electrical power generation as a mediumsized European country. The problem with bitcoin is that mining is concentrated in the hands of very few global players; research from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) suggests that just 0.1% of miners are responsible for 50% of mining capacity. That makes it exceptionally difficult to make improvements to the way in which bitcoin is mined – for instance, by making a concerted effort to adopt renewables in place of fossil fuels.
And Simon Thompson believes we have to think more broadly about what we include within the scope of fintech’s carbon footprint. He says: “It’s
“
It’s not just the direct emissions created by fintechs and their suppliers; it’s the indirect, financed emissions that we need to focus on ”
SIMON THOMPSON CHIEF EXECUTIVE, THE CHARTERED BANKER INSTITUTEnot just the direct emissions created by fintechs themselves, and their suppliers (especially their energy providers) – the Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in the jargon.
“Rather it’s their Scope 3 emissions – the indirect, financed emissions – that we need to focus on. What are fintechs financing and encouraging their users to buy, consume, lend to or borrow? Are they supporting high carbon business models and consumption or encouraging low carbon, more sustainable models?”
The danger of greenwashing Fintechs need to show that they are taking action to address climate change, but they cannot rely on token gestures or empty
Bitcoin mining is said to have the same electrical power generation as a medium-sized European country
1. Increasing efficiency - as well as providing cost efficiencies, the use of fintech tools, such as smart contracts, can automate services (for example, approving and paying out climate insurance claims) without the need for human intervention.
2. Improving risk management - access to, and analysis of, data over a wide range of green and sustainable finance-related areas (for example climate data and emissions tracking) makes it easier for financial institutions and others to identify, assess, manage and disclose climate and other environmental risks.
3. Enhancing transparency and market integrity - availability of monitoring and verification data from satellites, drones, smartphones and other sources makes the verification and publication of impact data (like factory emissions, de- or re-forestation) more robust, cheaper and accessible.
4. Targeting investors - digital platforms and data analytics enable issuers, fund managers and others to target retail or institutional investors with an appetite for green and sustainable finance investment.
5. Changing consumer behaviour - apps that can track customer spending behaviour and link this with emissions data can estimate carbon footprints and ‘nudge’ consumers towards more climate-positive or other socially desirable spending and behaviours.
statements. Today’s consumer is welleducated and well-briefed about climate issues, particularly carbon emissions, and by failing to take their obligations seriously fintechs could put themselves at risk of so-called ‘greenwashing’.
“In a nutshell, greenwashing is the communication of unsubstantiated or exaggerated claims in relation to the sustainability of products and services,” explains Ella Moore, Senior Strategist at brand agency Superunion. “It’s driven by three major trends: an increased demand for, and growth of, sustainable products; a lack of regulation, standardised definitions, disclosures, and metrics for sustainability; and the poor availability and quality of data.
“Misleading greenwash has the potential to influence investment and purchasing decisions, ultimately diverting meaningful change that we need. The good thing is that regulators are increasingly sharpening their scrutiny, but with guidance on sustainability-related disclosures still in consultation across the UK and EU, brands are being left exposed.”
Moore says that there are various strategic, legal, regulatory and reputational ramifications if brands choose to try and greenwash their consumers.
“
WRITTEN BY: TOM SWALLOW
PRODUCED BY: MIKE SADR
Anyone harbouring a passion for adventure and sustainability will no doubt have heard of the company leading the market for electrified pickup trucks.
Not only does Rivian boast sustainability credentials across its entire business, it’s also a business built with the planet at the forefront of all its activities. Yet, while there are many exciting aspects to highlight, the critical element of Rivian’s story is the “design and development of categorydefining electric vehicles”, in the words of the company’s Director of Indirect Purchasing, Brad Hood.
We often see the company through the consumer lens. Thousands evangelise the clean, robust, unique style of the Rivian R1T and R1S—its pioneering EVs, the pinnacle of the environmentally and socially responsible business.
Founded in 2009, the Rivian story began with a vision for sustainable mobility. As an automotive enthusiast himself, the company’s founder, RJ Scaringe, saw that the two things he lived for—cars and nature— were not compatible in the long-term. This conclusion formed the very basis of the company, which holds an integral place in the electrification of automotive.
Brad Hood, Director of Indirect Purchasing at Rivian, on the benefits of a ‘blank canvas’ and how the EV manufacturer implements sustainable procurement
“He created a product that was a more sustainable alternative to the fossil-fuelburning carried out by internal combustion engine vehicles. He really wanted to facilitate a transition to more neutral energy transportation, not only for our generation, but for our kids', kids’, kids,” says Hood.
“It's a multi-generational purpose that goes beyond any one of us, which is what drives the overall culture at Rivian: we're here for something bigger than ourselves.”
Of course, there’s more to Rivian vehicles than the fact they run on electric propulsion. The company prides itself on sustainable sourcing and leveraging a circular system, right from the design stage. Its batteries can be easily removed for either recycling or ‘second life’ applications. When it comes to the interiors, vegan leather and other animal-free materials are used, with mid-life repairability in mind.
Beyond the product itself, sourcing also involves the unique procurement of oceanharvested plastics for its dunnage containers and other packaging solutions. Such actions earned the company the 2022 Excellence and Reusable Packaging award from the Reusable Packaging Association.
“If we are working on an e-sourcing event or an auction, we can leverage these templates”
“We use the most sustainable products we can and when we went public, 1% of the company went to the Rivian Forever Fund,” says Hood.
“We think about how to operate responsibly within the plant. When we began the conversion of the old Mitsubishi plant to the new Rivian plant, we used some of the old steel to make tables, a mezzanine—and we even repurposed old robots as a door holder for the conference room.
“We reused things, and maybe went above and beyond. Instead of scrapping it, instead of getting rid of those materials, we thought, ‘how can we repurpose that and reuse them?’.”
As a new entrant to the automotive industry in 2009, Rivian was built with sustainability in mind. And being a new business gave the company a competitive edge to not only grow, but advance the use of new technologies and lean processes.
Hood explains that when he joined the organisation in 2018, the procurement function was significantly smaller than it is today, but this has allowed the company to take an approach that is driven by technology.
“When I joined, there were 500, 600 employees. There were about three people within our department,” Hood says. “Now, the total company size is more than 20 times that.”
“At the beginning, we had a shell of a manufacturing plant. Now, we're fully operational, building three different vehicles with multiple different variations in Normal, Illinois.”
TITLE: DIRECTOR OF INDIRECT PURCHASING
INDUSTRY: MOTOR VEHICLE MANUFACTURING LOCATION: DETROIT, USA
Brad shifted careers from manufacturing and production planning to procurement after graduating from Western Michigan University with a major in Integrated Supply Chain Management. After spending most of his procurement career in consulting, he joined Rivian at the tail-end of their stealth mode in 2018 to help build their procurement department. Rivian has experienced tremendous growth since then, which includes the indirect procurement team that Brad leads. This has proved both Rivian and Brad the opportunity to grow the procurement organisation in the same manner as Rivian talks about designing the vehicles, from a blank
Essex Weld Solutions is a global company servicing customers across North America.
Our focus is the development and global supply of custom and standard automotive racking products. Essex Weld Solutions is a “Full Service Manufacturer” of custom automotive containers from bins to racks. We offer Designs, Prototypes, and high-volume production. This ensures superior quality control, something our customers expect and deserve.
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Essex Weld Solutions began with a handful of customers and a production plant in Essex, Ontario. From the start, people were our strength. We have selected a team with a focus on integrity and trust, which is the foundation that we have built our reputation on. Keeping our customers’ needs at the center of every decision is what has led us to strive for excellence in everything we do. These values have been instilled in all our team members ensuring we all work together towards these goals.
Twenty years later, we have expanded to multiple locations across three countries. Our Canadian plants include Leamington and Essex, Ontario. We also have American plants in Laurens, South Carolina and Warren, Michigan as well as one plant in Durango, Mexico. All locations boast on-site engineering and full production capabilities so that we can provide in-house concepting, designing, prototyping, and large-scale production allowing us to be a one stop shop for our customers’ projects.
Over one-hundred years of combined experience has taught us that investing in the latest manufacturing technology is necessary to provide top quality products. Our plate and tube lasers, break presses, robotic welders, and full powder coat system allow us to maintain high standards across all locations. Our manufacturing process is monitored from concept to delivery using
our own ERP system, Edata+, with real time inventory levels, production status, and barcode tracking labels. This enables us to maintain inventory of common materials at all locations and efficiently control quality and delivery timing.
Our innovative approach to the everevolving world of manufacturing means we never stop improving the service we provide our customers. As manufacturing shifts to a greater integration of robotic production lines, we have developed a Metrology team that exclusively handles the precise quality control required for those projects. These continuous improvement efforts allow us to expand our capabilities so that we can better serve our existing customers, and reach out to new ones, as their needs change, especially as the shift to Electric Vehicles continues.
Rivian entered the automotive industry at an interesting period. The company was very much undergoing its formation when major carmakers first started thinking about EVs, which, at the time, were seen as a ‘nice-to-have’.
With a passion for automotive and a desire to protect nature in all its glory, Rivian’s CEO, RJ Scaringe, set about building his dream: a vehicle with no limits and an adventurous edge that would allow drivers to explore harmlessly, reinvigorating their love for the environment.
The company first piqued interest with its two EV models. The R1T, its pickup truck model, and the R1S, which leverages the same great technology in an SUV body. In 2022, the company reached a major milestone with the announcement of it supplying electric delivery vans to Amazon—the initial quantity being 10,000, with potential for the e-commerce giant to expand this to 100,000.
Rivian cultivating a business on what was seemingly a blank canvas meant that the company worked through many challenges in its indirect procurement function to ensure that it remained true to its roots.
The solutions adopted by the company were pivotal. They allowed the team to focus on more hands-on tasks, alleviating the need for human input in the day-to-day processes.
“We had the opportunity to build an organisation that is truly best-in-class, from the ground up. We don't have to change any old behaviours; we can create new ones, and in the right manner, too. Balancing the two of those meant knowing
what we needed to do daily versus what was required to build a foundation for the future.
“This was the biggest challenge, balancing the short-term and long-term needs. There are so many day-to-day requirements, but we must be able to balance the day-to-day work, while building the foundation of the organisation we desire to build.”
Another major challenge that wreaked havoc on all supply chains—and inevitably affected Rivian—was the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant navigating a remote-working environment while scaling and taking on new team members across the globe.
BRAD HOOD DIRECTOR OF INDIRECT PURCHASING, RIVIAN
“We're fully operational, building three different vehicles with multiple different variations down in Normal, Illinois”
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These trying times meant the company had to adapt to onboarding and training the team online, without knowing when new starters would come into contact with their colleagues.
As a result of these challenges, the company adopted ‘category cards’ to create ease in the purchasing process. This is just one of the ways in which the company streamlines the onboarding process, automating indirect procurement processes to allow a smaller team to manage more purchases.
