The brief

The UK Government has a legally binding target to become Net Zero by 2050. It has flowed this obligation to all Government Departments including the MOD.

The MOD is responsible for 50% of all UK Government. These are emissions across the MOD estate, equipment, platforms and purchasing activities. The MOD required support to create a plan for the reduction of all of its activities, including scope 3 emissions from its +£200bn spend supply chain.

Cala Sustain’s role

Cala Sustain was the technical lead in 2022 for the Net Zero and Sustainability Scoping Study for all defence acquisition activities which: 

• Delivered a clear implementation plan for effectively embedding sustainability and Net Zero within all acquisition activities, 
• Informs a level three business change programme that embeds changes during the next three to five years, enabling Net Zero and sustainability within acquisition, 
• Presents a roadmap and clear recommendations

Sustainability and Net Zero

We applied a Multi Criteria Decision Analysis approach to both sustainability and Net Zero factors and their effective and practical application in defence acquisition. We worked with the client to help develop understanding of how and where to apply the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, defence specific themes and also activity-based carbon measurement and analysis.

The complexities of defence acquisition

We first needed to understand the complex defence acquisition “ecosystem” of:

• interrelated business parts,
• professional disciplines,
• policy objectives,
• strategic focus
• the broad scope of acquisition tools and outputs.

Once we had achieved this it allowed clarity on where the most effective interventions should be. We prioritised the use of interventions within existing policy, guidance, tools and standards but where this was not plausible, we have recommended the development of new approaches.

Embedding Sustainability and Net Zero

Common themes within the recommendations for embedding interventions are centred around leadership, stakeholder management, accurate and consistent data management, and the development of suitable enabling tools and guidance.

The project outcome

We provided a clear set of recommendations along with a roadmap of activities that will enable Net Zero and sustainability to become integral to defence acquisition. We continue to provide the support required to the Ministry of Defence and we are leading the implementation of recommendations.