??As pressure comes from increasingly competitive markets (with knowledgeable consumers) coupled with compliancy and legislative requirements many organizations are viewing corporate responsibility as an increasingly important aspect of their business. With sustainability being a key part of this framework organizations are looking to how they can implement “green buying” practices. For many organizations developing a mission statement is the easy part but putting it into practice can be daunting.
However as with any business change project getting the right approach can pay dividends. This guide looks at 6 key steps to consider when developing your sustainable purchasing plan.
1/ Get senior sponsorship – getting senior stakeholder support is crucial. You are much more likely to succeed if your senior management is supportive. This support should clearly articulate the importance of the project, its goals and timescales. This support must be visible (with senior executives seen to be directly involved) and communicated clearly to the organization. Senior support can add legitimacy to your project and assist in communicating its objectives and successes.
2/ Team up – your sustainability projects will need resources – you’ll need project managers and most likely a cross functional team. Consider your training needs at this point – does your in-house team have the knowledge required – will you need consultants or will you need to send your team for training. Ensure that the size and number of projects is suitable for your resource pool – don’t try and commit to something you don’t have sufficient resources for or you’ll most likely fail.
3/ Choose your targets carefully. Your organization will most likely have a set of related objectives or goals. You may wish to start with smaller projects in order to gain momentum that can be communicated back to the organization to gain credibility. Consider commodities or products that represent quick wins and where the environmental impact can be easily demonstrated. Ensure that as with any projects you utilize lessons learnt in order that you can re-invest this knowledge in future projects.
4/ Know where your starting from – as with any improvement projects its imperative that you have a baseline – your company has set objectives to improve but do you actually know your current environmental footprint? If not find out! This could be statistics around energy consumption, CO2 emissions, recycling rates or related costs. By knowing where you are you can set yourself meaningful and more importantly measurable targets.
5 – Communicate and engage – ensure you have a plan on how you will communicate your successes. Establish a plan that communicates how your team will delivery against the business strategy. Ensure that you regularly and simply explain your progress for example explain how environmentally friendly alternative products can support your strategy and save costs – look for things that engage your stakeholders and encourage participation.
6 Measure your success – Develop a set of KPI’s that help track the changes you are implementing. Collect appropriate data that can support your initiatives and assess the impact (cost savings or improving your environmental footprint). Don’t rely on subjective commentary use hard facts.