“When you log in, you see the category, you select that category, and it gives you a brief description to tell you if you can buy it from a catalogue—so we can drive more spend to a catalogue—or it gives you a direction to reach out to a purchasing manager or supplier,” Hood explains.
“That way, we can touch more spend with a smaller team, increasing the addressability of the spend and continuing to educate the rest of the organisation to drive spend to our preferred buying channels.”
Further sourcing platforms used by the company provide further standardisation of indirect procurement processes. This includes supplier negotiation preparation, which can largely be templated—as Hood explains.
“If we are working on an e-sourcing event or an auction,
we can leverage these templates. “Automatically, a quantitative proposal comes in and we can analyse that based on our previous price paid, other proposals, market intelligence,” says Hood.
“We can look at that pretty quickly and find any outliers, identify where the best quantitative values are and work with our stakeholders as we incorporate the qualitative aspects. These tools really allow us to work faster.”
While businesses would often apply the term ‘digital transformation’ to their operations, it seems Rivian is beyond this, ensuring that technology is embedded into all processes from the earliest possible stage as part of its strategic approach to growth.
“It's a multi-generational purpose that goes beyond any one of us, which is what drives the overall culture at Rivian”
“It can standardise things and reduce errors but, for us, it allows us to actually promote and enrich the daily operations of those working in data-entry roles. They've now gone into more category management roles and supporting student sourcing, as well as those roles where we can marry technology and experience,” Hood explains.
As the company looks to ramp up the production of EVs, technology will become an integral component in allowing the organisation to scale its operations and meet demand.
The company will continue to add value to its services sustainably, with
“We use the most sustainable products we can and try to be more sustainable with the materials of the vehicles”
sourcing playing an integral role in reducing emissions down the supply chain. As the company expands its own charging network, technology will allow personnel more time to explore renewable energy sourcing, making sure that Rivian customers are charging up with clean energy.
Meeting its strategy for success hinges on its use of data in the procurement functions to standardise processes and focus on saving costs, time, and limiting negative
climate impact—with the overarching aim of eliminating it. As such, the procurement team will look at supplier spend and consider whether its dollars are going towards the desired suppliers.
While much of the technology adoption and integration is carried out in-house, Hood explains that technology partners will be leveraged by Rivian to meet demands unique to its processes.
Hood says: “We understand what we want to do in theory—on a whiteboard—but how do we integrate that into the actual software that’s more commonplace?”
In trying to answer this question, the company has been able to push technologies to their absolute limits, which is a benefit to Rivian, but also the partner that supplies that solution—making Rivian a testbed ripe for procurement solutions.
As Europe’s key data centre markets impose tighter restrictions on new builds, can data centres successfully fulfil the scrupulous sustainability criteria?
WRITTEN BY: JOSEPHINE WALBANK
Following the terms established by The Paris Agreement in 2020, the EU provided its own nationally determined contribution (NDC) emissions target. In it, the target was set to reduce emissions by at least 55% (from 1990 levels) by 2030.
As with almost all of our sustainability targets, the goal set by the EU and its Member States is very much in its make-orbreak phase.
As a result, we are seeing a rise in government sustainability-led restrictions, regulations and legislations, many of which are directly addressing the data centre industry.
The rapid growth of the data centre industry is, in terms of customer demand, relatively unchallenged.
Without a doubt, there are still threats to the sector’s growth. But, these are coming in from sources that, even 20 years ago, the industry could not have predicted.
Sustainability targets have driven monumental changes, not just across companies, but also at national levels. And, largely unsurprisingly, data centres have been in the firing line.
In order to ensure that they achieve their emissions targets, an increasing number of European countries and regions have introduced restrictions – or outright bans –on new data centre builds.
At the start of 2022, the Dutch government imposed limitations upon new hyperscale builds, and even enforced a temporary outright ban on new hyperscale projects for nine months.
"Our space is limited, so we have to make the right choices," outlined the Planning Minister Hugo De Jonge, in a letter to the House of Representatives.
"Hyperscale data centres take up a lot of space and consume a disproportionate amount of available renewable energy. That is why the cabinet wants to prevent hyperscale data centres being built throughout the Netherlands."
As a result, hyperscale data centres – larger than 10 hectares and with a consumption of 70MW or higher – have been hugely restricted in the Netherlands.
In fact, as far back as 2019, Amsterdam has been imposing temporary bans and new environmental legislations on companies seeking to build new data centres there.
Likewise, in Ireland, data centre building has been a recent highly contentious topic.
In response to a series of alarming reports, which revealed that data centres were set to consume 70% of Ireland’s power by 2030, the Irish government introduced a new data centre policy, designed to put data centre plans under much closer scrutiny.
The agreed principles within the government statement include ‘preferences’ for data centres that ‘make efficient use of our electricity grid’, utilise renewable energy sources, and have decarbonisation integrated into their design.
And, according to the report, “Data centre developments that are not consistent with these principles would not be in line with government policy”.
These examples are reflective of a wider drive to push back on new data centres across Europe, either at legal level, on the ground at consumer levels, or both.
A clear warning for the world’s data centres
Obviously, the rapid growth of the data centre sector will require extensive new builds. And, if these cannot be achieved, then not only will companies be prevented from tapping into new markets and increasing their profits, but data centres run the risk of losing the faith of their users. After all, if the cloud isn’t actually ‘endless’ and companies are no longer able to entrust all of their data storage to colocation providers, then this relationship could quickly turn sour.
Seemingly, no companies are immune from these regulations – even the largest global giants have found it difficult to find loopholes in the system.
Most famously, in July earlier this year, Meta had to permanently cancel its plans to build a new hyperscale data centre in Zeewolde, the Netherlands.
Interestingly, this came after the initial announcement from the Dutch government actually excluded Facebook’s Zeewolde data centre.
After an extensive back-and-forth period of delays and restarts, Meta officially ended its plans to build the Zeewolde data centre.
The project – which would have become the largest data centre in the Netherlands, spanning five data halls and consuming 200MW when complete – was cancelled because there was simply too much pushback for the company to manage.
As a result, the world’s data centres are now being forced to place sustainability far, far higher up the priority list.
“I am not suggesting that this is going to be easy – it absolutely isn’t. But, we are going to have to change our approach to planning and the way we deal with the local community – we only have to look at recent blocks on new data centres in Ireland, Netherlands and Singapore, and the outcry about water use in the US and the Netherlands. We are going to have to deal with the impending energy reporting requirements under development in
the EU and possibly extended to other jurisdictions,” warns John Booth, Chair of the Data Centre Alliance, Managing Director of the Carbon3IT Ltd green IT consultancy.
“We are, in short, going to have to become more collaborative and become good neighbours.”
Sustainability’s unwavering consequence – is the industry doing enough to fulfil these regulations? So, as more restrictions and limitations are set to be introduced in the future, is it possible for expanding data centres to pivot to sufficiently meet these high requirements?
“Sustainability is at the heart of every discussion in the data centre industry.
In Ireland, while data centres contribute to 2.2% of total carbon emissions, they are increasingly in the spotlight when it comes to sustainability,” says Garry Connolly, Chairman of GconnTec and Host of the Bits, Bytes & Banter Podcast.
“That scrutiny drives a meticulous approach to creating sustainable solutions at every layer of the data centre ecosystem, from equipment manufacturing to construction, to operations. Every point on the job has to be the most sustainable solution it can possibly be.”
“Much as we saw in the early days when data centres pulled from best practices of previously established industries in Ireland – i.e. pharmaceuticals, semiconductor, etc – we will see the same in reverse,” Connolly adds.
However, Booth’s argument is that policies like these have caused a marked rise in instances of ‘greenwashing’.
“Have data centre designers and their clients grasped this new paradigm? Well, on the surface it appears that they have, but when you start digging, what you find is varying degrees of greenwashing. Yes, they are trying, but is it sufficient? Is it really addressing the problem? Does it show a lack of ambition?” Booth asks.
“A few years ago, I visited a data centre built in 1977 and, later that year, one built in 2019. To the casual observer, there would appear to be no significant difference between them, so either the 1977 facility had been ‘very’ forward thinking in its design or designs have stagnated.”
And so Booth warns that, if the industry is to successfully preserve its current growth rate, sustainability strategies need to be considerably more sophisticated.
“The ‘Data Centre of the Future’ needs to be so much more than the tinkering
described above, the ‘let’s do the absolute minimum we can get away with’ design philosophy – there is so much more that they could be doing.”
“The data centre needs to be at the heart of a ‘smart city’, it needs to be the hub of a microgrid. We need to be using our electrical systems to provide ‘energy flexibility’ services to the grid and local prosumers; we need to be sending our waste heat into district heating systems, urban farms, swimming pools etc. The building itself needs to be built from sustainable materials. We need to get a blank sheet of paper and go back to fundamentals,” Booth urges.
Digital twin technology has gone from a futuristic ideal to a present-day reality for data centre developers and operators. This highly specialised virtual modelling can impact the entire data centre lifecycle, beginning with site due diligence and moving into design and construction, as well as measuring sustainability objectives and creating tools for operational excellence.
Black & Veatch is using its internal resources to develop real-time modelling for global clients. Digital twin technology eliminates geographical barriers in initial site due diligence and design phases. The entire team can virtually walk the “completed” project without leaving their desks. This provides great convenience, but the real value is evolving.
Digital twins are not simply simulation tools because they also provide a previously inaccessible depth and breadth of exploration of data. It allows clients to review a project in a virtual world before implementing it and allows developers to sell the project to stakeholders earlier.
The digital twin can also support operations of the data centre, where monitoring and other tasks are done remotely and the ops officer can review issues from any location to make decisions that have a significant impact on the enterprise.
This report features industry insights from key personnel at Black & Veatch who are invested in its activities and translate the company’s achievements into professional services for its core industries.
Example of an image caption
Black & Veatch provides insights on digital twin technology and its impact on data centre development, including design, construction, and sustainability
Digital twin modelling allows clients to design a site even before the land or building is purchased, says Black & Veatch’s Shilpa Maganti and Greg Zalewski Black & Veatch perform site due diligence for data centres and mission-critical facilities, collaborating with clients to assess greenfield and brownfield sites using the company’s expertise in the power, water, telecom/fibre, environmental and data centre industries.
The company has the capability, scalability, and global resources to help clients select sites that will meet future capacity and sustainability requirements. This expedites challenging schedules and gives clients a competitive advantage by leveraging Black & Veatch’s vast global internal resource pool, preferred sub-
SHILPA A. MAGANTI, P.E. PROJECT MANAGER, BLACK & VEATCH
consultants and long-term relationships with utility providers in major markets worldwide.
“We might have a client who has a piece of land and asks us, ‘Can we build a data centre here?’” explains Shilpa Maganti, Black
“Clients know how large a data centre they're looking to build, so our team works with them to build a virtual master plan”
& Veatch’s Data Centres Project Manager. “At that point, we would look at the site, look at the topography, even the soil conditions. We have to be able to answer the question of whether we can even build at that location.“
“We also need to calculate the civil and structural side issues related to a project – do we need to blast the site? How is the grading going to work?”
