Oct 27th, 2008 |
A Procurement Exchange partner, PPI Consulting, recently hosted Shaun McCarthy from ActionSustainability. ActionSustainability is at the forefront of sustainable procurement activities in the UK, and Shaun is a founder of that firm.
If nothing else, the event highlighted the philosophical and technical decisions that need to be made to implement a fully functioning sustainable procurement program.
Some of the key questions that I took away from the session included:
· How far down our supply chain should we be concerned about? Do we care about the activities of our suppliers’ suppliers?
· How does one create a traditional business case for improved social, economic and environmental benefits? Should a traditional business case be required?
· How can we avoid the adverse consequences of silo’ed budgeting practices on making sustainability decisions?
· Should our suppliers be able to charge a premium for sustainability? In many cases, shouldn’t sustainability result in less expensive products?
· How can we effectively lead our supply chain? What policies do we need in place in order to have the credibility to impose new sustainability requirements on our supply chain?
There is no simple answer to any of these questions. But I don’t think there is any debate whether sustainable procurement is part of our future. So, I’ll endeavour to keep on top of new developments in this area that I can share through the blog.
