Sustainability has become a topic of great interest and is increasingly viewed as a source of competitive advantage that innovative companies can tap into. Sourcing and procurement are key to a company’s efforts to drive sustainability. Yet, there are often questions among practitioners around what exactly sustainable procurement is, who should be involved, why it should be done and how it can be achieved. This timely report provides answers to these four key questions. The report also discusses how COVID-19 affected sustainable procurement initiatives, and shows the positive impact such practices had on supply chain resilience.
The report is based on two surveys — one for buyers and one for suppliers — conducted as online questionnaires and followed by in-depth interviews with selected participants. The buyer survey saw 159 responses from companies across the world and a range of industry sectors, while the supplier sample consisted of 207 companies.
The study was conducted jointly by the Value Chain Innovation Initiative and EcoVadis, a leading provider of business sustainability ratings. EcoVadis has published the Sustainable Procurement Barometer reports biennially since 2007.