Black & Veatch also considers power and utilities during a site due diligence project, including an overview of potential cooling systems and water supplies.
“Then we move on to other investigations, including the environmental side and master planning. We investigate any environmental impacts. Most of the clients we work with know how large a data centre they're looking to build on that piece of land, so our team works with them to build a master plan.”
INDUSTRY: ENGINEERING
LOCATION: UNITED STATES
Shilpa Maganti is a Project Manager for Black & Veatch with more than 13 years of experience with a wide variety of auxiliary power system designs and arc flash hazard analyses associated with data centres, power plants and mission-critical industrial facilities. Shilpa’s experience includes design and specification of auxiliary electrical distribution equipment for new and retrofit data centre projects. She is experienced in performing power system studies, including load flow, short-circuit and arc flash hazard analysis engineering activities using SKM (Power Tools for Windows) or Electrical Transient and Analysis Program (ETAP) - PowerStation by OTI. She has developed procurement and design-build/ Engineering, Procurement and Construction.
TITLE: PRECONSTRUCTION
INDUSTRY: ENGINEERING
LOCATION: UNITED STATES
MANAGERDigital twin tech gives real-time understanding of critical issues
Some developer clients may already have their own facilities, which requires Black & Veatch to carry out a facility assessment.
“Evaluating an existing facility requires more extensive detail. Do we need to make any structural improvements? Are there any permitting or zoning requirements that change the land use, or the use of this building? What are those implications?”
Greg Zalewski, Preconstruction Manager at Black & Veatch, says digital twin technology gives the client a real-time understanding of a broad range of critical issues.
Greg Zalewski is a Preconstruction Manager at Black & Veatch and has more than 14 years of experience providing project estimating services for data centers and mission critical facilities, including modular systems. He is responsible for the development of project cost models for opportunities ranging from Design Requirements Reports to At-Risk cost estimates for engineer-procure-construct (EPC) opportunities. He considers cost factors such as site investigations, the local labor market, availability of materials, quantities from design drawings, and quotations from suppliers. He also develops cost opinions for reports and feasibility studies and maintains procedures for quality control of cost opinions.
“And it means you're not waiting for architects and engineers to come back and redraft; you can make a lot of those changes on the fly using that digital model of a digital twin,” says Zalewski. “It doesn't have to be a fully developed model – you can do some very rough block models and get an idea of how it will all work. From there you can visualise what that project will look like and what your facility will be, before you ever put a shovel in the ground.”
“You can visualise what that project will look like before you ever put a shovel in the ground”
India aims to secure much of the regional investment being made in Asia, which is expected to account for half of the global data centre market by 2025. The country reclassified data centres as “infrastructure” in April 2022, and this change in legislation is expected to attract investment from developers having access to capital at lower credit rates as a result.
With huge potential for demand growth, international data centre providers are
ramping up to secure market share. In recent years, many have acquired local players or entered into joint-venture arrangements.
Developers looking to fast-track construction face challenges including access to local teams at wage rates that retain reliable and high-quality outcomes, while also designing facilities that are sustainable within the Indian market, particularly with the country facing increased climate change impact.
Global business and society demand data centres – and sustainable designs are the future, says Black & Veatch’s Angie Nygren, Amol Samant and Drew Derrick
Black & Veatch is committed to continuous improvement for clients and communities, so sustainability is ingrained into the company’s strategy. Mitigating and adapting to climate change, decarbonising supply chains, and creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce are just some of the challenges the company is committed to addressing head-on.
Together with its clients, partners and employees, Black & Veatch’s work designing and building tomorrow's infrastructure plays a powerful role in improving sustainable outcomes.
“Our clients are feeling accountable for sustainability and making sure they have sustainable options in their designs,” says Black & Veatch Architect Angie Nygren. “The need for data centres is not going away, so how can they not feel accountable?”
Black & Veatch Project Manager Amol Samant has also seen a significant increase in the number of conversations around sustainability in his work with clients. Some of the most important factors to consider
Angie Nygren is a licensed architect and Execution Manager for Black & Veatch with more than 13 years of experience in design of complex building types. Her expertise extends to several market sectors, including athletic training facilities, football stadiums, mixed-use developments, and data centres.
Angie is responsible for the crossdiscipline coordination of the complex building systems within mission-critical facilities. She leads the design team through design and documentation and is responsible for coordinating across disciplines to uphold the client’s standards, design intent, and project schedule.
“Our clients are feeling accountable for sustainability and making sure they have sustainable options in their designs”AMOL SAMANT PROJECT MANAGER, BLACK & VEATCH
Digital twins offer real-time modelling for data centres
“The city centre is where the infrastructure for things like power are available, but there is a scarcity of water”
are water, heating and cooling, and noise pollution, all of which can present challenges for sustainability-minded clients regarding where a data centre can be placed.
“The city centre is where the infrastructures for utilities, like power, are available,” says Samant. ”At the same time, there is a scarcity of water, and we cannot use the huge amount of water required for data centre cooling at the same location.”
A technical “balancing act” to save energy, power and water This can mean Black & Veatch has to work with the client to perform “a balancing act” to save energy, power and water while still ensuring data centre facilities are optimised.
“We've had a client come to us recently and tell us they want to use air-cooled chillers, which are not necessarily the most efficient cooling option available,” says Black & Veatch Mechanical Engineer Drew Derrick. “But they've made the
TITLE: SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER
INDUSTRY: ENGINEERING
LOCATION: VIKROLI, MUMBAI, INDIA
Amol Samant is a senior Project Manager with more than 25 years of diverse experience with multiple complex projects like IT parks, shopping malls, health care facilities and data centers. His project activities have included condition assessments, feasibility studies, design and construction administration. Amol has served as Project Director for mission critical data center projects which include complex electro mechanical installations, centralized chilled water systems, hot aisle systems, thermal energy storage.
decision that they want to use cold chillers so they can save water.
“We have that discussion with the client, bringing their requirements and preferences to the forefront. Then we can design a system around their values for sustainability – and that can be an interesting topic of the conversation if the client hasn’t thought of it before.”
Derrick predicts that, in the next decade, the data centre construction industry will see more liquid cooling options – both direct-to-chip or immersiontype technology – but this will require
INDUSTRY: ENGINEERING LOCATION: UNITED STATES
Drew Derrick is a Mechanical Engineering Manager with more than 20 years of experience with heating ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) and plumbing systems for mission-critical facilities, including data centres. His project activities include condition assessments, feasibility studies, design, construction administration, value engineering and commissioning.
Drew has engineered and served as certified commissioning agent for mission-critical mechanical systems subject to client reliability criteria, redundancy, and single-point vulnerabilities. He has experience developing mechanical systems for sensitive compartmented information facilities (SCIF) subject to DCID 6/9, and is an Accredited Tier Design (ATD) by Uptime Institute.
“After you've built it, it’s much more expensive for the client to make changes”
clients to make upfront investments in the technology to reap the rewards of its better functionality over time.
Digital twin technology also allows clients to quickly determine how sustainable their new data centre would be using different materials for construction. “From a rough design of the
structural system using different materials, we can pull those quantities and materials from the model and give them a carbon factor,” says Nygren. “Then clients can know whether a concrete structure, a steel structure, or a timber frame might affect the carbon footprint of these different structural systems.”
The data centre market is set to grow across the Asia Pacific region over the next five years, with many sources projecting a double-digit growth. This demand growth – for data locally and regionally – could see significant capacity development beyond traditional regional centres, such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
Investment flows could shift to locations such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines with low existing capacity alongside promising demographics and projected economic growth.
Countries like Singapore have only recently lifted moratoriums on data centre development, with government
officials citing the intensity of water use and electricity as a key factor behind the previous moratorium. Such circumstances highlight the looming issue facing new development, as our hunger for data competes for energy and water resources. Well-planned and calibrated growth is required at a national level, while on a project-level, best-in-class technologies and practices for energy and water efficiency must be considered early to ensure long-term viability of projects. This must be considered alongside making sure adequate and reliable utility interconnection infrastructure is in place or developed in parallel.
Data centre virtual models mean contractors can work together with perfect precision, says Black & Veatch’s Angie Nygren, Drew Derrick and Greg Zalewski Black & Veatch’s integrated design, engineering, and construction approach increases project performance while ensuring cost and schedule certainty for critical infrastructure. As clients’ single point of contract responsibility, Black & Veatch works in a collaborative team to maximise return on investment and deliver projects of the highest value possible. The company’s design-build teams identify and implement creative solutions through a contractor-led, construction-driven model.
“With the 3D fly-throughs we can offer, the client knows what they're getting, knows
that operationally it's going to function for them,” says Black & Veatch Architect Angie Nygren. “So, in a sense, we're really designing twice.”
CFD modelling is used to build interior and exterior twins, which allows Black & Veatch to work with clients to fine-tune master plans. “We had a project where the client was using direct evaporative units on the exterior of the building, sucking in large volumes of air,” says Black & Veatch Mechanical Engineering Manager Drew Derrick. “Diesel generators for the project were sitting relatively close. We found that when the generators were on, the exhaust fumes came back into the building.
“We ran the model and had to extend the stacks, moving the generators a little farther away, so we could make those modifications before it became a problem in the field,” says Derrick. “After you've built it, it’s much more expensive for the client to make that kind of change.”
Digital twins do away with “firstcome, first-served” approach
A fully coordinated model provides a clear understanding of where systems should be placed, says Greg Zalewski, Preconstruction Manager at Black & Veatch, which didn’t always happen in a time before digital twin technology. “When people weren't coordinating their work, they may not know how they're going to arrange their systems, whether it's electrical conduits or mechanical piping, or sprinklers.”
Digital twin technology does away with this “first-come, first-served” approach, replacing the need for subsequent
contractors having to make allowances around the first to start work.
Clients in different regions may also have very different requirements – for example, Black & Veatch has carried out studies to explore options to recycle data centre cooling water for irrigation or other purposes.
“This is designing twice and building once, because you can coordinate all those systems in the virtual world before you actually get into the field, and then your contractors can build from the model. They know exactly down to the inch where they need to be and how close they should be from one system to the next, and this saves a lot of time in the field.”
Digital twin technology leverages drones and specialist software to give an overview of operations, says Black & Veatch’s Julia Guerra and Anthony Taylor
Operational intelligence provides insights that help optimise day-to-day operating and maintenance practices to boost reliability and efficiency. This can include important monitoring and diagnosis services that provide a dashboard for clients to see deeply into their systems
via the cloud. Adaptive planning focuses on the future, using scenario analysis and predictive analytics to better inform asset management, long-term capital expenditures and other planning decisions.
