Companies are expected to understand the social and environmental risks in their supply chains and take action to manage these as part of their commitment to corporate responsibility.

Sustainable procurement has been defined as “the process by which an organisation meets their needs for goods and services in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis, in terms of the benefits to the organisation, society and the economy, while minimising damage to the environment.”¹

Moving towards sustainable procurement means understanding what we do now – who we buy from and how much we spend – and scrutinising the integrity of suppliers at various levels in the supply chain, then exploring how we can make improvements.

Sustainable procurement is absolutely fundamental to responsible business practice. However, with increasingly complex global supply chains, companies need increasingly robust procurement processes to manage risks. 

We will be reviewing our supply chain even more to ensure that the goods and services we buy are produced sustainably, ethically, safely and with respect for human rights and indigenous communities.

There is no magic formula for sustainable procurement as every company is different, but large organisations like ours must use their purchasing power wisely to help and drive suppliers to provide more responsible products and services.

¹ Source “Procuring the Future", published by the Government's sustainable procurement taskforce in June 2006

Adrian Coats, Impact Leader