Introduction
Your organisation’s impacts don’t only come from your own operations, but from all the products and services you buy to either use or sell.
Why?
Just as when we act as consumers, every pound spent by an organisation is a vote for the kind of future its leaders want to see. Some of these purchasing decisions have a direct impact on Scope 3 carbon emissions, but others are less visible. But by exercising influence over its suppliers, any organisation can have a much larger positive impact that it could achieve alone.
How
A sustainable procurement policy needs to be tailored to the organisation’s specific needs, but some of the areas to be considered might include:
- Renewable energy suppliers
- Low-energy electrical and electronic equipment
- Furniture that uses recycled materials and avoids wood associated with deforestation
- Fuel-efficient vehicles – or better still, electric vehicles
- Paper from FSC-certified forest
- Second-hand equipment where this is practical
- Eliminating single-use items and disposables
