Slides from Johanna Anderson, Member Success Manager, SPLC, presented at the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council’s 2019 Summit in Portland, OR.

1. What is sustainability and sustainable purchasing,
exactly?
Welcome!
Please sit in your preferred sector and
take a look at the word cloud on the
table.

2. SPLC program team!
Johanna Anderson
Member Success Manager
johanna@sustainablepurchasing.org
Kris Spriano
Member Success Manager
kris@sustainablepurchasing.org
Sarah O’Brien
Acting CEO & Program Director
sarah@sustainablepurchasing.org

3. Hands-On
Learning with
SPLC
Strategic Program Planning
Process (SP3) – in pilot phase
Hands-On Learning Workshop
webinar series – next session
June 18th!

4. Who’s in the room?
• Purchaser/Buyer
• Supplier
• Public Interest Advocate
• Consultant
• Student
• Anyone else?

5. Agenda
• Shout it out: Demystifying sustainable purchasing
• Presentation: Defining sustainability & sustainable purchasing
• Hands-on practice: Benefits of sustainable purchasing
• Presentation: Sustainable purchasing approaches
• Hands-on practice: Solution strategies
• Wrap-up

6. Shout it out!
Demystifying sustainable purchasing

7. What terms
have you
heard used
regarding
sustainable
purchasing?
Sustainable Supply Chain
Responsible Sourcing
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing

8. Defining
sustainability &
sustainable
purchasing
Johanna Anderson, SPLC Member Success
Manager

9. HEALTHY
FOR EVERYONE
COMMUNITY ECONOMY ENVIRONMENT
FOREVER

10. Purchasing that…
 achieves value for money.
 strengthens the organization.
CONVENTIONAL
PURCHASING

11. Purchasing that…
 achieves value for money.
 strengthens the organization.
 strengthens the economy.
 strengthens society.
 strengthens the environment.
CONVENTIONAL
PURCHASING
SUSTAINABLE
PURCHASING

12. • Climate protection
• Pollution prevention
• Waste reduction
• Resource efficiency
• Habitat preservation
• Air and water quality
• Health & safety
• Equal opportunity
• Fair wages
• Employee training
• Workers rights
• No forced labor
• Supplier diversity
• Small business
• Local jobs
• Fair competition
• Transparency
• Innovation
• Corruption-free
Purchasing in ways that intentionally strengthen our…
Society Economy Environment
Sustainable Purchasing
…so that we can all enjoy living in an increasingly sustainable world.

13. Operations
Supply Chain
Climate Change
Deforestation
Supplier Diversity
Toxic Exposure
Waste
Living Wages
Economic
Development
Human Health
Collusion & Fraud
BiodiversityDiscrimination
Safety

14. Environment
Sustainable purchasing supports the natural
systems on which life depends.
▲ biodiversity preservation
▲ climate adaptation
▲ resource optimization
▲ soil health stewardship
▼ acidification
▼ desertification
▼ eutrophication
▼ freshwater pollution
▼ greenhouse gas emissions
▼ habitat depletion
▼ human health impacts
▼ land use change
▼ marine pollution
▼ ozone depletion
▼ radiation pollution
▼ resource depletion
▼ smog
▼ waste
▼ water consumption
Society
Sustainable purchasing supports the social
cohesion on which communities depend.
▲ community engagement
▲ diversity/equal opportunity
▲ employee engagement
▲ equal remuneration
▲ fair trade
▲ freedom of association
▲ grievance & remedy processes
▲ human rights
▲ indigenous rights
▲ occupational health & safety
▲ right to collective bargaining
▲ sustainable compensation
▲ training and education
▲ worker rights
▼ discrimination
▼ child labor
▼ forced/compulsory labor
▼ human trafficking
▼ sourcing from conflict zones
Economy
Sustainable purchasing supports the health
of the markets on which commerce depends.
▲ fair dealings
▲ innovation research / investment
▲ open competition
▲ transparency of information
▲ use of diverse suppliers
▲ use of HUB zones
▲ use of local suppliers
▼ conflicts of interest
▼ corruption (bribery, extortion…)
▼ dividing territories
▼ dumping
▼ exclusive dealing
▼ misleading market claims
▼ monopoly (seller collusion)
▼ monopsony (buyer collusion)
▼ patent misuse
▼ price fixing
▼ product tying
▼ refusal to deal
Sustainable Purchasing
14

