In the face of climate change, it’s now more important than ever to go as green as you can, even for businesses. But of course, that’s easier said than done.
Unless you know exactly how to set green procurement goals you can achieve.
We’ll cover all the basics surrounding these goals, starting with what they are and concluding with the best practices you need to become a green procurement goal-setting expert. Let’s jump right in.
What is a green procurement goal?
Green procurement is all about making your supply chain more eco-friendly. This usually involves focusing on either the products you’re stocking, or the full procurement process itself–we’ll discuss each of these options in more detail below.
Green procurement goals, then, are targets you set yourself to help your business become more environmentally conscious in its procurement.
These goals should be realistic and achievable. Something like ‘I want to make my business fully eco-friendly’ is not very helpful, because it’s not specific and doesn’t come with set parameters. A good green procurement goal should have a solid point at which you can say ‘I’ve now accomplished this.’
But we’ll get into those specifics later. First, let’s look at the two areas that green goals tend to focus on.
Green products
Whether they’re bio-based products, energy-efficient products, or just ones that come with a smaller
carbon footprint, green products are all about being kinder to the planet. That’s why they’re often called environmentally friendly products.
A true green product should be made of sustainable, ideally biodegradable materials.
However, sustainable products go far beyond simply being made of greener materials. They should be produced sustainably too, for example via tools like Shopify print on demand that ensure there’s never a surplus of dead stock that never gets sold and ends up in a landfill.
Sustainable procurement
The other half of green procurement lies in the actual procurement process itself.
To make for a greener procurement, you’ve got to adopt green procurement practices. For example, you might implement a sustainable procurement program that comes with practices aimed at increasing your environmental care in your procurement.
You’ll also want to implement affirmative procurement programs that help you write eco-friendliness into the DNA of your business’ procurement practices. In much the same way that a software developer might aim for sustainability through cloud design that doesn’t rely on hardware that could degrade and create more waste, your green procurement planning should help you tactically reduce the environmental impact of your procurement process.
Why should you worry about green procurement?
We wouldn’t recommend blindly following any trends that happen to crop up. Just as you need to be selective about which enterprise architecture trends are worth your time and effort, you need to know exactly what you want from green procurement–and why.
Here are some of the major reasons why investing time, effort, and money into green procurement is a good idea.
The cost
Every business has to consider cost savings at some point in its life. While it can be tempting to dismiss new (and more eco-friendly) ventures for the additional costs they might come with, green procurement tends to be more cost effective in the long run.
For one thing, you don’t have to worry as much about disposal costs when all your materials are recyclable. This brings down the overall life-cycle cost for your products.
Plus, if you’re a new business and you incorporate the purchase cost of your green tools and solutions into your initial calculations, you’ll start saving money from the first sale.
So, in summary: after the initial acquisition cost, the average green procurement solution actually saves you money.
The regulations
It would be very dangerous to start recording phone calls without first doing your research on TCPA compliance, because otherwise, you could run afoul of important regulations.
The same principle applies here.
As more regulations are created worldwide to support a greener future, it’s a good move to get ahead of the game and start doing whatever you can well before it becomes mandatory. That way, you can show customers and investors alike that you’ve been doing the right thing from the start, while also ensuring you don’t have to scramble to comply when new regulations come about.
Sustainability–in more than one way
There’s more to sustainable procurement than just having sustainable products, though this is also very important.
When you have high sustainability standards for your products and the ways in which they’re acquired, you can ensure that your business is more future-proof. This is because renewable materials are just that: renewable. They aren’t finite, so you never have to worry about future shortages.
Your personal business capability examples will then go to show that you’re able to sustain yourself as a business, while also doing good for the environment. It’s a win-win.
Connecting with customers
Plenty of customers care about things like purchasing water-efficient products, or scanning product descriptions to find the most sustainable items they can buy. If you’re just as dedicated to the goal of being eco-friendly, you’ll have a deeper connection with your customers.
This is especially important in cases where competitors are already on the path to offering a green solution. Working hard to continuously set and meet more green procurement goals will help you stand out as a company that doesn’t content itself with being ‘good’, but goes the extra mile to becoming ‘great.’
Best practices for setting green procurement goals
Lastly, we’ll give you some practical tips to help answer the question of how to set green procurement goals for your business. You don’t necessarily need to do all of these in order, as there’s no one set of instructions that will work for everyone.
Start with the basics
This means the basics of both goal-setting and green procurement.
In the former case, you’ll want to set specific, realistic, achievable goals. Be very clear about what you want, and include timelines that set out how you’re going to achieve the goals. The SMART goal method can be very helpful.
As for the basics of procurement, start with your raw materials. Look for biodegradable materials that help you reduce carbon emissions, or take it even further back and reassess your virgin material requirements. Often, you’ll find that sustainable alternatives exist already.
Look at the big picture
There’s plenty to be said about getting small details right, but sometimes, you’ve got to take a step back and consider the many factors that go into green procurement.
A major one is vehicle use.
You can do a lot of good by switching to alternative fuel vehicles, like electric vehicles. You don’t need to go searching for advanced technology vehicles either–a few hybrid trucks are better than all diesel trucks, for example.
You can also consider choosing greener energy sources.
Set both small and large goals
In a similar vein, you’ll want to balance your large-scale goals with your smaller-scale ones.
This is because you need some minor items to check off your list while you’re progressing towards bigger items, like swapping out all of your packaging products.
Another example of a large goal could be a tech stack overhaul. You might start searching for dedicated hosts to store all your company data in a cloud server, which can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. At the same time, you can work on a small goal like using less packing tape so you’re still making tangible progress.
Stay on top of emerging trends
Whether it’s paying with bitcoin or using metal straws, new trends are always cropping up, and plenty of them can work to your advantage.
It’s also one of the main advantages of focusing on greener plans. More preferable products are being created all the time to help reduce our negative impact on the world, just as new eco-friendly solutions are always being found to long-standing problems.
Stay on top of emerging trends, such as paying with bitcoin or using metal straws, by exploring various sources of information. Consider starting a podcast dedicated to sustainability in business, where you can discuss the latest innovations and best practices with experts in the field. New trends are always cropping up, and plenty of them can work to your advantage.
Aim for transparency
Your customers want to know that you’re not just greenwashing your products and hoping they won’t notice. This is another key part of setting green procurement goals: making sure your customers can clearly see how far you’ve come, and how much there is left to do.
Being very clear about your goals and progress towards achieving them helps you address eco-anxiety in your customer base. It also shows that you’re holding yourself accountable and properly dedicating resources and efforts towards meeting your eco-goals.
Final thoughts
Green procurement is the bread and butter of any company’s eco-friendly transformation. Plus, it’s great for helping your business better prepare for the future, while ensuring you make more meaningful connections with your customers.
As an added bonus, it also helps you come across as more authentic and dedicated to your values.
That’s why it’s so important to know how to set green procurement goals for your business, and why our best practices are essential for making that happen.
Disclaimer: The author is completely responsible for the content of this article. The opinions expressed are their own and do not represent IEEE’s position nor that of the Computer Society nor its Leadership.
