The 5 steps to more responsible procurement

Responsible procurement means being considered in your purchases and trying to minimise social and environmental harm. It is not easy to do because nearly every company buys a huge range of items and services. But, if you want to make some improvements to your approach, these are the hands-on steps to follow: 

1. Understand what you buy and where you buy it from. Look at your spend and suppliers to identify categories/types of purchase and also the country of purchase. When you’re starting out on your responsible procurement journey consider only your first tier of suppliers to keep the task manageable. 

2. Understand the risks associated with these purchases. Here you need to research the social and environmental issues associated with the product type/category that you buy - Do they treat their employees fairly? Do they cause pollution? Do they have a high carbon footprint? Do they cause deforestation? You also need to consider the countries that you buy from from a social perspective – Is the country at high risk of modern slavery, corruption or human rights issues? 

3. Understand your supply chain risks. In this stage you need to interpret how the risks you’ve identified above relate to your specific supply chain. How much are you spending on purchases in high risk counties and/or on high risk products? Is there a trend, e.g. a lot of your purchases have the same type of risk? It is helpful, but not always possible, at this stage to also look at what your suppliers are doing to mitigate these risks. For example, if you purchase palm oil, are your suppliers only purchasing RSPO certified palm oil, in which case the risk of deforestation impact is lowered. 

4. Define your standards. Set your stall on what minimum standards you have for suppliers and document these in a Supplier Code of Conduct. Leverage best practice standards such as the UN Global Compact and International Labour Organisation standards but remember that these are catch-alls, and that your Code should be tailored to your supply chain. For example, if you buy a lot of paper/card/timber products you probably want to include a commitment to FSC/PEFC/recycled content. Remember that a Supplier Code of Conduct should be helpful to your suppliers. It should explain clearly what you expect from suppliers and why. Try to keep it short and use checklists to help them more easily ensure they meet your requirements. Finally, the gold standard here is to also include what your preferred standards are above and beyond these minimums. Setting these out now gives you a pathway to raise the bar in the future, and gives your suppliers time to adapt before you do so. 

5. Implement, measure and improve. Now is the time to communicate your Supplier Code of Conduct and crucially, reflect it in your processes. At the purchasing stage you should be evaluating your suppliers against the Code and not working with those that breach the minimum standards. Existing suppliers also need to be assessed, but here you need to support and encourage them to change when their approach falls short. Don’t see this as an opportunity to change supplier but see this as an opportunity to help them improve. When you have an adequate volume of suppliers assessed, set goals to improve performance as a whole. Perhaps you’re at 60% full compliance now and you want to get to 80% by the next year? Consider also the governance around this process. How can concerns about your supply chain be raised (e.g. a whistleblowing process) and who is managing responses and the overall responsible procurement approach? Formalise and document this all in a Responsible Procurement Policy. 

   
   

As with everything sustainability, responsible procurement is a journey and the approach above is a strategic, systematic method to improve your impacts. It is not a quick fix and the aim here is to gradually improve your supply chain over time. If you don’t have time to take this approach, we can help, or failing that, take action on one type of product at a time. Something is always better than nothing. 

Contact us here to find out more. 

Authored by Caroline Johnstone.