Black & Veatch also prepares clients with well-defined procedures, such as lock out/ tag out and confined space instructions, to optimise day-to-day operations and maintenance. Other services include: preparation of facility-specific operations manuals; process control optimisation and troubleshooting; onsite technical support for completion of facility start-up and commissioning; assessments, including facility operations, of staffing
INDUSTRY: ENGINEERING
LOCATION: UNITED STATES and maintenance; laboratory design and onsite laboratory reviews; and equipment specification development.
“Recently, we've been leaning towards something called DroneDeploy,” says Black & Veatch BIM coordinator Julia Guerra. “This is a very exciting piece of software that very easily shows with one click that a client representative in the field doesn’t need to be an engineer to be able to use a drone. It's about simplicity, scalability, and how everybody can get their hands on it – from the owner to the surveyor or an engineer, it doesn't matter, everybody can use the same data. We’re taking the fear away from drones and simply making it a tool like
Julia Guerra works in technology construction for Black & Veatch. Her background includes reality capture technology including Drone services, 360 cameras and laser scanning. Julia has extensive experience in BIM technology, including 3D modelling, and model management for field teams. She has previous experience in founding a drone programme that accelerated to 10 pilots in under a year. Her experience in reality capture includes execution and strategy of laser scanning, and 360 capture walks. Julia can help provide a clear picture for communication
TITLE:
BIM COORDINATOR & TECHNOLOGY MANAGERINDUSTRY: ENGINEERING
LOCATION: UNITED STATES
Anthony Taylor is BIM Coordinator & Technology Manager for Black & Veatch. He is responsible for the strategic development and implementation of Black & Veatch’s BIM initiative using BIM related tools and platforms including BIM 360. Anthony specialises in
the use of BIM on complex regional and global BIM projects including setup, establishing objectives, providing technical direction and support. Anthony has design capabilities in multiple software applications including Globally specific space control, grading and drainage design through Civil 3D and/or OpenRoads (Power Inroads SS4), and mission-critical facilities utilizing BIM 360, Revit, VEO, CADworx, NavisWorks.
everything else so that people in the field are just as comfortable using a drone as they might be using a hammer.”
BIM 360 connects workflows, teams, and data for clients and contractor
Black & Veatch’s digital-twin work makes extensive use of BIM 360, part of the Autodesk Construction Cloud designed to connect workflows, teams, and data. This software – along with an extensive line of modules designed to extend and focus functionality – reduces risk, improves
JULIA GUERRA BIM COORDINATOR, BLACK & VEATCHquality, and helps deliver projects on time and on budget by predicting safety hazards, proactively managing quality, automating tasks, and reducing rework so that clients can control costs and stay on schedule.
“With BIM 360, not only are you able to have your team on a single platform, you're seeing data throughout the project lifecycle from design to construction,” says Anthony Taylor, BIM Coordinator & Technology Manager in Black & Veatch’s Data Center Group.
“You have the ability for your clients to see the same data from any device that has Internet service. That could be a computer or a tablet or a phone – as long as there is Internet access, you can access these files anywhere in the world.
“BIM 360 also has security layers, so if you only want certain roles like project managers or admins to have access to certain folders, it's really great for management and security,” says Taylor.
“We’re making it so people in the field are just as comfortable using a drone as they might be using a hammer”
“With these new technologies, not only are you able to have your team on a single platform, but you're seeing data throughout the project lifecycle”
Traditional paper plans used by construction contractors have been replaced by digital twin technology, says Black & Veatch’s Angie Nygren and Greg Zalewski
Black & Veatch has been leading the construction industry since its earliest days of building infrastructure in America’s heartlands and worldwide. The company delivers the highest standards of safety, quality and efficiency and adapts its diverse construction solutions to mitigate risk and suit client budgets.
The company’s construction experience extends across all industries they serve, benefitting from a holistic view of infrastructure lifecycles. Black & Veatch has experience with multiple contracting approaches as a prime contractor, design-builder, construction manager at-risk (CMAR), major subcontractor, joint venture partner, or consortium member. The company also selfperforms construction trades as a direct hire, as a construction manager of multiple subcontractors, or a combination of both.
“I'm seeing a couple of trends in digital twins in construction,” says Black & Veatch Architect Angie Nygren. “The first is much more client interaction. Historically, we used to give 2D plans to the client; they would approve the plans, and we would build it, and then it would be something of a surprise when they saw the end result after construction.”
2D plans and drawings are not enough for clients anymore, says the Black & Veatch team, with clients instead calling for 3D and digital twin models. “They want to see the building in three dimensions before we even stick a shovel in the ground,” says Nygren. “The client is going to be the end user, so they want to know things like how are they going to load the racks? How are they going to access the cable tray? Will they have a clear space for a ladder to get to areas that will be required in the future?”
Modelling catches issues long before they become problems
Black & Veatch goes further than this and ensures clients can assess the smallest details, which can then attract interest from other departments such as marketing and brand management. “Clients can discover how the finishes we've chosen interact with their brand,” says Nygren. “How is the flow of the space from break rooms to offices?
Increased client interaction means they’re looking for that 3D fly-through.”
This approach to construction means even the smallest efficiencies can be identified or discovered in the digital twin environment. “We model everything,” says Nygren, “so that we know if there's a picture that's going to clash with a duct from our model long before this is an issue in the field.”
Beyond the third dimension, Black & Veatch is also seeing trends extend into the fourth and fifth dimensions of those digital twin models. These take into account not only what the project or product will look like, but also how it looks over time as well as the costs involved in its operations and maintenance.
“While you're evaluating a project, you can look to custom construction sequencing to see how this project is going to be built, and you can look for
opportunities there to either accelerate or – if you're considering phasing – how you would implement that throughout the project by using that 4D aspect,” says Greg Zalewski, Preconstruction Manager at Black & Veatch
“On top of that, we're starting to see a lot more focus on the fifth dimension, which is adding cost to that,” he says. “While the fourth dimension takes the model through time, the fifth dimension adds cost to that time factor. From an owner's perspective, you can actually get a very reliable picture of what your capital expenses are going to be throughout the course of that project and how you need to finance and fund it.”
As digital twin technology becomes the industry standard, data centre owners and operators will benefit from more reliable, efficient and sustainable facilities. Traditional paper plans used by construction contractors have been replaced by digital twins, which allow clients to design a site even before land or buildings are purchased.
Digital models presented in 3D, 4D and 5D will impact not only site due diligence and design, but also construction, budgeting, modernisation and operations. Modelling catches issues long before they become problems and Black & Veatch goes further to ensure clients can assess the smallest details. This can then attract interest from other departments such as marketing and brand management.
Black & Veatch is ever-evolving and leading the industry in applying these
tools and technologies to leading-edge data centre development. The company has the capability, scalability, and global resources to help clients select sites that will meet future capacity and sustainability requirements.
This expedites challenging schedules and gives clients a competitive advantage by leveraging Black & Veatch’s vast global internal resource pool, preferred subconsultants and long-term relationships with utility providers in major markets worldwide.
References:
• What is a digital twin?
• Mission-critical facilities/data centers
As issues surrounding environmental, social and governance becomes increasingly pertinent, we take a look at what companies are keeping up with the times
WRITTEN BY: CAMERON SAUNDERS
Jacobs is a market leading environmental consultancy that aims to “make the world smarter, more connected and more sustainable.”
Among the areas to which the company lends its expertise include advanced manufacturing, urban development, energy, health and life sciences, infrastructure, national security, and outer space.
With 55,000 employees, $14bn in annual revenue and operations in over 40 countries, Jacobs can claim quite a reach.
While advising clients on ESG matters, it maintains a steady house internally. Recently, it adopted a Beyondzero strategy to assure sustainability as situations evolve. As well, it has implemented a workplace strategy for ensuring the physical, mental, financial, social and workplace wellbeing for employees. One strategy, known as One Million Lives, was developed with mental health professionals to better care for employees.
Belgian ebike company Cowboy has as its MO reducing carbon footprints. The company has had a fine year at it too. Its ‘Circular’ programme was relaunched this year to great acclaim. This initiative sees second hand bikes be refurbished by in-house mechanics and then sent back into the world.
The company is a member of the Responsible Business Alliance, a body seeking to advance issues of sustainability globally. Being in possession of its own logistics processes as well as packaging allows it to maintain control over an outsized amount of its material.
Finally, the company was able to achieve B Corp certification at the end of 2022. Despite the rigour of the test – which looks at social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability – Cowboy hit an impressive score of 89.5.
Emitwise seeks to manifest a future in which data analytics allows carbon tracking for companies with complex manufacturing chains. With this goal in mind, the Emitwise has helped companies across a broad range of sectors, including construction, FMCG, packaging, automotives and machinery.
Data-driven carbon tracking is a smart move in today’s climate. Timeframes for carbon reduction are notoriously volatile. The UK government, for instance, recently moved carbon targets up by five years, from 2035 to 2030. With these sudden changes, digitised carbon tracking of the sort provided by Emitwise becomes all the more logical. Ultimately, the services provided by Emitwise gives companies one less thing to think about – carbon tracking – on their quests toward profitability and innovation, or as one client put it: “They’ve taken the on the essential and time-consuming tasks of measurement reporting and verification while we focus on mitigation and adaptation efforts.”
Accenture is a heavyweight in the world of consultancy that has given a considerable amount of resources to keep up with ESG standards. Having recognised that between 2013 and 2020, companies scoring high on ESG compliance have returns to shareholders that are 2.6x higher than those scoring at a medium level, Accenture has taken its advisory role in this area seriously. Typical of the company’s programmes to engage in this area is the Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, which seeks to engage emerging technology start-ups to fill innovation gaps through early investment initiatives. One of the more recent partnerships of which this programme can boast is with Planet Labs PBC, a geo-imagery company that uses satellite tracking of the earth’s surface to better inform businesses as to best practices regarding sustainability.
Connecting Food is a French company bent on making the food supply chain more accountable. It incorporates blockchain technology to track foodstuffs from the point of origin to the point of consumption. Tracking is available through a simple dashboard.
The company promises to work with existing systems in the effort to follow food supply chains, incorporating data to automate audits and participate in a digitalized ecosystem. The company can boast a range of users, including farmers and primary producers, coops and aggregators, processors and manufacturers, brands, retailers, agribusiness consultants, and consumers.
Stantec’s approach to design and restoration is imbued with the spirit of community. With its fleet of designers, engineers, scientists and project managers, the company takes on projects of the sort that will be essential if the world is ever going to become close to zero carbon: coastal resilience projects, ecosystem restoration, energy transition, smart cities, and other such climate projects.
Reinforcing community is a guiding ethos: “We care about communities,” they say in a statement. “Because they’re our communities too. This allows us to assess what’s needed and connect our expertise, to appreciate nuances and envision what’s never been considered, to bring together diverse perspectives so we can collaborate toward a shared success.”
Its expertise has led to projects across the planet and the impetus for the company to open offices in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Oceania.
This London-based company is known the world over for its professional services and business advisory capacities. Falling under that umbrella, of course, is ESG and sustainability compliance. EY offers a range of services that comes from a breadth and depth of experience that is unmatched across the world. Active in over 120 countries, EY is one of the few such companies in the world that can be said to have its fingers on the global pulse of corporate governance.
