2Sustain

“Green Procurement Day,” a conference held recently at the European Business School (EBS) and jointly organized by the Supply Chain Management Institute (SMI) and BrainNet, focused on real-life, successful and efficient sustainability management.

Results of studies presented by SMI and BrainNet showed that green procurement is not only a driver for a sustainable transformation of processes in many companies, but a factor with a direct and positive impact on the success of a company.

Unfortunately, though, the willingness to invest in ensuring sustainability remains relatively low.

One study by SMI analyzed procurement managers’ ‘willingness to pay’ to avoid corruption and ensure social and ecological sustainability. The results revealed that one of the most important drivers of sustainability in procurement is not training, but a functioning system of sanctions where sustainable procurement is rewarded and non-sustainable procurement is penalized. If these sanctions are not consistently applied, even the best sustainability training, the most impressive sustainability website, and the most sophisticated sustainability strategy will be of little use, BrainNet concludes.

Conference attendees provided insights into their green procurement strategies. For example, Dick Bartelse, Global Purchasing Director Powder Coatings at AkzoNobel, the world’s largest supplier of paints and Coatings, described how the AkzoNobel works with suppliers and individual retailers to improve the “ecological footprint” of the entire value creation chain. Collaborating with suppliers –enhanced by network management –is a key factor in success of green procurement, he says.

Surprisingly, only a few of the conference attendees made the link between green procurement and cutting costs. Not surprisingly, those at the conference said that in addition to internal hurdles, the biggest challenge for “green and sustainable procurement” is binding and global methods for verifying standards.