15. Tangible
▲ innovation (creation of new value)
▲ process efficiency
▲ performance tracking
▼ cost
▼ regulatory burden
Intangible
▲ brand value
▲ customer satisfaction
▲ employee satisfaction
▲ investor visibility
▲ supplier relationships
▼ business risk
Benefits to the Organization
15

16. Hands On
Exercise
Benefits of Sustainable Purchasing

17. Benefits of
Sustainable
Purchasing
worksheet
17
Step 3
Write down any upcoming opportunities to use
sustainable purchasing to advance your existing
organizational initiatives/goals/priorities
Step 2
Match up existing initiatives/goals/priorities with
relevant benefits of sustainable purchasing
• E.g. Org initiative = Climate Action Plan; SP benefit = reducing GHG
emissions
Step 1
Write down 1– 5 existing organizational initiatives,
goals, or priorities related to environmental, social,
and economic impacts
• E.g. Climate Action Plan, Budget reduction, Diversity & Inclusion
Now – share your Step
3 responses with your
neighbor!

18. Sustainable
purchasing
approaches

19. Consider life-cycle costs
 Evaluate potential savings on maintenance, replacement, or
disposal costs
 Evaluate savings resulting from energy efficiency
Approach in action: By comparing the life
cycle costs of different solar arrays, the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts opted to
install solar PV canopies, despite the fact
that they cost more up-front than roof and
ground mount installs.
19

20. Rely on reputable ecolabels, standards, and
certification
 Saves purchaser time in reviewing for specification compliance
 Avoids greenwashing
 Can assist in measuring impacts
20
Approach in action: Bon Appetit requires the purchase
of seafood defined as “Best Choice” (green) or “Good
Alternative” (yellow) by Monterey Bay Aquarium
Seafood Watch program’s guidelines for commercial
buyers (result: FY17 = $7.3M on sustainable seafood)

21. Give preference to sustainable products
 Issue an Request for Proposal
and award additional points to
products meeting
sustainability criteria
 Use this approach if you are
unsure about availability or
impacts to costs
Approach in action: In a request
for proposals for office supplies,
the State of Minnesota awarded
additional points to vendors
who operated lower emission
delivery trucks.
21

22. Avoid over-specification
 Specify the function (vs. a specific
product) to allow for innovative,
potentially cost-saving approaches
Approach in action: Instead of giving their suppliers a specification
to fulfill, Proctor & Gamble brought them a problem statement –
“How we do address the issue of Marine Plastic by leveraging
P&G’s Brands?” – and empowered them with the autonomy and
creativity to collaboratively build the solution.
22

23. Consider “choice editing”
 Allow purchasers to select
only catalog items that meet
sustainability criteria
 Work with suppliers to
ensure compliance
Approach in action: Dakota
County worked with their office
supply vendor to limit catalog
items to products that met their
environmental requirements.
23

24. Require informative reports
 Allows you to
quantify the
impacts of your
work
 Saves you time –
you won’t have to
gather the
information on
your own!
Approach in action: City of Portland uses data
from vendor usage reports to produce “Green
Spend Snapshots” that showcase the significant
benefits achieved through sustainable
purchasing.
24

25. Hands On
Exercise
Solution Strategies in action

26. Solutions
Strategies
worksheet
26
Step 2
BRAINSTORM SOLUTION STRATEGIES
• Use the Solution Strategies worksheet to
identify the solution strategies that would be
relevant to the selected goal
Step 1
CHOOSE A GOAL
• Select a "real life" goal from one of the table
members, OR
• Choose one of the goals provided on the next
screen

27. Sample goals
 Reduce waste from cafeterias
 Decrease energy costs
 Greenhouse gas emission reduction
from IT products
 Increase spend with small,
medium, and diverse suppliers
 Increase recycled content of
products

28. Report Out
Let’s hear what you came up
with!

29. Wrap up
• Bring your worksheets back to your
office and put them to work – then share
your successes by applying for next
year’s SPLC awards!
• Keep an eye out for new definitions
based on the earlier exercise
• Provide feedback on this session in the
Summit app!

30. Thank you!

31. W W W.S USTA INA BLE PURCHA S ING.O RG