In the current political climate, you’d be hard pressed to find many businesses, consumers or political leaders who think sustainability will be disappearing from our radars anytime soon. And any business that doesn’t consider sustainable procurement to set, reach and measure their sustainability goals is missing an opportunity to help their brand, environment and bottom line.

Sustainable procurement is about efficient purchasing, improving material use and saving money. By applying principles of effective supply chain management, companies can lower their carbon emissions while satisfying customer demands and meeting profitability goals.

When buying products and services, you should consider:

• strategies to avoid unnecessary consumption and manage demand
• minimising environmental impacts over the whole-of-life of the goods and services
• the socially responsible practices of your supply chain, including compliance with legislative obligations to employees
• value for money over the whole-of-life of the products, rather than upfront costs alone.

Considering these options will help you understand where there are opportunities to improve resource efficiency and reduce carbon in your supply chain. Some easy options include:

• using more recycled materials
• using manufacturing processes that are less energy intensive or do not rely on fossil fuels
• reducing packaging and ensuring it is easily recyclable.

Although defining, measuring and benchmarking sustainability KPIs can be challenging, it can also provide a critical role in winning over customers and enhancing the value of your brand. To thrive in the marketplace today, brands must innovate, and the best new innovations tend to be sustainable.

Award-winning not-for-profit ECO-Buy was established to encourage the purchasing of environmentally-preferable products and services.  For a limited time, ECO-Buy is offering access to its online Sustainable Procurement Assessment Tool for free.

The ECO-Buy Sustainable Procurement Assessment Tool helps you measure your success in reducing the environmental, social and economic impact of your organisation through green purchasing. It covers all aspects of green procurement, from policy to suppliers, and is designed to be completed on an annual basis.

The tool allows you to assess your organisation’s performance by answering questions where you will receive an overall score upon completion. Your score will help you identify which areas of sustainable procurement you are doing well and help to identify areas for improvement.

So, if your organisation is doing great things in sustainable procurement, this is your opportunity to shout about it!

Visit: http://assessment.ecobuy.org.au or speak to a VECCI Sustainability Consultant by calling 03 8662 5196.