WRITTEN BY : CAMERON SAUNDERS
or many , procurement – determining a supplier for goods or services – is an invisible process . Despite this , it ’ s a completely vital one that keeps the global economy humming along .
How do goods get from one place to another ? How are they procured , from where are they supplied , and how do they move down the chain ? These are all questions procurement teams have to consider daily . Managing procurement is synonymous with running a sound business : according to one statistic , 70 % of what an organisation earns is spent on suppliers .
The experience of COVID-19 and the pandemic ’ s disruptions to supply chains have reminded all of us – through higher prices and the inability to acquire basic goods – of the significance of this silent mover of the economy . Being reminded of procurement ’ s vitality and omnipresence begs questions about the process ' s sustainability .
For many , a sustainable procurement process comes down to smart economics . Proxima is a consultancy that helps companies – FTSE 100 ones among them – sustainably transition their procurement and logistics operations . The company ’ s Executive Vice President for Procurement , Simon Geale , views approaches to procurement as well as sustainability through the lens of spending wisely , and in this regard , the interests of both most certainly overlap . sustainabilitymag . com 125