Archive for the ‘Green eProcurement Practices’ Category

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Hey retailers; how green are your suppliers? You can not manage something that you do not measure.

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

When we think about safety and eco standards relative to our supplier partners, I honestly believe that retailers say quietly to themselves; how are we supposed to monitor this with everything else we have to deal with in procuring products?

This issue becomes more complex when you consider that data may be required from your organization relative to your existing suppliers, data from your supplier as to their own interpretation of their adherence and practice and finally other external data that neither organization may have.

Reflecting on safety, the question that retailers should ask all suppliers old or new is pretty simple. What certifications do you carry relative to food safety such as Safe Quality Foods (SQF), Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), American Humane Certified and others? Another area to question should be regarding USDA and FDA inspection history.

Although Green Initiatives fall into the social consciousness area of a company, there are a variety of questions that can be asked in this area as well such as Green Seal, Eco-logo and Green Star certifications and participation in other partnerships that are environmentally focused.

A source that may make it easier for retailers would be to rely on their e-procurement solutions providers for this data if the provider has it included in their portfolio such as a supplier database. E-procurement specification templates can act as a form of scorecard for existing suppliers and potential news sources of supply if they are used as a repository for database queries relative to the above subject matter. This can become a type of automated RFI process which can save retailers a lot effort when trying to find additional sources of supply or when trying to drive cost down with existing suppliers. These data may also help to protect retailers from harmful litigation when products end up not being as safe as promised.

Can your e-procurement solutions provider provide these types of data on demand as a normal byproduct of your standard e-procurement process?

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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What are we discussing when we speak or write about sustainable procurement?

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

I have quite often written about what is required to build a sustainable process in e.negotiation or e.procurement. I have also posted quite often on the subject of Sustainable Procurement. To that end I offer the following.

According to Wikipedia, Sustainable procurement which is also called green procurement is a spending and investment process typically associated with public policy, although it is equally applicable to the private sector. Companies that practice sustainable procurement look well beyond cost only benefits using more intrinsic measures that include society and a broader view of the world.

Often company?s focused on sustainability measure their results by Triple-bottom-line accounting or TPL which is a process by which companies can measure the economic, social and environmental performance of a project or a business. This method of assessment aims for synergy among these three aspects rather than compromise or trade-offs among them.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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What does SafeSourcing do in the E-Procurement Space?

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Our SafeSourcing vision is to be the leader in knowledge driven retail e-procurement solutions that drive down costs and improve quality with an additional focus on safety.??? Beyond safety, we also focus on support of the environment which is a top of mind CSR issue within the retail executive suite.

By assigning as little as 10% of their cost of goods or expense related items to these tools a retailer can improve net earnings by up to 100% while also providing their consumers with safer products that support a reduction in the industries carbon footprint.

With SafeSourcing?s innovative e-procurement tools, a buyer can initiate reverse auctions or requests for information using the SafeSourceIt? e-procurement tools for new contract purchases, spot buys, replenishment, aggregation and collaboration with other buying organizations, saving as much as 30% to 40% in the process and then simply drop that data into our SafeContract? contract management solution to eliminate issues such as ever greening which costs the retail industry millions annually. Alerts can then be set that will remind procurement knowledge workers of required actions in the future as they arise.?

To support the above initiatives our SafeSourceIt?? global retail supplier database consisting of more than 380,000 suppliers contains thirty-five unique certification standards that are supported by our best practice initiatives such as GFSI, ISO 22000, Green Seal, ECO-LOGO, Fair Trade, SQF and Certified Humane Raised & Hand-Led to name a few. As our database continues to grow all SafeSourcing participating suppliers are regularly vetted for their support of ours and our retail partner?s socially responsible initiatives including their eco-friendly practices to insure continuity.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Creative green oriented education for procurement professionals to support your CSR goals.

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Using creativity to support your educational programs can be as easy as visiting good websites that provide thought leadership as to creative courseware that can be used for schools and other organizations. At first some may seem a little basic for corporate America but as you drill into the detail the ideas and themes can be easily applied to general education overviews for your teams. Two interesting websites are.

1.?www.edutopia.org
2.?www.gogreeninitiative.org

Both of the above websites offer class oriented or field trip oriented initiatives that can be easily modified for adult audiences in order to provide interesting learning segments that support your companies CSR initiatives and programs.

At www.edutopia.org?? they have a really neat database that can be searched by going to the following site extension www.eduatopia.org/go-green .? You can filter a variety of searches by grade level such as classes for grades 9-12th. Don?t worry to much about the content level, because most kids at this age know more about living a green life than we do. As such, these curriculums can be easily modified to provide interesting learning segments for all associates.