Among the areas that it pinpoints as nodes in the fight for ESG are energy transition, eMobility, sustainable sourcing and ensuring human rights through the supply chain. Its services will help a company across a range of areas, accelerating transition through smart mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, divestments, green financing, economic and climate risk assessment, and helping companies navigate the tax implications of ESG.
Founded in 1979 – long before ESG became a buzz term defining the conduct of businesses – Alcumus’ vision is predicated on the notion that they create “better workplaces, and help to keep people safe, reduce risks and simplify processes through our expert teams and technologies.”
Assuming the mantle of ESG, the company has recently devised new flexible solutions that aim to help companies flexibly integrate new modules that will apply to multiple key performance indicators.
Alcumus recognises that ESG metrics have become a vital pillar in the important quest for a company to be deemed ‘sustainable.’ Towards these ends, data is paramount as it advises other companies. As well, Alcumus seeks to enable companies to reach regulatory requirements, provides them with reports on carbon emissions, and works to improve safety in the workplace.
Assent works to ensure that companies are working the supply chain in accordance with sustainability standards. At its core it is a risk mitigation firm, but recently it has paid extra attention to matters surrounding ESG, having recognized that global supply chains are increasingly being viewed through the lens of environmental and social risks.
Cognizant that the complex manufacturers with which the company works can often produce products that have an outsized effect on the health of the planet, Assent has stepped into the fore to insert ESG sensibilities into its “products, business practices and community engagement,” recognizing that such guidelines are no longer a luxury but, rather, an absolute imperative.
Feelif’s mission has its roots in an older linguistic device: braille, that nineteenth century invention which allows blind and visually impaired people with the tools to read. Updating for the contemporary world, Feelif seeks to do the same for digital devices.
Company founder Željko Khermayer was inspired after watching a television documentary in 2013. It started rudimentarily: punching holes in a business and putting it over the screen of his smartphone. With his eyes closed,
his fingers reached their appointed targets. This was the germ of an idea that led to the company’s founding in 2015.
A tactile grid was invented to cover touch screens, enabling users to literally feel what is there. By integrating a combination of sound, haptics and visual cues, the user can become ‘digitally sighted.’
The programme is designed for multiple applications: education, entertainment, and everyday use.
AD FEATURE WRITTEN BY: TOM SWALLOW PRODUCED BY: JAMES WHITE
Supply chains have recently seen unprecedented challenges due to the uncertain global scenarios and ever-increasing sustainability demands. The manufacturing industry is embedded within the wider supply chain network and is, therefore, subject to enhanced exposure, but what does this mean for an industry that has historically operated in a globalized fashion?
Businesses are now struggling to balance globalization and localization of supply chain operations as they look to futureproof their operations. In either case, digitalisation is the critical enabler of growth. So how should manufacturers approach their digital transformation journeys?
This is where an innovation partner like HCLTech can lead the manufacturing supply chains toward a successful future. Shankar Gopalkrishnan who has extensive experience in driving change among manufacturers to deliver better outcomes, explains how manufacturing organizations can best leverage technology to ensure successful business outcomes.
TS: Globalization vs localization. What are the pros and cons?
SG: The manufacturing industry will continue to progress on the foundations of digital, flexible, and green, which have been the core pillars for globalization. This will allow manufacturers to create more sustainable products faster and cheaper. Globalization also allows companies to establish synergies between regions, industries, and trading systems.
Senior Vice President, Head
localisation versus globalisation and the input of technology
TITLE: SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HEAD OF MANUFACTURING
INDUSTRY: IT SERVICES AND CONSULTING
LOCATION: UNITED STATES
Head of Manufacturing and Utilities Vertical for business acquisition, global contracts, revenue and profitability growth. 25 + years of overall experience in Technology Consulting, Account Management, Business Development. Manage large teams under Global delivery model. Worked extensively on strategy formulation, solution identification and design, consultative solutions providing value based services to clients.
Extreme localization sounds right in the current situation. But when you consider the long-term effects, this approach will impact the product cost and fast-to-market product development, and disrupt the trade links and supply chains established over decades. The right equilibrium must exist in balancing localization efforts while improving and tightening globalization principles for promoting economic growth and vital business outreach to break into new markets.
TS: What has driven manufacturers to re-evaluate their sourcing strategies?
SG: The pandemic and supply chain constraints forced the manufacturing industry to rethink their sourcing strategies, with a focus on finding the right vendors to balance globalization and localization.
Strategic sourcing has pivoted to a new level, digging into all aspects that influence the value of sourcing. The traditional value drivers for strategic sourcing were built on the principles of cost, quality, scale and
overall score carding. But the events over the last two years have exposed startling deficiencies. Now the procurement organizations in the manufacturing industry are heavily focused on establishing new baselines aligning toward response, agility, speed, visibility, broader product value chain, risk management, and suppliers who can address resiliency.
Sourcing organizations are also trying to create more outcome-based partnerships where suppliers can take a complete TCO-based approach to defined business outcomes. We at HCLTech are seeing a lot of customers doing some fundamental changes to their strategies toward sourcing on these outlined parameters, but to scale this, the clients are looking for next-gen digital infrastructure and applications to enable their vision.
TS: Is it likely that there will be a strategic approach to combine globalization and localization?
SG: Globalization to glocalization, is a very novel thought process. But, building such an ecosystem will take significant time, people, and money. While such thought-provoking measures are adopted in the long run, it is very important that the ecosystem does its part in laying out and adopting new policies that increase supply chain resilience. There must be necessary measures to build the infrastructure and risk mitigation strategies to stress-test supply chains on a periodic basis.
Supply chain agility is essential for the manufacturing industry to keep up with customer expectations of personalization and convenience. But, in many ways, agility remains only a buzzword as manufacturers lack the ability to quickly integrate local providers, adapt inventory, and rejig the value chains.
To change this, the manufacturers must adopt a strategic transformational mindset, creating the right balance to strengthen their local competencies alongside integration with the global hub through industry 4.0 and digital levers. The transformation of the systems used for production, transportation, and consumption would require a new way of thinking to enable manufacturers to scale further.
The globalization vs localization debate Gopalkrishnan explains that, until now, global supply chain networks have created
“GLOBALISATION
ALLOWED COMPANIES TO ESTABLISH
connections between regions and opened up more possibilities for manufacturers.
“Globalization has allowed companies to establish good collaborations between industries and different regions, as well as a trading ecosystem. But I think the challenges that we are seeing today are due to the supply chain issues—as well as the pandemic and geopolitical crises—forcing organizations to look at establishing local ecosystems,” says Gopalkrishnan.
In this process, stockpiles have been created to maintain some equilibrium to bridge this gap. In this scenario, a business strategy around localization against globalization makes sense.
While the case for localization seems the strongest option for supply chains, Gopalkrishnan also highlights that there are other variables that determine the success of supply chains in the current risk landscape.
Resilience and the health of the supply chain are essential metrics that we need to continue to measure and monitor as we move forward. Localization in the current scenario makes sense, but if you look at it from a long-
“WE
HCLTech is a next-generation global technology company that helps enterprises reimagine their businesses for the digital age. Its technology products and services are built on four decades of innovation, with a world-renowned management philosophy, a strong culture of invention and risk-taking, and a relentless focus on customer relationships. HCLTech also takes pride in its many diversity, social responsibility, sustainability, and education initiatives. Through its worldwide network of R&D facilities and co-innovation labs, global delivery capabilities, and over 219,000+ ‘Ideapreneurs’ across 52 countries, HCLTech delivers holistic services across industry verticals to leading enterprises, including 250 of the Fortune 500 and 650 of the Global 2000.
Although it has a large footprint in the manufacturing space, HCLTech is the service provider of a multitude of organisations spanning various industries, including consumer goods, aerospace and defence energy and utilities, travel, and the public sector.
The firm is heavily focused on providing innovation capabilities to its customers through its large portfolio of digital solutions, in which application modernisation, technology and cloud services, cybersecurity product engineering, digital business, start-up ecosystems and industry ecosystems are core offerings.
SHANKAR GOPALKRISHNANterm standpoint, we are already seeing that it is increasing the cost of products and will also impact the time for products to come into the market.
Since global disruptions are the key factors driving manufacturers’ decisions, this is also the main focus of HCLTech as it operates within four manufacturing industry subverticals: Automotive, Industrial products, Chemicals and Electronics. As a result of these disruptions, manufacturing companies are paying close attention to their supply chains and doubling down on the costs involved in production, while also creating contingency plans for material sourcing and transportation to limit potential downtime.
In particular, Gopalkrishnan says that firms are looking into transparency across their end-to-end value chains and alter their strategic sourcing approach toward better
“OUR MVISION FRAMEWORK IS CONSTRUCTED TO SUPPORT THEIR TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY BY LEVERAGING OUR BUSINESS DIGITAL OPERATIONS AND THE ENGINEERING PILLAR”
risk management. We are seeing some fundamental changes in sourcing strategy to scale this entire ecosystem—right from the current traditional model to a nextgeneration sourcing model— focusing on visibility, speed, agility and robust infrastructure and applications to align to that vision.
The new outlook on the supply chain, particularly in the eyes of manufacturers, is to consider all aspects of sourcing instead of targeting individual areas. This means a holistic approach to sourcing has become a necessity in risk mitigation.
Weighing up the benefits of both globalization and localization of supply chains is somewhat an endless debate. Thus, the proposal of Gopalkrishnan and the team at HCLTech is to consider what he calls a ‘glocalization’ model.
Creating more of an agile environment continues to be a challenge for a lot of manufacturers. It’s important they change their thought processes and move into
a transformational mindset, which requires a balance of local and global competencies, through Industry 4.0 and digital transformation levers.
The benefits of digital in the supply chain
Global business has been the major catalyst for many organizations, driving them towards operational excellence, which provides a strong case for a globalized manufacturing outlook. But, to reach new heights and become more innovative, Gopalkrishnan says that the focus should turn toward the state of the market leveraging a more proactive approach to market disruptions. This is where manufacturing companies are utilizing the latest industry 4.0 capabilities—along with the internet of things (IoT), to establish their digital transformation based on data.
“This will allow them to become more transparent in their operations, consistent and market-responsive. On this line, we are establishing and helping some of our
manufacturing customers to create their digital plan, pivoting beyond the digital divide that is currently evident in the overall value chain. We’ve set up what we call ‘Manufacturing Vision’ or ‘MVision’, which can truly help them achieve unprecedented levels of digital adoption and become data-driven organizations” says Gopalkrishnan.
