Sustainability Strategy

Our Purpose

At Saible, we believe that a sustainable construction industry is impossible without a fair and transparent financial foundation. The current payment crisis in UK construction (£23 million is wasted every single working day due to poor payment practice)¹ is a sustainability failure.

Our mission is to deliver better social and economic outcomes through a better payment culture. We provide the digital infrastructure required to enable project funds to reach the entire supply chain accurately and on time. By fixing the flow of money, we enable the businesses building our future to be robust, ethical, and capable of investing in their own green transitions.

Economic Sustainability

We view economic resilience as the primary pillar of our sustainability strategy. An industry where 18 businesses go bust every day² cannot effectively innovate or decarbonise.

• De-risking the Ecosystem: Our Digital Parallel Payment Accounts (DiPPAs) are designed to protect project funds from being diverted or trapped in the higher tiers of the supply chain. This ring-fencing acts as a critical anti-insolvency measure.
• Enabling Green Investment: When SMEs and specialist contractors have guaranteed, transparent cash flow, they gain the financial stability required to invest in low-carbon materials, modern methods of construction (MMC), and carbon-reduction technologies.
• Reducing Waste: By automating the payment and authorisation process, we eliminate the administrative waste and legal friction that currently drains billions from the UK economy.

Social Value & The Human Cost

Sustainability is as much about people as it is about the planet. The construction industry loses two workers to suicide every working day³; financial stress is a leading contributor to this mental health crisis.

• Fair Payment for All: We champion a payment culture where the person doing the work is the person who gets paid. By ensuring all  tiers of the supply chain are paid in parallel, we reduce the personal and professional stress on thousands of business owners and employees.
• SME Support & Public Sector Alignment: Through “Intelligent Transparency”, Saible provides the data that publicly funded projects need to demonstrate at least 33% of project funds reaching SMEs. 
• Mental Health Advocacy: We continue to support industry-specific mental health initiatives, such as Mindflow, and use our platform to highlight the link between financial transparency and worker wellbeing.

Ethical Governance

We lead by example. Our governance framework is built on being Trusting & Trustworthy.

• Supply Chain Ethics: We apply fair payment principles to our own direct suppliers through our standard terms of business. We do not use "pay when paid" logic or extended payment terms to manage our own liquidity.
• Intelligent Transparency: Our platform is designed to provide a centralised record for project funders and the supply chain alike. This prevents the misuse of funds that often leads to project collapse and abandoned sites.
• Construction Trustee Ltd: We have funded the establishment of an independent, not-for-profit entity to act as a neutral account holder for public sector projects, ensuring that ethical fund management is accessible even when traditional banking barriers exist.
• Charity Support: We have pledged to donate 1% of our People, Product, and Profit to good causes. Our chosen good causes are Mindflow and The Lighthouse Club, both charities focused on mental health in the construction industry.
• External validation: We are signatories to the Conflict Avoidance Pledge, and the Fair Payment Code.

 Environmental Responsibility

While our direct environmental footprint is low as a digital organisation, we are committed to responsible operations.

• Birmingham-Based Growth: We remain committed to our Birmingham headquarters, contributing to regional economic growth and reducing the need for national-scale commuting for our core team.
• Digital-First Efficiency: By replacing analogue, paper-heavy Project Bank Accounts (PBAs) with digital DiPPAs, we reduce the carbon intensity of project administration and travel associated with manual payment disputes and audits. We run a paper-free office.

Sustainability-first partnerships: We chose Griffin as our key banking partner partly because of their commitment to sustainability, as evidenced in their Annual Impact Report.

<sub>1. Data from Office for National Statistics, Dept for Business Innovation and Skills, The Adjudication Society, Pinsent Masons, and Construction Enquirer
2. Data from UK Government Insolvency Service
3. Data from Office for National Statistics</sub>