At www.gogreeninitiative.org? there are lots of interesting factoids that can? be explored and expanded upon such as; ?For every ton of paper that is recycled, the following is saved: 7,000 gallons of water; 380 gallons of oil; and enough electricity to power an average house for six months.?? How many off you new that? How many of your store managers know that? When you do a trash hauling e-procurement event is recycling taken into account?

Being creative just takes a little time and research and helps to foster a learning organization and a learning organization is a growing organization.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Here are some e-procurement produce and perishable replenishment thoughts and principles for retail buyers.

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Retail procurement professionals need to be aware of more than just pricing when buying produce and other perishable products with electronic tools. Sometimes we spend to much time watching indices and being concerned about price when there are other issues that can quite frankly be overlooked and impact the quality and safety of what our consumers expect in their produce and other perishable purchases.

There are literally dozens of pesticides sprayed on produce and also many fertilizing techniques used that this blogger is sure none of your consumers are aware of. So who is the watchdog for the products that your buy. The answer is you. There are organizations out there that watch globally like the Environmental Working Group (EWG). But we already know you don?t have time for that.

If you have never been to a farm that grows the products you are buying or visited a packaging facility you need to. So when you set up your e-procurement event for produce and other perishables here are some things to be thinking about daily in your specifications. Don?t make the mistake of just running your events daily without constantly reviewing and adjusting more than quantity and price.

Here are some top of mind items you should be thinking about.

1.?Who grew it
2.?Who picked it
3.?Who packed it
4.?When and where was it picked
5.?When and where was it packed
6.?Was it fertilized with petroleum based products
7.?Was it fertilized with semi solid leftovers
8.?What? synthetic pest controls were used
9.?Local versus not local
10.?Organics versus non organics
11.?What price index should I use
12.?How is it being shipped
13.?Certifications
14.?Grass ?fed
15.?Pastured

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Quality retail e-negotiation in a time of heightened Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Why do some companies succeed while others continue to implement program after program with no measurable benefit. First among these is the recognition that effective e-negotiation initiatives like any successful program requires strong support from the executive suite. In Retail this is important because the industry lags well behind other industries in utilization rates of e-negotiation tools. At a minimum in order to get off on the right foot, this means the involvement and sponsorship of your CEO, CFO, CLO or CPO is critical. Once you have this involvement directives can be issued. This will help in the required next step which is to identify savings targets across all corporate spend categories. Once these targets are identified and ranked, a category specific attack plan can be developed that best maximizes savings opportunities. It is important to note, that savings alone do not create a successful e-negotiation plan. What can not be sacrificed in the name of cost reduction is quality, which can include safety as well as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals including environmental support programs.
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A key challenge for any procurement team directed to implement e-negotiation tools across all of their unique spend categories, is to not over complicate the process into something that can?t be maintained. At a high level, the following 10 steps which are in no particular order offer some assurance that you are headed down the right path.

1.?Identify and rank all opportunities by spend
2.?Locate all contracts and identify termination language
3.?Document your safety and environmental goals
4.?Develop a total company strategy
5.?Source qualified suppliers
6.?Identified fragmented or maverick purchasing and aggregate
7.?Negotiate final terms and conditions
8.?Award of business
9.?Contract completion including review of evergreen and termination language
10.?Results Analysis

Most quality e-negotiation? solution providers have well developed and well thought out plans that will aid you in developing and implementing your best practices while maintaining quality and supporting your CSR initiatives.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Try buying products and services that are safe and support the environment.

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Do consumers have the right to expect products, services and other finished goods they purchase from their retailers to be safe and eco friendly?

If so, what level of safety should they expect? Does safety extend beyond the personal safety of their families, pets and loved ones to the ecological impact the manufacturing of these products has on our planet? Who should bear the expense of this increased safety; suppliers, retailers, or consumers? Are there more effective ways in the form of better processes and more modern easy to use tools to reduce costs and increase safety and eco awareness?

A Consumer?s Perspective:

Many baby boomers remember listening to the nightly news as children and young adults and hearing the local anchor person ask the following question. ?It?s 10 o?clock. Do you know where your children are??

In those days, it was fair question. Prior to the development of pagers, cell phones, personal digital assistants smart phones, and Apples newest offering the question challenged parents to be accountable for their children and insure that they were safe. Today, a simple text message or phone call provides some level of security to parents, albeit not the level of safety one might like. But, do we know how the safe the products we consume and use are? Toy recalls, pet food recalls, tainted drugs, many food born illness outbreaks from salmonella to e.coli, melamine, BPA issues, children?s jewelry. The list grows daily.

