Earlier this year, The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) released their take on sustainable/responsible purchasing in a report entitled “Balancing Commercial and Sustainable Issues”.
The paper does a great job in outlining the pros and cons, as well as potential pitfalls and benefits, of sustainable purchasing and as with all CIPS material it is well researched (albeit slightly UK centric). Among the take-away’s is this list of benefits for the organization, most important I feel are the long term benefits (life cycle focus, proactive internal dialogue and (well researched) challenging the demand side).
List of potential benefits for an organisation:
- the existence of a defined procurement strategy and the value outcomes – the improved social, environmental and economic impacts
- compliance with national and international sustainability standards and regulations
- to have a better understanding of risks in the supply chain
- contributes to the sustainable organisational strategy
- better commercial/economic decisions from understanding of issues that impact on the procurement decision (whole life cycle)
- potential benefits in a long term relationship, innovation, better materials, alternatives, technical advice, emerging technologies
- if the objective is `grab the cash’ it’s not sustainable, build a more sustainable platform and achieve savings year on year
- better quality of purchasing staff with more satisfying goals and improved performance
- education of suppliers
- much more proactive internal dialogue and challenge with demand side
- more effective evaluation of proposals and bids
- more ‘sustainable’ source of supply.
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