How Deutsche Bank is Integrating Sustainability Into its Supply Chain

With this in mind, Deutsche Bank created the Director-level position of Head of Supply Chain Sustainability to inject specific subject matter expertise into the organisation. After an extensive international search supported by Odgers Berndtson’s Supply Chain & Procurement Practice, Paul Williams was appointed. We spoke with Paul, along with Cara Murphy, Head of Procurement Enablement and Transformation, about why this role is so crucial.  

Deutsche Bank’s Search - Cara Murphy 

Deutsche Bank made sustainability a management priority in 2019 and since then, Deutsche Bank has established sustainability as a key pillar of the bank’s Global Hausbank strategy in all four businesses as well as in the infrastructure units – that includes our supply chain. 

Our Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) and Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) both play an important role and support our ongoing investment in the supply chain sustainability team. We are transparent with our colleagues about what we’ve done and what we still must do, and we have invested in people internally, not just in creating teams and roles but also investing in data, such as the new corporate sustainability reporting directive, how we interpret new legislation and implement it.  

When I came in to lead the team, we wanted to further enhance and improve our knowledge in this space. We knew we would need to look outside financial services for that knowledge. We are not manufacturing a product so it’s a different buying experience, and we knew we could learn a lot from the experiences of sectors who have been on this journey longer than us and potentially accelerate it.  

Paul has proven ESG experience and a track record he could demonstrate, not just in theory but in practice. This, in conjunction with his procurement background and ability to operationalise change, really created credibility. 

The Successful Placement View - Paul Williams 

My transition from solely focussing on procurement to sustainability came in 2014 during my previous role as Senior Procurement Manager for European fish sourcing. A great deal of my discussions related to whether the raw material was sustainably sourced and responsibly caught. I realised the strong link between sustainability and supply chain procurement, and that if we don’t have the raw materials available, all other procurement KPIs are redundant. Essentially, there will be no business on a dead planet. 

As part of undertaking my Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (FCIPS), the critical value that sustainability offers in supporting delivery of long-term procurement goals became clear. We’ve already seen challenges in sourcing goods and services from certain supply chains directly because of sustainability challenges - whether environmental, social or governance-related - and this will continue over the years ahead. Delivering responsible procurement means every role within the supply chain is ultimately a sustainability role.   

Why a move into finance? It’s always been an ambition of mine to understand the role finance has in delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the broader sustainability agenda. My previous experience in consumer goods and retail has all centred around investment – whether that’s investing in human rights impact assessments, environmental initiatives, planning for the impact of nature and climate risks, through to recognising and rewarding supply partners who can demonstrate enhanced ESG performance.  

I’ve been impressed by Deutsche Bank’s ambitious net zero goals, investment in building resources and resilience and the commitment of both the Chief Sustainability Officer and Chief Procurement Officer in demonstrating leadership.

Within my first few months, I identified an opportunity to collaborate with peers in the finance sector in a pre-competitive way on sustainability topics to share best practices, learn from each other and add value through leverage. This has been supported by Deutsche Bank who recognise the benefits in doing things differently and it has resulted in the launch of an industry-first sustainability peer group focussing specifically on supply chain sustainability, something I am proud to have founded.  

Are companies moving quickly enough beyond compliance? For some companies, sustainability remains a tick-box exercise and something that is required to fulfil a minimum level of compliance. However, it’s clear that organisations like Deutsche Bank are taking steps to truly understand their sustainability credentials, risk areas and collaborating with like-minded industry partners – enabling the path to a more sustainable way of conducting business and seeing the sustainable transformation as an opportunity.  

When I think about my interactions with senior leaders of different organisations across a variety of sectors, they tend to have the same aspiration: to leave a better, more sustainable world for their families to enjoy and it’s clear when an organisation has truly embedded sustainability within its approach. For those organisations lagging behind or if they still need convincing, legislation and societal awareness is ramping up significantly in this space, so time is running out.

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Get in touch. Follow the links below to discover more. To discuss this topic or procurement and supply chain leadership more generally, please contact Lucy Harding, Partner, Head of Supply Chain & Procurement Practice.