A sustainable supply chain reduces environmental harm, promotes social inclusion and diversity, and supports long-term economic resilience. This means sourcing materials responsibly, minimizing waste, ensuring ethical labor practices and prioritizing transparency at every stage. Creating a sustainable supply chain requires a company culture grounded in responsibility, transparency and innovation so the positive effects of a company’s decisions reach far beyond a single project.
Here are five proven strategies to create a more sustainable supply chain in construction.
1. Understand the supply chain to effectively lead sustainable change
The first step is understanding what a sustainable supply chain really looks like. It’s not just about reducing carbon emissions. A responsible supply chain considers elements such as healthy building materials, ethical labor practices and social impacts of a project, from start to finish.
There are many affordable, even free resources that can help organizations get started. Mindful MATERIALS for example, created the Common Materials Framework (CMF), which compiles data on material transparency into one place. It acknowledges the vast impacts of the built environment, while providing responsible alternatives. Similarly, apps like BuildingEase make it easier for project teams to identify and find products that meet the CMF criteria.
There are also organizations digging deeper into social responsibility. Design for Freedom by Grace Farms focuses on eliminating modern slavery or forced labor practices in building materials, a hidden issue in global sourcing of products. Educating our teams and partners on these frameworks and initiatives helps all stakeholders solidify their values and set realistic project goals.
The Supply Chain Sustainability School, in partnership with Skanska, recently launched in the United States. It empowers industry professionals with free online resources focused on critical sustainability challenges, including energy and carbon, sustainability reporting, environmental management, waste and circular economy, biodiversity, community engagement and supplier diversity. With over 12 years of experience and a strong reputation in the UK, Ireland, and Australia, they have trained nearly 140,000 individuals and earned the trust of 30,000 companies.
2. Align stakeholders around measurable sustainability standards
Owners, contractors, designers, facility managers and suppliers must all understand what success looks like. And it needs to be clearly defined.
For example, if a developer requires that every material used on a specific project have an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) or a Health Product Declaration (HPD), that expectation should be communicated to the entire project team. Requiring EPDs is impactful, because with one step, you’re able to better track a product over its entire lifecycle, from raw material extraction, all the way to disposal. By setting that standard up front and early, owners, designers, contractors and suppliers can work together to ensure a better project outcome and on-time project delivery.
This step is about creating consensus around foundational guidelines that everyone can work toward, to find solutions that go beyond doing “business as usual.”
3. Advance circularity practices to minimize waste
Perhaps the most exciting opportunity is circularity or reusing and repurposing materials that already exist rather than sending them to a landfill. Construction generates large amounts of waste. Circular practices reduce the need to extract more raw resources, saving energy and preserving timeless craftsmanship.
There are powerful examples already in motion:
- Moynihan Train Hall (New York City): Instead of completely replacing the building’s shineau, the ornate stonework along the façade, Skanska salvaged roughly 70 percent of the original material to be reused. Replacement pieces were cast and hand-finished to match, preserving both resources and the historic craftsmanship.
- The Kendeda Building for Sustainable Design (Atlanta): Lumber was salvaged from an old movie set and repurposed into nail-laminated timber panels, and slate was taken from nearby roofs and were reclaimed for finishes.
- Portland International Airport (Portland): The iconic nine-acre mass timber roof was constructed from wood sourced from local and regional forests, promoting sustainability in aviation infrastructure. The project team also worked with local recyclers to transform the project’s wood waste into finished products and wall panels, minimizing landfill use.
- University of Portland Shiley-Marcos Center for Design & Innovation (Portland): The project transformed a main structural system from an existing physical plant on campus into a hub for academic creativity and learning. This adaptive reuse strategy created a 42 percent reduction in embodied carbon emissions.
Circularity does take extra planning, sometimes requiring storage, new partnerships or creative thinking about material uses. But the payoff is significant: fewer resources extracted, less waste and a supply chain that models true sustainability.
4. Require transparency and accountability
Transparency and accountability are important in a responsible supply chain.
This may mean requiring ISO-certified partners, prioritizing manufacturers with Just. labels to address the human elements, or only sourcing products that meet certain CMF commitments. The idea is to move beyond single-issue metrics like carbon emissions and instead take a more holistic approach to what makes a product or supplier sustainable.
This can all be approached in phases. An organization might start by requiring EPDs across the board, then add HPDs or human centered requirements over time. What matters is visibility in the supply chain. When owners take a strong stance, it motivates manufacturers to evolve their practices.
A practical example of this is the collaboration behind the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3). Co-created with industry partners and made freely available through the nonprofit Building Transparency, the EC3 tool enables teams to leverage EPD data for over 16,000 materials, compare carbon footprints by material and design attributes and identify lower-carbon alternatives, all at no cost. On projects such as 1550 on the Green, EC3 helped Skanska achieve a 34 percent reduction in embodied carbon by substituting 55 percent of the cement with fly ash. Across a broader scale, EC3 enabled us to offset more than 8,400 metric tons of embodied carbon, setting benchmarks across hundreds of project models and signaling new standards for decarbonization in procurement and design.
5. Collaborate across the industry to drive scalable, systemic change
Collaboration multiplies impact and accelerates change. Joining industry groups or initiatives is a practical way to learn, generate awareness, foster momentum and create collective pressure for better practices. An example of this is the General Contractors of America (AGC) Task Force on Decarbonization and Carbon Reporting, a groundbreaking initiative uniting major contractors to tackle the complexities of carbon reporting and reduction in construction. The task force was charged with developing educational resources and an industry-wide guidebook to standardize carbon reporting and best practices for decarbonization.
By leading such initiatives, we not only raise standards within our own operations, but also help shape the industry’s approach to accountability, transparency and actionable carbon-reduction strategies. This collaborative approach really drives momentum extending beyond individual projects.
Building the future responsibly
Sustainable supply chains aren’t built overnight. They require intention, collaboration and a willingness to evolve as new tools, data and expectations emerge. By understanding the supply chain, aligning stakeholders, advancing circularity practices, requiring transparency and accountability, and collaborating across the industry, we not only reduce environmental and social harm, but we also set a higher standard for our industry.
We see this work as essential to building responsibly for people and the planet. And the good news is, when more of us commit to sustainable supply chains, we all benefit from a stronger, more resilient future.
Learn more about Skanska’s efforts to responsibly shape communities across the U.S. here.