Are companies and their buyers really looking for suppliers with Green products? Are suppliers rushing to include these products and services as part of their standard offerings?
Companies continue to look for ways to differentiate themselves as they practice more socially responsible ways to run their businesses whether they are supplier or a buyer. We know companies are leaning heavily on their green product offerings, initiatives, and other programs as a key differentiator today and in the future.
For those companies that are more talk than walk, please consider the following in your approach to improve your entire CSR focus.
Nine steps to safer and more eco-friendly procurement
1. Be pro-active in driving not for resale and for resale product safety within your company, and also supporting eco-standards in the procurement process.
2. Pay it forward with all of your trading partners by sharing what you are doing, and asking what they do to support yours or similar initiatives of their own.
3. Educate your employees and trading partners about common safety standards and guidelines such as the SQF Certificate www.sqfi.com and the Global Food Safety Initiative www.ciesnet.com.
4. Educate your employees and trading partners about common eco-standards such as Green- Energy National Standard www.green-e.org or EcoLogo www.ecologo.org.
5. Point associates and trading partners to free educational websites such as www.safesourcing.com to use their free SafeSourcing Wiki or the Sourcebook professional social network for procurement professionals.
6. Only use trading partners that follow your lead.
7. Train your team to understand and use all available tools that insure supply chain safety such the free daily safety in sourcing blog at www.safesourcing.com or the low cost SafeSourceIt Supplier Database and Reverse Auction Tools.
8. Write it down and then impose a system of measures and controls to monitor performance against clearly defined goals.
9. Start at the top and engage all levels of your company.
We look forward to and appreciate your comments
