Why green procurement will level up your company’s sustainability

Procurement is the act of buying services and goods that a company requires to operate. Often overlooked, it is a key aspect of operations that is important to every business. Procurement responsibilities vary from the sourcing of materials, to managing contracts with suppliers.

Procurement plays a significant role in a company’s carbon footprint.

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) is the most widely adopted standard for measuring an organisations' emissions. The GHGP splits greenhouse gas emissions into three ‘scopes’ to help classify.

Scope 1: direct emissions. Eg. Burning fuel to run company vehicles

Scope 2: indirect emissions from energy use. Eg. Electricity purchased

Scope 3: other indirect emissions from value chain suppliers that lie outside own operations. Eg. Employee commuting, waste management, procurement

Naturally, many companies focus on Scope 1, as this is a direct, obvious relationship. However, for many the emissions in Scope 3 can be significantly higher, by 5 times in some cases.

Therefore, it is critical to have greater visibility and control over your Scope 3 emissions, so you can harness this opportunity to make a significant reduction in total emissions.

We’ve launched a SustainABLE procurement programme to help customers reduce their Scope 3 procurement emissions. We have carefully curated over 2,000 products with the strongest ethical and sustainability credentials on our Office Supplies site. Now it is even easier for you to make small changes, which make a huge difference to your carbon footprint. SustainABLE procurement could be the missing piece of your company’s green agenda.

To get our seal of approval, products must fit into one of our three categories by meeting one external criteria:

Environmental Certification

• Certified Rainforest Alliance
• Certified Eco-cert

• Supplier or manufacturer of product is a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative
• Supplier or manufacturer of product is SMETA registered
• Product is Fairtrade

Recycled Content

• Product must contain at least 50% recycled content

We have signposted these products on our site with the above green label and icons, which will appear above the product photo and description. 

Our selected list of products gives you huge breadth of choice, while allowing you to make educated, sustainable choices at the touch of a button.

Get started on your green procurement journey now!