The Sustainable Procurement Pledge is born out of passion and driven by a shared sense of responsibility. As Procurement professionals, academic, and students, we all contribute and have a critical role in ensuring responsible supply chains. We are concerned and care deeply about the future of our planet and its people. We believe in the necessity of leapfrogging the current efforts and in the power of the crowd to foster change. Because of the impact of Procurement decisions on a future sustainable planet, we pledge and commit ourselves to making sustainability the central mindset of our daily decision making.
We cannot do it alone and invite you to join the Sustainable Procurement Pledge, committing yourself and make sustainability the heart of your Procurement conduct. Together we will accelerate the positive impact!
SPP thinks BIG! SPP’s vision is to leapfrog current efforts and to make a great impact on the environment for the good of the people and our planet by involving as many engaged individuals in the Procurement sector as possible. If each of us takes responsibility for his or her own Procurement behaviour, tackles the small things we can change in our way of thinking, reflecting, and acting, and incorporates sustainability aspects into our routines, then the sum of these small changes can make a huge impact on our world!
SPP is very important because it addresses people in the Procurement area on a very individual basis. There are many good sustainability initiatives, involving companies and top leadership levels, governments and institutions, but rarely initiatives that are personally addressed to individuals. Each of us can make an important contribution by acting and deciding within our area of responsibility and utilize our freedom of action and choice. This is where SPP hooks in! Everybody can change something, and everybody can become an Ambassador for sustainability! Every long march starts with a small step!
- increasing awareness for sustainability and its importance in Procurement
- increase awareness of SPP’s pledge items
- create a momentum and invite others to commit, act and share
- initiate and foster a dialogue about responsible / sustainable Procurement
- provide an open space / agile platform to collect and share ideas of good practices and #lifehacks of more responsible / sustainable Procurement aspects
- involve as many people in the Procurement sector as possible to join forces and make a real impact on the ground
- challenge own Procurement behavior and business practices and those of others
SPP is a bottom-up approach. Yet, the initial situation is the same: We need to stop doing the same, non-sustainable things over and over again, and start acting and thinking differently. Don’t let us wait for another formal request for change and adaption coming to our desks, but let’s become active on our own! Everything we need lies in us! We are responsible Procurement people and include sustainability in our own personal decisions in our means!
SPP addresses people, not organizations. We constitute organizations and are the ones who make daily decisions in our work – therefore a huge lever is with us!
We all will be the senders, multipliers, Ambassadors of the unified SPP messages to make a sustainable impact on the Procurement world. Founder of the SPP idea are two Chief Procurement Officers of two international companies, Thomas Udesen, Chief Procurement Officer of Bayer AG, and Bertrand Conquéret, Chief Procurement Officer of Henkel and President of Henkel Global Supply Chain, who were inspired by various sustainability initiatives and who share the deep believe of being responsible for the liveability of our planet for future generations. In the course of the #GlobalClimateStrike Week, both gentlemen developed the idea of mobilizing as many people as possible in the Procurement area – from top management to interns, from academia to NGOs, from politics to showbiz, via a Sustainable Procurement Pledge and thereby making an impact through the power of the Procurement crowd!
Everybody can participate in the SPP! SPP primarily addresses those who are involved in the Procurement sector but does not exclude anyone outside this area of activity. Those who feel concerned by the SPP messages can start and join right away!
Actions and reactions can be very diverse! The reactions we dream of is that
- SPP Ambassadors understand and acknowledge the urgent situation we are facing on our planet
- they acknowledge the associated risks but also the opportunities and freedom of action and choice resulting from it
- they start changing small things with this level of consciousness in their own Procurement routines and include sustainability aspects in their daily structures.
- They start to lead by example and enlighten as many people in their network as possible to activate the crowd and create a real big impact on the ground!
SPP starts with a white sheet of paper! Let us ask ourselves in every decision process that we go through, which sustainability aspects we may can include, which impact our decision may have, and which of our choices would bring the optimum considering sustainability. There are always options – let’s challenge ourselves and others with more sustainable alternatives that pay off long term.
We trust that everyone knows best, which small and big things he or she can change to make an impact on responsible Procurement. Although there is no SPP recipe or manual on how to achieve responsible Procurement, we are very confident that all of us in the network of SPP Ambassadors will find and share plenty of ideas and good practices to ensure that everybody will find an inspiration for each next step.
SPP Ambassadors commit themselves by sharing the pledge in their personal network, by actively inviting people to join the SPP community, and by adding the SPP Ambassador button to their LinkedIn profile picture. Furthermore, an SPP Ambassador walks the talk, leads by example, internalizes and heeds its contents and help others to identify the benefit of doing so.
All SPP statements are based on the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact and the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
The Sustainble Procurement Ambassador Group on Linkedin is the place where all SPP Ambassadors come together and where we warmly invite all SPP Ambassadors to discuss, exchange, ask questions, actively share our knowledge, provide good practices and #life hacks, bookmarks, videos, posts, events and initiatives worth knowing, joining or collaborating with. We strongly encourage you to actively engage with each other and use this unique opportunity to exchange with like-minded.
We kindly advise to adhere to common antitrust rules e.g.
– not to discuss about each other’s cost of sales, sales plans, planned sales territories, cost of purchase, trade secrets, discounts, margins, rebates, credit terms, customer quotes, or supplier relationships.
– to discuss pricing and other purchasing conditions in contracts
– no exchange of other commercially sensitive information
– no agreement not to compete
Procurement people commit themselves to the SPP as a private person, on an individual basis, and not on behalf of e.g. a company. Therefore, by becoming a SPP Ambassador, no personal liability arises from the commitment to the SPP.