Socially responsible procurement

Environmental responsibility

Environmental issues have been a cause for concern over the past 25 years. The pressure to change the ways in which organisations behave has increased and now organisations have a legal and moral obligation to the environment.

Human rights

Organisations are not immune to human rights issues. Some of the first industry sectors to experience unwanted attention over human rights violations in supply chains were retail, including sport goods, footwear and apparel, toys, and food. Human rights are a mixture of complex issues such as slavery, bonded labour, working conditions, exploitations, and rates of pay.

Equal opportunities

Acts of discrimination take many forms including race, sexual, pay, religion, disability, gender, and culture to name a few. The key things to consider are:

• All contracts are delivered in a non-discriminatory way and promote equality of opportunity for staff, the public and business.
• The goods, works and services provided by a supplier cater for all users’ needs
• There is no difference in the satisfaction rates of users
• Staff are representative of the communities they operate in and serve
• Suppliers are representative of the local population, or of the area from which the businesses are drawn, with respect to ethnic diversity

Diversity

Diversity refers to the idea of variety. A modern economy is full of different sectors and industries, organisations come in varied sizes and businesses have a workforce of different ages and genders. Diversity provides opportunities and experiences that would be missing from a world where everything was the same.

Corporate governance

Good corporate governance is the integrity with which an organisation is managed. For example, goal setting, decision making and appropriate monitoring of compliance and performance.

Sustainability

Sustainability is about living and working in ways that meet and integrate existing environmental, economic, and social needs without compromising the wellbeing of future generations. Procurement can make a huge contribution to sustainable development by ensuring that suppliers, contractors, and goods achieve optimum environmental performance.

Impact on society

It’s important to realise that organisations impact on society, doesn’t just mean the area of operations. It extends globally such as the types of goods that are purchased and products supplied to market.

Ethics and ethical trading

Ethical supply chain management is one of the greatest challenges facing organisations. It’s unacceptable for organisations to be unaware of how the workers involved in making their products or supplying their services are treated.

Biodiversity

Organisations are central to bio-diversity loss and the need for strategies to conserve and restore nature. Procurement professionals often move goods from one destination to another at the lowest overall cost, that could be using ship. This use of transport can cause considerable damage to the biodiversity contained within the sea.

Community involvement

Community involvement is how the local community can participate in procurement. This could be how they can support service providers or contractors or even helping in planning and implementation.