Sustainable Procurement
The most obvious customer influence on procurement decisions is the pressure that customers can exert on firms to select and use suppliers and resources that meet sustainable criteria. Customers can also influence procurement by eliminating or attenuating resource use in two ways: (1) providing their own resources (e.g., self-service, volunteer tourism), and (2) advising and helping firms to reuse or share resources, such as supporting cup-reuse programs by purchasing a reusable cup or mug or by using amenity dispensers in hotels, rather than amenity bottles. By the same token, tourists’ and consumers’ associations have assisted and educated tourism suppliers on how to adopt and implement sustainable procurement (Tapper and Font 2005). Firms can also promote and support the release of (idle) human resources for supporting sustainable practices. For instance, Starbucks operates an initiative that frees up its own labor resources and also motivates customers to sup- port and participate in local social projects (see Exhibit 2). Another example of employee community service, at the Willard InterContinental Hotel, was explained by Hervé Houdré (2008), who was general manager at the property. Given that customers can be considered a service-industry resource, Starbucks also continually creates new programs to facilitate community service and giving, while it also motivates customers and staff to think of and participate in community initiatives. For example, Starbucks offers a cup of coffee for customers’ pledge of five hours of community service. Exhibit 2 gives further details about the Starbucks’ initiative aiming to mobilize customers’ resources and more examples of the customers’ role in sustainable procure- ment. These examples also show how firms exploit social
media for promoting these initiatives, and recruiting and motivating customers to share their resources.
The recycling or reuse of employees’ and customers’ resources is an important way in which customers can pro- vide resources for supporting sustainable procurement. Research is required in this area to investigate the type of governance mechanisms and collaboration strategies that firms can develop for instilling, motivating, and better managing the resources that their customers are willing to provide.