As a well-established digital solutions provider for manufacturers around the world, HCLTech created a comprehensive framework for the manufacturing industry through MVision which is built on the principles of a hyper connected digital-enabled enterprise. The MVision framework allows organizations to adopt and deploy solutions across the entire value chain, focusing on people, process, and technology. MVision has been constructed to provide visibility from shop-to-top floor by integrating the broader ecosystem of
customers, partners, and employees. The integration allows organizations to tap into opportunities to increase top line through new business models and improve bottom line by breaking silos. The MVision transformational framework is built on four fundamental pillars –
• MVision for Business
• MVision for Digital
• MVision for Engineering
• MVision for Operations
The first pillar, MVision for Business helps define and execute digital process and digital strategies to enhance customer, partners, and employee experiences. It aims to build systems that drive business transformation to create process optimization, experience, and product orientation.
The second pillar, MVision for Digital helps design and build the platforms that use AI, ML, and other capabilities for creating mechanisms within our customers’ technology footprint to empower their digital transformation journey through our MVision for Business.
The third pillar, MVision for Engineering focuses on assisting manufacturers in accelerating product development by leveraging their latest technologies, monetizing their product services, and providing immersive customer experiences.
The fourth pillar, MVision for Operations provides an integrated applications and infrastructure services in a high velocity, software driven agile operating model
At the core of MVision framework, is MVision Nucleus, powered by the critical components of industry 4.0 that focuses on creating an intelligent and connected ecosystem
through connected assets and connected products. This drives digital transformation across the connected value chain of the manufacturing industry.
The first goal to consider when implementing the four pillars revolves around smart manufacturing principles. As companies see the opportunities arising from industry 4.0, they require the expertise to get the most out of their connected solutions. The next area is supply chain visibility, which is a critical capability for all businesses as they strive for sustainability, while minimizing risks in their value chains. HCLTech is heavily involved during the implementation stage to ensure careful alignment with their digital plan.
HCLTech is determined to invest in clients’ roadmap and aim to help adopt new technologies with complete transparency.
“RESILIENCE AND THE HEALTH OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN ARE ESSENTIAL METRICS THAT WE NEED TO CONTINUE TO MEASURE AND MONITOR AS WE MOVE FORWARD”
n the five largest regions of Latin America – Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Columbia – the population is around 640 million people. To put this into perspective, there are around 330 million people in total living in the United States.
The amount of people using data in South America is growing at a compound rate of almost 25% per year. Furthermore, coupled with the fact that the average income in the region is growing, the proportion of regional industries that are pivoting to tech is rising along with it. In fact, in Mexico, nearly two thirds of its GDP is specific to hightechnology products.
In terms of personal users of data, then, the South American smartphone penetration rate is currently set at around 68% and growing rapidly.
“For example, 10 years ago, an average LATAM household family of four would download about seven gigabytes of data per month. But today, that same family is downloading 77 gigabytes of data. In fact, that number doubled to 77 from 38 in just the last three years,” explains Michael Ortiz, the CEO and Co-Founder of Layer 9.
Despite this, there are 223 million Latin residents who still lack access to the internet.
When you take these figures into account, it’s apparent that there is a major
opportunity present in the LATAM market – one that, from Layer 9’s perspective, has such exceptional potential that's gone largely unnoticed.
Until now, that is.
Layer 9 is breaking new ground, utilising the immense untapped potential of the LATAM market and fostering the development of the region’s tech talent
The untapped potential of the LATAM data market Layer 9 is a data centre provider that specialises in prefabricated, modular and hyperscale solutions. It operates in the LATAM market, bringing hyperscale connectivity to regions
TITLE:
COMPANY: LAYER 9
INDUSTRY: DATA CENTRES
LOCATION: INDIANA, UNITED STATES
Michael Ortiz brings 24+ years of experience in investment banking, capital markets, commercial real-estate development and information technology.
Serving industry leaders such as DuPont Fabros Technology and Digital Realty in leadership capacities, within the fields of asset management, site selection and government incentives programmes, Ortiz has a proven track record of driving teams to success.
Ortiz has also served in senior leader portfolio management roles at Equity Office Properties, and held roles in JP Morgan and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group.
Ortiz earned his MBA from Indiana University Kelley School of Business and completed his Executive Post Graduate work in Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Oxford – Said Business School.
that have previously been dramatically underserved by these technologies.
Joseph Ryan, Layer 9’s Chief Development Officer and Co-Founder, explains how the LATAM market presents a number of growth challenges, and how the differences between expanding in America versus expanding in the LATAM market have meant that previous companies have decided not to invest in this region.
“The way in which we build in the US and other areas is that you build the site, and they will come. You’ll be able to get all the utilities and the fibre there, in some capacity, and within a certain reasonable timeframe.
“But what we found in Mexico and Latin America is that there are a lot more challenges, because some of these cities aren't as developed infrastructure-wise, or have challenges in distributing power or connectivity,” Ryan explained.
“Hyperscale was practically nonexistent within Latin America just five years ago,” Alejandro Cantu Sepulveda, the Chief Operations Officer and Co-Founder of Layer 9, added, explaining the status of the market when Layer 9 first established itself in the region.
“Working the Latin America market, and being of Mexican descent, gave me a street-
Year founded 17+ Number of employees 25%
The amount of people using data in South America is growing at a compound rate of almost 25% per year
level perspective of what was happening within that market. And there were certainly data centre projects happening, but the scale of those projects was very, very small –varying from five to ten megawatt sites – and understanding why that was happening was a big challenge for Michael and I.”
“We saw the opportunity to solve that hyper-scaled infrastructure dilemma within Mexico, and to cater to cloud service providers who innately prefer to not always own the brick and mortar. But data centre companies in Mexico and Latin America who catered to retail clients didn't understand the hyperscale world. So, in their business plans, you saw growth of, again, three megawatts, four megawatt data centres,” Sepulveda explained.
So, in contrast to the other operators in this market, Layer 9 enables hyperscalers to continue their growth into Mexico and LATAM while maintaining the type of footprint and delivery that they've been accustomed to elsewhere in the world.
Then, alongside the growth opportunity that Layer 9 unlocks for its hyperscale clients, there is also the company’s work to foster the region’s immense tech sector talent.
For Sepulveda, in particular, the company’s decision to invest in Mexico and the LATAM enabled him to help transform the region's reputation in the global digital and data centre industries.
“I think it's time to give back to Mexico what Mexico has given to us,” Sepulveda states.
“Mexico has great potential in Latin America, and it hasn’t been exploited properly. Technical job creation, stable investment technology, upgrading school programmes to be able to attract new talent in our trades to do things better – that creates an ecosystem of people and talent that’s sustainable and will replicate by itself.
“I tend to see it as a domino effect. The main question is, who's going to push that first domino? And we will do that. We want to create that ecosystem that creates that domino effect,” Sepulveda explains.
Is a 20-plus-year veteran within the digital information Sector, with specific focus on procurement and development of larger scale data center projects. His time spent at Jacobs, Syska Hennessy and Microsoft allowed Mr Ryan to gain experience to lead Layer 9 development efforts in Mexico. Mr Ryan looks to drive prefabricated experience toward driving modular construction in LATAM. His approach to driving efficiency by way of keeping delivery predictable, predictable and scalable will allow Layer 9 expand rapidly across the ever-growing LATAM marketplace.
CHIEF
“I tend to see it as a domino effect. The main question is, who's gonna push that first domino? And we want to do that. We want to create that ecosystem that creates that domino effect”
ALEJANDRO
SEPULVEDA
OPERATIONS OFFICER AND CO-FOUNDER, LAYER 9
For Sepulveda, not only does this fuel an invaluable talent development opportunity in the region, but it also drives digital transformation across the LATAM, benefitting both individuals and organisations alike.
“Sometimes, people perceive Latin American countries as what they see on TV, and when they get to explore those markets, they're deeply surprised by the infrastructure, the availability of connectivity and the talent,” Sepulveda comments.
“It's an underserved market, and people should better understand it. Then, when they do, they'll see the great opportunity that we have in those markets.”
And Layer 9’s unique approach to investing in this market opportunity has enabled the company to expand rapidly, and create a sustainable, immensely competitive growth model. “Some people saw Layer 9 as a project, but Layer 9 is a platform,” Sepulveda states.
“Now, our model is kind of breaking the rules. So we're dropping flags where we can find the qualities to build a data centre, which is power and connectivity. The same as we did in Mexico. We opened up the ring, and we figured out that there was more opportunity.”
“Based on direct feedback from the CSPs, we have begun the site selection process on several new hyperscale campus sites, all within Latin
America. Our goal is simple - to become the ‘easy button’ for the cloud, and to expand our platform across three to five regional zones throughout LATAM,” adds Ortiz.
Alongside the prime market positioning and rapid digital investment in the region, Layer 9 names its company culture as another critical factor in its success. The diversity of team viewpoints, company-
As COO and Co-founder Mr Cantu brings market experience that spans both U.S. and LATAM borders. His tenure across various disciplines touching procurement, sale engineering and energy contract negotiation has served invaluable to the Layer 9 organisations. Today, Mr Cantu’s focus is execution of corporate strategy toward the development of hyperscale data centre solutions beginning with Project Falcon; and later carry that success toward a scaled, predictable platform that will be viewed favorably upon by the cloud service providers entering LATAM.
wide mentoring, and the shared mission that drives everyone has allowed Layer 9 to build its characteristic team dynamic.
“What I love about our team is that we come from diverse backgrounds. Some of us were cut from the cloth in this business; some of us fell into it, like myself; some of us came from the bottom up of the business, on the equipment resale side; and some of us came from the top down, being the banker or asset manager financing that equipment. And then everything in between,” Ortiz explains. “This company is only two-and-a-half years old, and yet we have some of the most innovative think-tank sessions I've ever had in my entire career.”
This company culture, as Ryan describes it, takes an “all hands on deck”, fully collaborative mindset. “It's a testament to the team, what we've done and how we go about doing it. We have different styles, but what’s brought us together is the common goal and the way that we achieve it.”
And, for Layer 9, this sense of a shared goal has actually proven invaluable to their
internal talent retention, a challenge that data centre companies across the world are facing.
“In years past, companies have lost their individual touch to inspire their employees to keep on growing and to look for new opportunities. People that are joining
our company believe in the project and believe in what we're doing right now,” Sepulveda enthuses.
Fostering collaboration amongst all talent across the company’s markets, mentorship and long-term partnerships help ensure that these growth foundations are strong and sustainable.
“In areas that are regional, we have a peering initiative, which is mentoring. We’re also bringing in groups, partners, employees and consultants that we know have the capabilities to collaborate with us on the first project, the second project, and so on, rather than being disconnected from our operations. And it’s unusual to have that type of involvement at the field level, but we think so much about that,” Ryan outlines, before expanding on this.
“It’s also about going into these areas that may have some experience, but not
“This company is only two-and-a-half years old, and we have some of the most innovative think-tank sessions I've ever had in my entire career”
at that large-scale hyperscale level. They have commercial construction capabilities, but not really that specific technical nuance. So what we're doing is building that experience capable of fostering such growth regionally, but also culturally –inject the way we work into the region, but not force it.”
