Report: Sustainability Begins in the Purchasing Department | Sustainable Life Media

Report: Sustainability Begins in the Purchasing Department | Sustainable Life Media
Report: Sustainability Begins in the Purchasing Department

Procurement professionals are fast becoming a “critical, core element” of corporate sustainability efforts, a new survey finds.

While many companies are focusing their main efficiency efforts around green IT, the use of automated procurement solutions is “quietly emerging as the leading edge of many organizations’ efforts to go green,” according to the survey by KPMG, Inc.

The survey of 600 senior-level procurement professionals finds that 42% of respondents regularly evaluate suppliers on environmental and human rights performance. Another 33% have begun, or are currently launching, a green supply chain program.

While the KPMG survey finds that green procurement is on the rise, it also notes that suppliers’ sustainability and social responsibility records rank low among organizations’ priorities when compared to factors such as price, quality, and reliability.

“There are potential cost benefits to increased attention to sustainability, in particular from purchasing products which require fewer environmental inputs, such as energy,” says the report.

Drivers for building a green procurement strategy can also have knock-on effects to others areas of an organization. A recent report of U.K. IT professionals says the top driver for green IT planning is increasing pressure to reduce energy consumption – often the key green IT objective for sourcing policies as well.

To download the KPMG report, click here (PDF).