Procurement and Sustainability

Most of us are aware of global environmental issues: subjects such as acid rain, climate change, GLOBAL WARMING, greenhousee gas emission and species extinction are often in the media. What is less well understood is the link between these global problems and our everyday actions. Many people are unaware of how they can both contribute to environmental problems and help to solve them.
The Supply Chain of goods and services, whether on a small or large-scale, has a contributory effect upon pollution, depletion of natural resources and habitat destruction, leading to problems like global warming. For example, buying wooden furniture in Company can support logging of forests in Indonesia, Thailand. In turn, logging can cause soil erosion, leading to loss of nutrients and extinction of plant and animal species. It also threatens the existence of indigenous forest people and communities dependent on the forest. This is not to say you shouldn’t buy your new desk, but it is essential that a link is made between purchasing and wider environmental and social issues. There should be definitive guidelines to be prepared in each organization aims to make that link by providing information on environmental issues associated with purchasing decisions, guidelines for purchasing goods with reduced environmental impact and help with choosing specific products.

All of us have a role to play in reducing the environmental impact of the materials and services that we purchase and use. A large-sized Company spends in excess of $ 1000 million on these each year and every purchase made can contribute to sustainability, no matter in how small a way.


Through considering the impact of purchasing these Guidelines should help the procurement professionals in that company to make a difference to the environmental effects of the Company’s Supply-Chain.

I have included a Supply Chain & Logistics Carbon Footprint model prepared in excel for your reference, let me hear from you.