The question consumers are asking retailers more often these days is how safe is your supply chain? That?s because every retailer has a similar but different supply chain.? Consumers are interested as to what level their retailer understands where their products come from??? The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness Act of 2002 was fully enacted in 2004. It requires processors, distributors, importers and other reseller groups in the United States to maintain records that identify the immediate sources that they receive food from and the recipients they send it to. There are any number of other laws and standards we discuss in this post regularly covering virtually every product made.

Should consumers have anything to worry about and if so what risk does this pose for retailers? Visit us tomorrow for some answers.

We appreciate and look forward to your comments.

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Good sourcing practices are good whether they are green or not.

Monday, January 18th, 2010

A Practical Guide to Green Sourcing was written by? John Christensen, Christopher Park, Earl Sun, Max Goralnick, and Jayanth Iyengar? of? Supply Chain Management Review and published on? November 1st 2008. It is absolutely loaded with great information a lot of which should be just common sense..

A quote from the article really says it all and is a theme you should already be familiar with if you read my posts regularly. It is as follows. ?Green sourcing can help in two important ways. It can help companies improve their financial results, allowing them meet their cost reduction goals while also boosting revenues. It can also contribute to a better public image and reputation with the company’s stakeholders.? In essence this one quote supports triple bottom line accountability or TBL. However if you replaced the word green at the beginning of the quote with the following it still works

1.?Efficient
2.?Well thought out
3.?Strategic
4.?A refocus on your
5.?Reviewing your

I?m sure you can add another dozen to this list easily. I hope you will read the entire article. It may be your company?s first step towards a more successful 2010.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Bad sourcing practices can cause more than just “the cadmium blues.”

Friday, January 15th, 2010

According to Wikipedia cadmium has no constructive purpose in the human body. Cadmium and its compounds are extremely toxic even in low concentrations, and will bioaccumulate in organisms (that’s us) and ecosystems (that’s where we live).

This author posts frequently on safety issues and realities in sourcing practices. Particularly when you are buying from and unknown source, offshore or products for which you have no specific product specification. Consumers would be surprised how many products are bought offshore during buying trips that don’t have a specific specification. An example might be something as simple as a tiki lamp that comes under the category of seasonal, pool supplies or miscellaneous. Another that has been in the news recently is children’s costume jewelry. The issue that bothers this author is that for some of the largest names in retail that generally have great procurement practices there is really no excuse for these products making their way on to the shelves of our stores. There should be a check list of standards and certifications that suppliers have to adhere to in order for their products to come onshore in the first place. I can’t believe that a simple question like “Do these products contain any harmful chemicals in their makeup such as cadmium etc.” If the answer is we don’t know then don’t buy them or make the manufacturer provide a chemical breakdown of the product.

Inez Tenenbaum the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission advises, “Do not allow young children to be given or to play with cheap metal jewelry, especially when they are unsupervised. This author whishes to paraphrase, DON’T ALLOW IT WHETHER SUPERVISED OR NOT. And further. Retailers don’t buy these products regardless of profit margins unless you know they are safe period.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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Bad sourcing practices can cause more than just “the cadmium blues.”

Friday, January 15th, 2010

According to Wikipedia cadmium has no constructive purpose in the human body. Cadmium and its compounds are extremely toxic even in low concentrations, and will bioaccumulate in organisms (that?s us) and ecosystems (that?s where we live).

This author posts frequently on safety issues and realities in sourcing practices. Particularly when you are buying from and unknown source, offshore or products for which you have no specific product specification. Consumers would be surprised how many products are bought offshore during buying trips that don?t have a specific specification. An example might be something as simple as a tiki lamp that comes under the category of seasonal, pool supplies or miscellaneous. Another that has been in the news recently is children?s costume jewelry. The issue that bothers this author is that for some of the largest names in retail that generally have great procurement practices there is really no excuse for these products making their way on to the shelves of our stores. There should be a check list of standards and certifications that suppliers have to adhere to in order for their products to come onshore in the first place. I can?t believe that a simple question like ?Do these products contain any harmful chemicals in their makeup such as cadmium etc.? If the answer is we don?t know then don?t buy them or make the manufacturer provide a chemical breakdown of the product.

Inez Tenenbaum the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission advises, ?Do not allow young children to be given or to play with cheap metal jewelry, especially when they are unsupervised. This author whishes to paraphrase, DON’T ALLOW IT WHETHER SUPERVISED OR NOT. And further. Retailers don?t buy these products regardless of profit margins unless you know they are safe period.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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