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Working with our suppliers to get quality information about their footprint. Photograph: Robert Daly/Getty Images/OJO Images
Working with our suppliers to get quality information about their footprint. Photograph: Robert Daly/Getty Images/OJO Images

Procurement gets a mandate for sustainability

This article is more than 11 years old
A centralised department overseeing purchasing ensures that we can generate real value for the business, society and the planet

The procurement department at GNM was formed in July 2010 to deliver a strategic sourcing approach, and the last financial year was spent developing policies and procedures.

A significant step to embedding sustainable thinking into procurement was the board-approved mandate, of which sustainability is key thread. This requires the majority of our supplier spend to be strategically reviewed by the central procurement team.

By having a centralised department overseeing purchasing, GNM can ensure it generates real value for the business, society and the planet.

Paper procurement for our newspapers and magazines is our single largest third-party spend and highly significant from a sustainability risk perspective. We have in place a comprehensive sustainable paper-sourcing policy, and we work very closely with our suppliers to monitor sustainability performance.

This is achieved through the collection of real-time data that allows GNM to see on a monthly basis how much paper we are buying, the percentages of recycled and virgin fibre being used, certification levels, and also carbon intensities.

For more details on our performance against our paper key performance indicators please visit the paper section.

We are now beginning to pay more attention to the managing and reporting of the sustainability credentials of our key suppliers in the digital field.

This is already proving to be challenging for a number of reasons. One is that it is difficult to get quality information from suppliers about the environmental footprint and social justice aspects of the digital products and services they sell.

Beyond this, we lack in digital what we have in paper purchasing: a single expert who understands the newsprint market inside out. Also, the world of digital is more diverse and complex and therefore harder to understand.
This is a problem shared by most companies, and GNM has been able to make progress thanks to the innovative digital footprint research we have been supporting.

Nevertheless, this difficulty in relating to digital impacts still makes it difficult to fully engage senior managers in discussions, especially during periods of structural change.

Where we need to make improvements is in creating a clear framework and language to allow the organisation to systematically consider risks and opportunities when making decisions.

We also need to clarify the boundaries of our responsibility. Is it the computer hardware makers, the networks, or the consumer who logs on to our website?

If the answer is "all of the above", we need to understand better how to account for these and separate them out in a meaningful way.

Internal training

To increase our knowledge of sustainable procurement in general, a number of workshops were held for staff.

Working with the internal procurement team, the focus was on looking at how sustainable thinking could identify broader and more complex risks and opportunities that may affect costs over the length of the contract.

Examples from a range of organisations was used to show how sustainable procurement provides business resilience through better control, awareness and traceability throughout the value chain.

The Guardian Offers/Revenue team, which sells products ranging from travel to books, have been keen to develop a sustainability policy for their customers and suppliers as part of their commitment to openness and transparency.

Workshops for this department focused on helping them to identify key risks within their supply chain that should be controlled through a sustainability policy and appropriate due diligence. The travel policy is now live.

Tendering and contracts

GNM does not have the budgets or buying power of a large multinational company, so we must use the contracting and post-contracting stage of the process to influence service delivery and sustainability.

We recognise that smaller suppliers can find it difficult to provide relevant information, so we are looking to develop flexibility in the sustainability questions we ask to avoid bidders being put off. The questions are being developed around how our demands for services and products drive emissions, consumption and ethical working practices.

Our tendering templates are flexible, consisting of a core template that is agreed and then modified to fit the needs of the business, the specific risks associated with the purchase and maximising value from the suppliers.

Also, more specific questions have been developed regarding what the supplier will do to help reduce our impacts and meet targets, rather than whether they simply have a CSR policy or not.

Even though GNM is going through a period of radical change, we remain dedicated to developing sustainable supply chains. To help ensure this, the sustainability team advises the procurement department during each tender process.

In the past, the procurement department ensured that sustainability was integrated into purchasing, but we found that a core weakness was that individual departments often did not follow up and ensure that our suppliers met their original commitments.

To ensure this does not continue, we have put specific targets into contracts. In some cases, this means implementing sustainability goals at the outset where perhaps previously they did not exist.

An excellent example of this in action was the 2011 tender for the consolidation of travel services. GNM's sustainability department was involved from the outset, identifying the appropriate sustainability areas for potential suppliers to cover during the tender drafting.

Shortlisted suppliers were asked to demonstrate how they would support GNM in reducing travel emissions as well as costs. The responses were assessed by GNM's environmental and sustainability manager Christopher Hodgson, who also attended the tender interviews.

The winning contractor was asked to:

  • Provide appropriate data to enable GNM to calculate and monitor its full carbon and environmental footprint
  • Provide analysis of this data to understand patterns, identify irregularities and suggest opportunities for improvements
  • Assist the setting and delivering of travel sustainability targets that support and align with GNM sustainability objectives and targets
  • Propose a mechanism for travellers and travel bookers to determine or identify the true cost of travel decision and alternatives
  • Encourage travel bookers to book a sustainable travel option and identify opportunities to reduce travel

Progress on actually delivering on these goals has so far been mixed. While we now have full carbon reporting for our travel, the more innovative elements have not yet been addressed and will require more focus from GNM.

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