By nature, this is markedly different from the approach taken in the US and European markets; for Layer 9, this is critical, as it helps them to navigate the barriers to growth in the region, which their competitors haven’t successfully penetrated.
“To be able to give them the support that they need to grow – and in turn for us to grow – through understanding this culture is a hugely symbiotic relationship.
www.lbspower.com
“We have different styles, but what’s brought us together: a common goal and the way that we achieve it”
“ We have a team that's tremendously cohesive, tremendously collaborative, but that immerses itself into the local market, the local culture, and understands those regions prior to purchasing land”
That's what our mentors’ job is to do, and that's really our goal: it's mentoring, it's partnering, it's collaboration, it's immersing ourselves in learning without being the bull in the China shop,” Ryan explains.
“I think what makes our team unique is that we've gone at it differently than the others. We have a team that's tremendously cohesive, tremendously collaborative, but that immerses itself into the local market, the local culture, and understands those regions prior to
purchasing land. This means that land purchase is fruitful for both us and our customers in the future.”
“It really drives our vision. We all have a common goal and a common vision of how we want to collaborate, as well as how we want to partner, both with ourselves and with our local partners, regions and government.”
WRITTEN BY: TOM SWALLOW
PRODUCED BY: CRAIG KILLINGBACK
John Wilgar, Chief Procurement Officer at NSG Group, talks about the fundamental changes the company is making to its procurement function to become more diverse and sustainable
What exactly is so exciting about glass? Well, apart from being one of the most versatile materials on the planet, it links to any and every industry you can think of. From the windows of a house, skyscraper or aircraft to protecting drivers under a transparent umbrella that screens them from the elements, glass is pretty much everywhere in some form or another.
As an integral component of innovation in the 21st Century, glass is also key in facilitating some of the major technological shifts that require devices like phones, tablets, computers, and even safety cameras mounted to the inside of vehicles behind the car windscreen.
With innovation more widespread, the industry is scaling up growth while reducing its environmental and social impact, contributing to all innovative processes in between to ensure that materials are fit for a more sustainable future of construction, technology, and automotive manufacturing and, quite frankly, any industry.
Somewhat ironically, glass must be transparent, and the same must be said when sourcing materials, particularly in terms of sustainability. As far as sourcing goes, sustainability doesn’t come without
understanding the impacts of the industry and, more importantly, how to fix them.
This is what was learned by John Wilgar, Chief Procurement Officer at NSG Group, who leads the procurement function of the business and is committed to sustainable change, adopting all necessary technologies to do so.
Founded towards the end of the First World War in 1918, NSG Group is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of glass and glazing products for the automotive, construction, and electronics industries— priding itself on this fact, in addition to being one of the major suppliers of glass to cars across the globe.
Part of the Sumitomo Group, NSG is becoming more invested in the development of glass products to meet the growing demand of the renewable energy sector, especially that of the solar energy network.
Another of the major trends supported by the organisation is the shift to electric mobility (e-mobility), which sees companies adopting more and more technological
JOHN“SUPPLIERS LIKE SHELL ARE REALLY KEY IN ENABLING SOME OF OUR IMPORTANT PROJECTS AND ARE ALSO ABLE TO HELP US SCALE THESE ACTIONS”
WILGAR CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER, NSG GROUP
solutions to reap the benefits of an allelectric power system that’s capable of supporting more advanced solutions housed behind transparent glass windscreens.
The transformation of NSG starts with the programme named ‘Shape to Shine’. Beginning back in late-2020, the initiative is partly a response to the knowledge gained from COVID-19 and other disruptions.
As Wilgar explains: “The ‘Shape’ phase lasted around 18 months and, towards the end of that period, we began to focus more on the ‘Shine’ agenda, which is about asking ‘How can NSG contribute to a more positive future?’.”
This led to the organisation’s current strategy for procurement, which is governed by the core values of the business. A digitalfirst approach enables the company to instil its values.
“We began to establish a really clear and cohesive strategy for digital transformation to aid procurement in the company,” says Wilgar. “We’re evaluating how to get more from the digital tools we have today, such as SAP Ariba, but also looking for new tools that can support us in areas like supplier connectivity or supplier risk management.”
Secondly, NSG’s procurement team is looking at its operational approach, which is traditionally driven by a set procurement matrix, to provide greater opportunities to optimise its processes through standardisation and centralised procure-topay (P2P) activities.
“We centralised those, more than 10 years ago, into shared service centres, but we believe there is scope to improve other processes, such as sourcing, category management, and supply risk management,”
TITLE: CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER
INDUSTRY: GLASS, CERAMICS AND CONCRETE
LOCATION: LIVERPOOL, UK
Wilgar has worked for Pilkington plc and NSG Group for twenty years, joining the group in 2003 as Head of Automotive Procurement in Europe. Prior to that, John held a number of procurement roles in General Motors, working closely with GM partners such as Isuzu, Renault, and Fiat.
Since 2003, Wilgar has held various roles in capital procurement, direct materials, indirect materials & services, energy, supplier development and process & systems.
John is passionate about enabling people to reach their full potential and about sustainability.
Wilgar originates from Ireland, is married to Jo with three grown up children—Owain, Niamh, and Rhys.
For businesses balancing continuity with decarbonisation goals, having a dependable and flexible energy partner has never been more important. That’s why Shell Energy is working with customers to meet the energy challenges of today, while investing in the energy solutions of tomorrow.
For businesses balancing continuity with decarbonisation goals, having a dependable and flexible energy partner has never been more important. That’s why Shell Energy is working with customers to meet the energy challenges of today, while investing in the energy solutions of tomorrow.
Shell Energy provides solutions tailored to the needs of businesses across a wide range of industries. These include the reliable delivery of gas, power and renewable energy, as well as carbon credits to help compensate for emissions.
Shell Energy provides solutions tailored to the needs of businesses across a wide range of industries. These include the reliable delivery of gas, power and renewable energy, as well as carbon credits to help compensate for emissions.
In Europe, Shell Energy is working with thousands of companies to meet their energy needs competitively, while helping guide them through the energy transition. This means powering their business in a way that is more resilient, as well as helping them reduce their carbon emissions.
In Europe, Shell Energy is working with thousands of companies to meet their energy needs competitively, while helping guide them through the energy transition. This means powering their business in a way that is more resilient, as well as helping them reduce their carbon emissions.
“We’re delighted to add NSG Group to a customer portfolio that includes global brands and national local businesses,” says Giorgia Arnaboldi, Senior General Manager B2B for Shell Energy in Europe.
“We’re delighted to add NSG Group to a customer portfolio that includes global brands and national local businesses,” says Giorgia Arnaboldi, Senior General Manager B2B for Shell Energy in Europe.
A deal to supply NSG Group with natural gas is an example of how working together on one solution can unlock new opportunities. NSG Group manufactures glass which, among other things, goes into the manufacturing process of photovoltaic panels used by solar power developer Silicon Ranch, of which Shell is the majority shareholder.
A deal to supply NSG Group with natural gas is an example of how working together on one solution can unlock new opportunities. NSG Group manufactures glass which, among other things, goes into the manufacturing process of photovoltaic panels used by solar power developer Silicon Ranch, of which Shell is the majority shareholder.
“It means the natural gas we supply to NSG Group in Italy is part of a bigger picture, which ultimately supports the generation of renewable solar power in the US market,” explains Giorgia. “It’s a perfect example of how one collaboration and one solution can lead to another.”
“It means the natural gas we supply to NSG Group in Italy is part of a bigger picture, which ultimately supports the generation of renewable solar power in the US market,” explains Giorgia. “It’s a perfect example of how one collaboration and one solution can lead to another.”
“We
as renewable electricity and alternative/low carbon fuels. NSG Group is increasingly turning to our supply partners to support our decarbonisation efforts and we are excited to work closely with Shell Energy as part of this strategy.”
as renewable electricity and alternative/low carbon fuels. NSG Group is increasingly turning to our supply partners to support our decarbonisation efforts and we are excited to work closely with Shell Energy as part of this strategy.”
John Wilgar, Chief Procurement Officer at NSG Group John Wilgar, Chief Procurement Officer at NSG GroupTo learn more watch the video or click
To learn more watch the video or click
Watch interview with Giorgia Arnaboldi, Senior General Manager B2B for Shell Energy in Europe“We believe this is an important platform to establish further opportunities together in areas such
believe this is an important platform to establish further opportunities together in areas such
says Wilgar. “I envisage centres of excellence for these processes in the near future.”
A further area NSG is acting upon is the physical footprint of the organisation. When looking at emissions reduction, the procurement team is tasked with indirect procurement functions to reduce realestate footprint and emissions, which results in the shift of premises globally and most likely a reduction as teams work more from home.
“In procurement, we are progressively changing our offices around the world to be more suitable for hybrid working and space efficiency,” says Wilgar.
This is also helped by NSG’s commitment to the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), allowing the company to drill down into its Scope 3 emissions to meet rigorous sustainability milestones.
“We have a target to reduce our overall emissions 30% by the year 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050 – importantly this includes Scope 3 emissions in our supply chain. We launched a sustainable supply
chain programme earlier this year, and this will help us address the Scope 3 challenge, but it doesn’t end with carbon reduction,” says Wilgar.
“We are also looking at the environmental impact of our suppliers, what they are doing to address waste and water consumption, and their actions on human rights.”
Wilgar also addresses the importance of personnel as a key pillar in sustainable digital transformation, noting that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plays a critical role in driving forward transformation and hitting its targets. Although diversity is a critical aspect of human resources from a social perspective, it is also something he has to
OF OUR SUPPLY BASE—AS AN ICEBERG”
consider when training or upskilling staff in a digital world.
“It’s really about creating the conditions for our people to realise their full potential and promote a fully diverse, inclusive workforce in procurement,” Wilgar says. “For example, we implemented a female focus group to help us understand the barriers for women to progress to top positions in the function.”
“We’ve been expanding our mentoring and trainer training programmes, including things like mental resilience to support our people through very difficult and challenging periods. We also make sure each person in procurement has a personal development plan.”
Today, around a third of our global Procurement team are women with around a quarter in management positions. This has to change—a more diverse team will better reflect the world we live and operate in and enable us to bring more and better ideas forward”
One of the points discussed with Wilgar— one that rears its head in many sustainability discussions—is around cost. At an integral point of the supply chain, much of the precedence is taken by cost optimisation and ensuring viability of products from a financial standpoint. But, as sustainability is often a costly shift to make, it’s interesting to see how businesses like NSG are able to transition to new and greener pastures,
particularly when, like NSG, 50% of spend is tied in the upstream supply chain.
One of the important activities that Wilgar must undertake is foresight; seeing the costs and understanding the wider global implications of the company’s sustainability agenda.
“I try to visualise the impact and value of procurement and of our supply base as an iceberg: the traditional financial measures are clearly visible above the waterline, but
increasingly, the greater part of this impact and value is below it,” says Wilgar.
