How to Build More Sustainable Procurement Practices
These practical strategies help embed a sustainable approach to procurement – enabling businesses to reap numerous benefits, including cost reduction, enhanced brand reputation and reduced supply chain risks.
Businesses are increasingly aware of the importance of sustainability in procurement. This attention comes from companies’ efforts to progress their own sustainability commitments, alongside external pressures. From consumers and investors to new laws, businesses face demands to minimise the negative environmental, social and economic impacts of their sourcing decisions.
Why sustainable procurement matters
Sustainable procurement is a business strategy that doesn’t just focus on reducing negative impact. It also enables businesses to unlock benefits such as:
- Proactive risk management and increased resilience: To source more sustainably, businesses need to gather detailed information about their supply chains and suppliers’ operational activities. This data enables proactive risk management on more than just sustainability, helping companies anticipate and navigate disruptions that could affect their supply lines.
- Enhancing brand reputation and customer loyalty: Today’s consumers are more conscious than ever about the environmental and social practices of the companies they support1. By embracing sustainable procurement, businesses can reassure and retain customers who value responsible practices.
- Fostering innovation and the development of new technologies: The pursuit of sustainable practices encourages businesses to think creatively and invest in cutting-edge solutions that address environmental and social challenges. This can lead to breakthroughs that benefit individual companies and entire industries.
- Contributing to sustainable development: By reducing environmental impact, promoting good labour standards and supporting responsible business practices, companies can play a vital role in creating a world that is healthier, more equitable and more prosperous for all.

Learn more about sustainable procurement here.
Five sustainable procurement strategies
Adopting sustainable procurement practices requires a comprehensive approach. These five strategies each help a business to source more sustainably, whether employed together or on their own.
1. Selecting suppliers based on environmental and social performance
Companies prioritise suppliers that demonstrate a commitment to environmental sustainability and social responsibility. This involves evaluating existing and potential suppliers based on their practices related to several areas, including energy consumption, waste management and ethical labour standards. By selecting suppliers with strong sustainability performance, the path to a more responsible and sustainable supply chain will be quicker.
2. Collaborating with suppliers to enhance sustainability
A company engages with suppliers to encourage and support their adoption of sustainable practices. Companies can share their own sustainability goals and expectations and work collaboratively with suppliers to identify opportunities for improvement. This collaborative approach can lead to enhanced sustainability performance throughout the supply chain and foster long-term partnerships built on shared values.
3. Setting targets to reduce environmental and social footprint
Many companies establish specific, measurable targets to reduce the environmental and social footprints of their supply chains. These targets could encompass reducing greenhouse gas emissions, minimising waste generation, improving labour standards and more! Regularly monitoring progress towards these targets is necessary both for reporting and for making adjustments to ensure continuous improvement.
4. Transparently reporting on sustainable procurement implementation
Businesses all over the world regularly communicate their progress on implementation with stakeholders, including customers, investors, and the public – in many countries, this is a legal requirement for many companies. Transparent reporting featuring data-based metrics demonstrates a company’s commitment to sustainability, demonstrates positive progress and encourages accountability.
5. Engaging stakeholders to foster a culture of sustainability
Some companies involve all relevant stakeholders, including employees, suppliers and customers, in their efforts to drive sustainability. They educate and support their employees to make sustainable choices in their roles. They collaborate with suppliers to share knowledge and best practices, and also engage customers through sustainable product offerings and transparent communication.
By fostering a culture of sustainability throughout both their supply chain and product lifecycles, companies build comprehensive support for their sustainable business goals.

Combatting the challenges
The road to implementing sustainable procurement practices is not without its challenges. To navigate these and enhance their responsible sourcing programmes, companies can leverage the intelligent technology and data-led solutions available.
- Gathering comprehensive supplier data. Without access to accurate and detailed information about suppliers’ environmental and social practices, companies struggle to assess the impacts of their supply chains. A comprehensive data platform to access, analyse and report on supplier information enables companies to address potential risks and opportunities for improvement.
- Supplier engagement and support is essential for sustainable procurement. Some suppliers may find it challenging adopt sustainable practices, for example due to perceived costs, lack of knowledge or resources or resistance to change. Communication, support and incentives for suppliers will encourage them to embrace sustainable practices. Leveraging supplier data already available – for example, through Sedex’s Platform where suppliers share existing information with customers – saves everyone time and effort.
- Using limited resources effectively. Every company has constraints in terms of time, expertise and budget. Conducting thorough assessments, engaging with suppliers, and monitoring compliance require adequate resources. Using analytics tools to draw insights from supply chain data enables companies to prioritise where they focus – for example on the biggest sustainability risks, or on critical suppliers.
- Navigating the complexity of supply chains today, with multiple suppliers across multiple countries, further compounds the challenges of sustainable procurement. Improving sustainability through such intricate networks requires extensive collaboration, coordination, and monitoring. Companies benefit from intelligent data-centric platforms and processes to help them trace materials and products throughout their supply chains, assess performance and drive continuous improvement.
How Sedex can help with sustainable procurement
Sedex’s supply chain sustainability solutions enable companies to assess the environmental and social practices within their supply chains, source more sustainably and drive improvement.
- Access suppliers’ existing data on our Platform, and gather the same, standardised information from remaining suppliers.
- Analyse, prioritise and report on sustainability risks across your supply chain globally.
- Assess conditions, operations and conditions at individual supplier sites, to resolve social and environmental concerns and improve compliance with related laws.
Contact us today to discover how Sedex can become an invaluable partner in achieving sustainable procurement goals.