Sustainable procurement is not just a compliance issue, but an opportunity to protect and enhance an organization’s reputation, build resilience in the supply chain and create shared value for all stakeholders. It is also an opportunity for procurement teams to have an enormous environmental and social impact by using their companies’ spend as a lever to drive positive change on key identified sustainability criteria.
The challenge for organizations is how to operationalize sustainable procurement in a way that makes business sense. Organisations require a comprehensive and systematic framework for Sustainable Procurement, which starts with supplier engagement. Sustainable Procurement requires an understanding of the company’s spend, which supplier contracts are up for renewal, and what products or services are being procured. It also requires an understanding of the company’s sustainability goals, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With this information in hand, Sustainable Procurement can be mapped out and implemented in a way that meets business objectives while also having a positive environmental and social impact.
As such, it is critical to engage suppliers in a meaningful way on sustainability issues. However, supplier engagement can be a challenge, given the sheer number and diversity of suppliers. There are also language and cultural barriers, and the ever-increasing number of ESG regulatory requirements.
Our Hiraya has developed a unique approach to help large enterprises and government bodies to drive supplier engagement that starts with understanding each supplier’s specific sustainability risks and opportunities. We then work with every supplier to develop a tailored action plan to address these issues. This is done by using clever scalable technology, and tested workflows along with having a global team of sustainability consultants to support every supplier within a program.
This approach has been proven to be effective in helping to educate suppliers on the basics of sustainability, and driving real change in their operations. A good starting point is helping your suppliers to develop a sustainability strategy. A good starting point is ensuring suppliers comply with any regulatory requirements, then helping devise meaningful policies, and the right actions, and providing reporting and disclosure on the outcomes of their efforts.
The Our Hiraya approach is designed to be flexible, so it can be tailored to the needs of each supplier. We believe that by working together, we can make a positive difference in the sustainability of our supply chains. If you would like to learn more about Our Hiraya’s supplier engagement approach, please get in touch. We would be happy to discuss how we could help your organization to drive change in your supply chain.