“In other areas like supplier innovation, speed-to-market risk management, and sustainability, suppliers—both current and new—will contribute greatly to these new aspects of value creation for the company.”
This is where he highlights Shell Energy as a key partner in the activities at NSG. Shell Energy is a key enabler of the company’s targets and broadening its scope for other aspects, such as energy security and carbon reduction.
Specifically, NSG has been working to introduce alternative fuels such as hydrogen that will power the production of glass as well as biofuels as drop-in replacements for their fossil fuel counterparts. It is in areas such as these that partners like Shell can help NSG accelerate on its path to decarbonisation.
“Suppliers like Shell are really key in enabling some of our important projects, bringing technical capability and in some cases financing. They are also able to help
us scale these actions on a global stage to realise our potential in different regions,” says Wilgar.
“We’re very pleased to be working with them initially in Europe, but hopefully in other regions in the future. Shell is a company that shares our core values for doing business in an ethical way and contributing to the communities in which they work.”
With many fruitful years to come, NSG will delve further into the capabilities of technology for streamlining procurement, allowing the team to take a more strategic approach to sourcing sustainable alternatives, and adhering to its SBTis.
Growing the team and the technology it uses will allow NSG’s procurement colleagues to specialise in certain areas of the business to establish a much higher level procurement function and take the helm on further strategic processes like category management, risk management and mitigation, sustainable sourcing, and so on.
“It’s also my goal that the makeup of our procurement function is much more diverse than it is today. Not only in terms of gender, but in other aspects, such as ethnicity, sexual orientation, or importantly, diversity of thought,” says Wilgar. “Today, around a third
“WE CENTRALISED PROCURE TO PAY ACTIVITIES MORE THAN 10 YEARS AGO INTO SHARED SERVICE CENTRES, BUT WE BELIEVE THERE IS SCOPE TO IMPROVE OTHER PROCESSES”
of our global Procurement team are women with around a quarter in management positions. This has to change – a more diverse team will better reflect the world we live and operate in and enable us to bring more and better ideas forward”
JOHN WILGAR CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER, NSG GROUP“The same principles apply to our supply base. My hope is that the impact and value of procurement—and, indeed, our supply base—is measured more in terms of those below the waterline activities and less on the purely traditional financial measures.”
This holistic view of sustainability in procurement will allow NSG to address all areas, from environmental impacts through technical innovation in the industry to meeting social needs both at work and beyond.
With the automotive industry ingrained into him, Wilgar fully appreciates the pressures that lie ahead, but is also excited for the e-mobility revolution, which will provide more challenges and opportunities for NSG. Electrification has become a testbed for technology that ties in with the demand for a supplier of both theoretical and physical transparency.
“WE’RE EVALUATING HOW TO GET MORE FROM THE DIGITAL TOOLS WE HAVE TODAY, SUCH AS SAP ARIBA”
Almost half of NSG Group’s total carbon emissions are in the supply chain. To achieve its Science-Based targets NSG must engage fully across the entire value chain.
WRITTEN BY: GEORGE HOPKIN
There are some charitable institutions in the UK that feel as if they are part of the fabric of society. The Royal British Legion is one such institution.
From providing expert advice and guidance to recovery, through to transitioning to civilian life, the Royal British Legion provides a lifeline for serving personnel, veterans and their families, supporting them in the face of hardships, injuries and bereavements. The RBL is the champion of Remembrance and is, of course, well known for the annual Poppy Appeal and its emblem, the red poppy.
And behind the scenes, procurement plays an essential part in the RBL’s work, helping ensure the organisation manages supply chain risk while maximising value for money from donated funds.
Last year saw the RBL mark its 100th anniversary with events that cast light on its proud past, highlighting its preparedness for a second century of service in a centenary celebration that focused on the future, along with the challenges and contributions yet to come.
The RBL was born out of the First World War, when four organisations came together to fight injustices and financial hardship faced by those returning home after service.
Founded as a campaigning organisation, the Legion fought for the fair treatment of those who had given so much for their country – and for whom it provided much-needed welfare and comradeship. At the same time, it committed to a pledge of Remembrance for the selfless service of the Armed Forces’ community.
The RBL’s strength derives from its network of members, volunteers, partner organisations and supporters. In its centenary year, events and activities provided key opportunities to recognise and thank the many charity partners, community associations, elected officials, and government agencies and services at all levels, whose valuable support makes it possible for the charity to do its work.
Centenary events held nationally, regionally and locally enabled the Legion to tell its story and recognise its people, past and present, while schools across the country held their own events commemorating the iconic institution. It
also gave the organisation an opportunity to emphasise its renewed strategic direction: placing those who need and support the Legion at the heart of all it does.
Procurement is an essential function within the Royal British Legion, helping to ensure the organisation manages risk within its supply chain and maximising value for money from donated funds. It’s an integral part of the RBL’s strategy and underpins its strategic priority of Operational Excellence.
In line with its function and aims, the organisation is committed to ensuring
I am a senior procurement professional with almost 20 years’ experience spanning both private and third sector roles. Passionate about selfdevelopment and developing teams/ talent, I am currently the Head of Procurement & Contract Management at the Royal British Legion, the UK’s largest armed forces charity. I manage a team of six professionals who manage our spend under three distinct categories –Corporate Services (IT, FM, Estates, HR, Legal, etc.), Fundraising, Remembrance and Marketing (Creative, Events, Print, etc.) and Operations (Care Homes, Recovery, Grants, Welfare Services, etc). We are working through a challenging
Working together as an extension of The Royal British Legion, our helplines ensure that veterans and their families receive the support that they need seven days a week.
its procurement procedures take an ethical approach, ensuring fairness and transparency while working with partners who adhere to legislation, including modern slavery and GDPR.
Procurement procedures also compel the RBL to acquire quality goods and services promptly, providing value for money based on a balance of criteria that’s specific to each requirement.
The RBL’s commitments minimise risk from its supply chain. Though it is not publicly funded – and therefore not subject to public procurement regulations – the organisation reflects best practices in its approach to sourcing all goods and services.
“Our procurement strategy supports the wider Royal British Legion strategy in supporting all serving and ex-serving personnel, as well as their families, in a reflection of the Legion's key priorities,” says Wayne Bell, the Legion’s Head of Procurement and Contract Management,
who joined the Legion in 2019 following more than a decade of procurement industry experience in his native South Africa.
The RBL’s campaign priority includes: Those We Serve, which ensures prompt, high-quality service provision that makes the best use of donated funds; Championing Remembrance, which supports the Legion’s Remembrance marketing teams to find and work with partners who will raise the organisation’s profile, helping them engage younger and more diverse audiences whilst seeking out new opportunities; Working Together, which engages suppliers as true partners passionate about the Legion’s cause; and, finally, Operational Excellence, which supports stakeholders whilst safeguarding the Legion’s expenditure and reducing unnecessary risk.
New Contract Management System supports RBL managers Contract management has been a particular focus for the RBL. In the past, the organisation has had limited contract visibility, further hindered by a lack of tools to support it. “Through collaboration with our IT department, we have built our own, fully-functional Contract Management System using SharePoint, which includes push notifications, dashboards, and other functions,” says Bell. “Our contract managers will have access to the Contract Management System, and we will be supporting and training them on how to manage contracts effectively.”
Earlier this year, the RBL also addressed issues around spend visibility. Again, it fell short of achieving the live, detailed visibility of supplier spending needed to understand, manage and analyse it. “On the back of a budgeting and reporting software that was purchased, we can now slice and dice our
spending as required from a procurement perspective,” says Bell.
Procurement training was disrupted in 2020 by the outbreak of COVID-19, subsequent lockdowns and ongoing restrictions. Nevertheless, the RBL is addressing this education shortfall by developing a suite of training programmes with the organisation’s L&D team. These are designed to equip buyers and contract managers with the skills for effective decision-making regarding buying and managing contracts.
“It’s difficult to manage what you can’t see, and we have been far too reactive in the past,” says Bell. “The combination of our Contract Management System and the visibility of our spend will be catalysts for us as we stepchange to be more strategically proactive.”
Without a capable team, it’s very difficult to be effective in procurement, says Bell – an acknowledgement that prompted him to rebuild his department in 2020. “We are fortunate that we’ve been able to recruit a team that is passionate about who the Legion are, what the Legion does and the contributions we make, but who are also skilled so that we can be effective in what we do,” says Bell.
Successful procurement operations also rely on positive collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders, something Bell is focused on in a bid to improve stakeholder relationship management at the Legion. “When we all collaborate effectively, we ultimately contribute towards supporting our beneficiaries,” he explains.
A broad range of services are coordinated by the RBL, including recovery support to currently serving and ex-serving personnel who are wounded, injured, or sick. The same support is also available for those who are experiencing multiple challenges such as unemployment, mental health problems, financial issues and alcohol abuse.
The Legion’s flagship recovery programme is the £27mn Battle Back Centre at Lilleshall in the West Midlands. It provides sports and adventure activities designed to promote self-confidence and improve motivation during recovery, increasing the effectiveness of the process.
The organisation also offers services designed to aid ex-Armed Forces personnel in finding employment. The Legion’s employment support helps those coming towards the end of their service to prepare for more traditional forms of employment and civilian life, in general. Not only does it ensure this, but it supports the wider family during the process, too. Funding for additional training or education is also available through the organisation’s employment grant scheme.
What’s more, much-needed guidance on business plans, finances and tax requirements is provided to those budding entrepreneurs looking to start their own business. Specialist assistance helps put together a business plan, source funding and identify mentors.
The RBL understands the allencompassing impact of housing issues on mental health and wellness, so it provides housing support and advice on a wide range of related issues. Included within this is advice and support to those who are homeless or imminently facing
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homelessness. As part of this work, the team disseminates guidance on housing applications to local authorities and can support challenges to statutory decisions on grant funding, housing allocation and eligibility.
When combined, each of these strands of support and outreach aids the Armed Forces community in maintaining independence, reintegration into society, community connections, and staying safe within the home via small adaptations, from installing personal alarms or support with funding for new equipment to working with family members about what to expect.
In the UK today, one in six people over 80 has dementia and, by 2025, more than a million people could have the condition. Inevitably, former service members feature in these figures, so the Legion provides care in the shape of purpose-built dementia units at four of their six residential care homes in Somerset, Warwickshire, Norfolk and North Yorkshire.
The Legion also has a team of specialist Admiral Nurses – a scheme developed in partnership with Dementia UK – who work in the community. Currently operating in
Lancashire, the West Midlands, Hampshire and Somerset, they offer specialist support, information and advice to the family carers of people living with dementia within the Armed Forces community.
Tackling money problems can be an emotional burden, so the RBL helps ease this financial pressure for thousands of serving and ex-serving personnel every year. The organisation’s financial team provides specialist compensation advice, help with debt and emergency situations, and can offer support during grant applications.
“WE ARE FORTUNATE THAT WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO RECRUIT A TEAM THAT IS PASSIONATE ABOUT WHO THE LEGION ARE”
