WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT?

Sustainability means ensuring that actions currently taken do not limit or jeopardize plans or quality of life in future. 

But what has this got to do with procurement?

The reality is the question of sustainability in procurement presents itself in various ways such as:

• Responsible procurement
• Ethical procurement
• Or even “Green” procurement

Sustainable procurement, according to the UK sustainable procurement task force is:

A process whereby organizations meet their needs for goods, services, work and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole-life basis in terms of generating benefits not only to the organization but also to society and the economy, whilst minimizing damage to the environment

WHAT ARE THE AIMS OF SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT?

According to the British standards institution sustainable procurement guide, there are four main aim of sustainable procurement that is;

1. To minimize negative impacts of goods, works or even services
2. To minimize demand for non-renewable resources, the point being reducing purchases of such or even encouraging purchasing of recycled products
3. To ensure that fair contract prices and terms are applied and respected, at least meeting minimum ethical, human rights and employment standards
4. To promote diversity and equality through supply chain

Sustainable procurement therefore takes into account economic, environmental and social sustainability when making purchasing decisions

In the pursuit of this you should be asking yourself:

• Does procurement meet the present needs of the organization and its stakeholders without compromising the ability to continue doing so in the future?

The answer here can be seen from whether or not the activity depletes resources, undermines trade or even undermines relations

• Does procurement protect or enhance the economic security of the organization without negative environmental or social impacts

By enhancing security am talking about whether there is some value addition, cost controlling, securing supply continuity and so on

• Does procurement comply with the organisation’s corporate social responsibility values and international standards, in regard to ethical issues such as environmental protection, poverty reduction, international equity in the distribution of resources, labour conditions and humans rights etc