Create a Sustainable Purchasing Policy

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Affordability

Creating a policy will take some investment of time to ensure the policy is right for your organization. Having said that, there are increasing examples and organizations providing guidance; a policy need not be created from scratch.

Cost savings

Decisions made at the point of purchase can make or break your sustainability and efficiency efforts – and the cost savings that can accompany them. Ensuring that energy efficiency, durability, and waste reduction receive attention during purchasing will save your company money. Read more about the benefits of and the business case for sustainability purchasing.

Environmental considerations

A sustainable purchasing policy typically includes considerations relating to reducing environmental impact in a variety of ways. Every business consumes and creates waste in the normal course of operations – a purchasing policy creates more awareness about how to do these with the least footprint possible.

What you need to know

• Learn about the business case for sustainable purchasing and trends.
• Putting a purchasing policy in place can be a long-term process involving various stages of development, including research, building internal support, educating decision-makers and negotiating with company stakeholders to have the policy passed and brought into practice. You can start slowly by focusing first on a few of your company's major inputs and building up from there. For example, office operations may focus on paper and EnergyStar (energy efficient) electronics. Restaurants may start by greening their cleaning supplies and committing to using only sustainable seafood – then moving towards increased levels of organic or local purchasing.
• Learn about the key issues in sustainable purchasing. Some include:
  • reducing total purchasing: is it possible to rent, lease, or buy second-hand instead of buying new?
  • durability: ensuring that equipment and materials that are purchased will perform well, will last a long time, and are repairable, thereby reducing waste and slowing the cycle of replacement (which requires additional resources for extraction, manufacture, and transport).
  • lifecycle cost: assessing the costs (financial and environmental) of the good over its lifetime. Items that consume more energy or supplies, are more prone to breakdown and repair, or that have a shorter life may cost more despite having a cheaper purchase price.
  • end of life: how will the item be disposed of at end of life? Can it be broken down and recycled or will it become landfill waste? Will the manufacturer take it back?
  • energy efficiency: is the item EnergyStar certified? Will it help reduce energy costs?
  • packaging: seek products that have reduced packaging and that use recycled and reusable packaging.
  • toxics: does the item contain toxics that will be harmful to employees' or customers' health – or that may have caused health impact for those who manufactured it?
  • recycled content: purchasing policies usually specify or prefer high recycled content where possible, such as paper goods and plastics
  • Fair Trade/ethical sourcing: was the good produced using fair labour standards, and did the producer receive a fair wage?
  • sustainable harvesting: in the case of natural materials (i.e. wood, seafood, paper, etc.), was the good produced and harvested in a manner that will not deplete the resource?
  • organic: for foods and even fibres, was the good produced using organic methods that preserve soil health and work within natural ecology?
  • buy local: reduce transportation impacts by buying from local producers where possible.
  • Read more about sustainability purchasing trends and drivers.
• Study sample purchasing policies. There's no need to create brand new policy language or content if you can adapt it from other organizations.
• Metro Vancouver offers a Sustainable Purchasing Guide and a Sustainable Supply Chain Logistics guide – excellent resources for getting started.
• Watch for workshops that may be useful. BuySmart BC offers periodic workshops and learning circles about sustainability purchasing.
• As you develop your policies, communicate them to your entire company. Provide training sessions for anyone who does purchasing. Seek guests who may be able to come to your training sessions to offer special expertise on topics and help staff understand the importance of their purchasing decisions.
• Review policies on a regular basis. Best practices continue to evolve – and new opportunities to save or improve may appear.

Taking it further

• Read about ethical sourcing at Mountain Equipment Coop and Hudson's Bay Company.
• Invest in technologies that eliminate or decrease the need for materials. For example, purchase software that helps to reduce paper use with features such as highlighting and removing unwanted pages, letting you decide what prints and what does not and tracking pages and money saved.
• More resources.

FAQ

Will sustainable purchasing cost more?
Overall, you are more likely to save by reducing unnecessary purchasing, increasing durability and efficiency, and cutting waste disposal costs. It is possible that some specific areas of purchasing – for example, buying organic or fair trade products, may cost somewhat more than their non-sustainable counterparts – but these costs are likely to be less than those saved in other areas.