ISO 20400 Sustainable Procurement
What is ISO 20400?
Procurement is an essential part of any business. At a time of a global climate emergency and with an international agreement to transition to a net zero carbon economy by or before 2050, ISO 20400 outlines a sustainable procurement process that is applicable across organizations of any size and industry.
Sustainable procurement is the process of making purchasing decisions that meet an organization’s needs for goods and services in a way that benefits not only the organization but society as a whole, while minimizing its impact on the environment. This is achieved by ensuring that the working conditions of its suppliers’ employees are decent, the products or services purchased are sustainable, where possible, and that socio-economic issues, such as inequality and poverty, are addressed.
Things to consider:
ISO 20400 includes guidance covering procurement in your organization and its impact on the wider environmental landscape – and to help you get the most from it, you should consider the following before embarking on the journey:
- What is your “buying culture” – how, who from, what risk treatments and controls do you have in place across your supply chain?
- What is the cost of your supply chain?
- Strategic thinking – working collaboratively with your suppliers across the whole lifecycle can bring benefits to all.
- Top management buy-in. Without this, your efforts to change the way in which you procure goods and services will come to nothing.
How can we support?
We build ISO & carbon management systems as unique as our clients and we are proud of the relationships we build together along the way. Get in touch with our ISO & carbon team today and let us partner you on your ISO & carbon journey. We are proud of our ISO team, their knowledge and experience working nationally and internationally with our clients supporting implementation through to successful certification & verification.
We deliver a different level of support working together with our clients, building bespoke management systems that truly fit the scope of their business, designed for continual improvement and delivering effective results. We educate your team as we move through the process and we deliver the Stage 1 and Stage 2 certification or verification audits with you to ensure successful achievement.
Our team implement single and combined integrated management systems with a 100% success rate that we are proud of. We are equally proud of the relationships we build with our clients and our 97% retention rate for ongoing support after successful certification to help ensure that you retain certification and your systems continue to evolve with your strategic direction and growth.