SUSTAINABILITY DRIVERS AND ENABLERS IN PROCUREMENT?

Introduction

An organization’s decision to focus on sustainability could be as a result of many factors.

• It could be because of growing awareness of the negative impact of international supply chain
• May be growing political, public and activist pressure for greater corporate responsibility and accountability
• It could also be as a result of the growing awareness of the operational, financial and reputational risks of unsustainable business practices

The truth is, the quest for sustainability becomes an uphill battle if you cannot distinguish between, Sustainability Drivers and Sustainability Enablers

What are sustainability drivers?

With regards to sustainability, drivers are forces creating pressure to develop and carryout sustainable procurement strategies

Such could include things like: resource scarcity, legislation, reputational risk etc.

Just think of changes in motor vehicle industries and all the scandals companies have to deal with in terms of carbon emission

There are a lot of these drivers depending on the context in which your business is operating in.

Sustainability drivers can also manifest themselves in terms of opportunity, think of tesla and their electric cars and google joining that market

At some point the pressure for sustainable procurement will be from stakeholders.

What are sustainability drivers?

Sustainability enablers on the other hand are support factors that create conditions favorable to the, effective and efficient introduction, implementation and acceptance of sustainable procurement strategies.

Enablers include things like:

• Innovation capabilities
• The organization’s Established risk management process
• Sustainability – educated management
• Availability of sustainable resources
• And even the development of industry-wide sustainability standards

Conclusion

In short drivers impel action for sustainable procurement and enablers serve to facilitate such.

When it comes to your organization you can start by focusing on internal factors that may drive or restrain sustainable procurement.

Things like:

• Your corporate mission, vision and objectives
• Whether the senior management is in support of sustainability
• Availability of resources…Etc

As you are doing this don’t forget that organizations don’t operate in a static environment. External factors constantly emerge and shift in priority, things like, technology changes, social changes, new information and so on

The key thing is learning to adjust

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