10 WAYS TO START OR ENHANCE YOUR SUSTAINABILITY
PURCHASING STRATEGY
Sustainability Purchasing can be as simple as choosing office products with recognized green
certifications, buying from local suppliers or leasing equipment for temporary needs instead of
buying it. Depending on the size and scale of your organization and your supply chain,
sustainable purchasing programs can be very sophisticated, including scorecard evaluations
that follow a ‘total cost of ownership’1 approach, Supplier Codes of Conduct2 to govern fair
labour practices and human rights in the supply chain, or collaborations among purchasers and
suppliers to address key sustainability issues such as the carbon footprint of products or local
employment for disadvantaged groups.
The key when starting out is to follow the ‘KISS’ principle; keep it simple. Get started now by
using the following 10 steps whether you are a small to medium sized organization or a large
firm with an international supply chain and annual spend in the hundreds of millions. These
steps and approaches are proven and scalable. Don’t reinvent the wheel. You’ll find it’s easier
than you may think and the potential impacts on your organization, the community and the
environment can be incredibly transformative.
1. Find Allies in your Organization
If you spend some time reviewing case studies, you’ll see that a sustainability purchasing
strategy usually starts as the project of a few sustainability champions in an organization. Talk
to your colleagues and senior executive about sustainability purchasing and how it can benefit
the organization – use the Sustainability Purchasing Network’s Guide to the Business Case and
Benefits of Sustainability Purchasing (available at: www.buysmartbc.com/resources.html) as a
resource to help you articulate the benefits and for insights on how to manage the costs.
Support from the top is critical. Strike up a committee or cross functional working group that
meets regularly to discuss and work on sustainability purchasing initiatives.
2. Tap Into Key Resources
Few have the time and resources available to them at work to conduct original research. For
reliable and current information on sustainability purchasing, contact the Sustainability
Purchasing Network to find out what is new, what is being done and who is doing it. Check out
the Network’s Resources webpage for top resources on sustainability purchasing (available
www.buysmartbc.com/resources.html).
3. Draft a Policy Statement and Make a Plan
Putting a policy in place is an important step – especially for larger organizations that may have
a culture that is policy driven or oriented. A policy is a formal signal inside and outside of your
organization that sustainability purchasing is a priority. A good policy should clearly state what
sustainability purchasing means to you and what qualities you are looking for in the products
and services you buy and the organizations you buy them from. The good news is that there
are great examples you can draw from as you draft a policy that makes sense for your
organization. Ensure you understand your organization’s spending and consumption patterns in
order to focus your policy. Identify the organization’s single point of accountability to implement
your policy and plan. TIP: Don’t wait to start buying items on the shopping list in step 8 while
you go through a policy development process. Many of these things can be done at the same
time.
1 A Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) approach assesses the true profitability and sustainability of business investments