Responsible purchasing policy: why and how to implement it to improve your company's impact?

For many companies, indirect emissions linked to purchasing account for the majority of their GHG footprint. With Scope 3 regulatory requirements becoming increasingly stringent, it is becoming urgent to establish and manage more responsible and effective purchasing strategies. What are the main steps involved?

Thomas Guyot
Chief Strategy Officer
Update : 
April 1, 2025
Publication: 
March 10, 2023
Contents
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2023, a strategic year for corporate responsible purchasing policies

In France, the V5 of the BEGES methodology methodology, which comes into force on January 1, 2023, makes it compulsory for companies to include significant indirect emissions in their regulatory carbon accounting. At European level , the CSRD will soon oblige some 50,000 companies to report in detail on their greenhouse gas emissions, across all three scopes, requiring them to be able to measure or estimate the impact of their suppliers. The CSRD will also ask these companies to provide a detailed action plan for making the transition to a low-carbon model, particularly with regard to their scope 3 and therefore their purchasing.

The year 2023 will therefore undoubtedly see companies taking massive account of the sustainability of their purchases of raw materials, services and products, the main scope 3 emission items.

While the regulatory framework will primarily constrain large organizations and require them to link their purchasing strategy closely to their overall environmental performance, many companies have already anticipated the importance of adopting a serious sustainable purchasing policy. Not only toanticipate the tightening of standards, but also to gain resilience across their entire value chain. This is hardly surprising, given that purchasing accounts for an average of 50% of a company's sales (up to 70% in industry), and often accounts for at least 80% to 90% of a company's greenhouse gas emissions.

Optimizing purchasing is the strategy favored by many companies to make their organization more efficient, more resilient and more frugal. In a word, more sustainable. Major groups such as SNCF and EDF understood this a long time ago, and embarked on the road to sustainable purchasing more than 10 years ago. Today, they are still forerunners when it comes to best practices in the field.

Thinking in terms of sustainable purchasing is becoming imperative for your company. But how can you take effective action?

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What is the definition of a responsible purchasing policy?

Adopting a responsible purchasing policy starts with rethinking your company's needs. A purchase that has no environmental impact is a purchase that does not exist. Responsible purchasing can therefore be defined as any purchase that is necessary for the smooth running of the company, and which incorporates criteria and provisions to protect or enhance the environment and social progress into the supplier selection process. As part of this approach, particular consideration will be given to the life cycle of products and resources purchased and consumed.

Responsible purchasing criteria can also cover quality, ethical standards, transparency and the integration of stakeholders in the production process and delivery of the purchased product.

A responsible purchasing policy is a global approach that concerns the entire company, and profoundly affects its business model and organization.

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The direct benefits of implementing a responsible purchasing policy

Implementing responsible purchasing is a unifying project for the entire company, with multiple benefits at several levels.

Questioning the needs of your company, the requirements of your production, the composition of your products, their usefulness and their end uses is a strong vector for innovation and value creation. Combined with an eco-design approach, this questioning will necessarily lead to the creation of synergies with competent suppliers, strengthening the relationship and mutual trust between these suppliers and the company. This vector of innovation, coupled with the image gain with consumers linked to the company's virtuous approach, can create a real competitive advantage in the long run.
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A successful responsible purchasing policy will also limit the risks for the company. Firstly, financial risks, with better cost control and anticipation of future regulatory sanctions on the environmental front. The risks of climate change and damage to the company's public image, by selecting sustainable products that respect people and the environment. Supply risks, by favouring a diversified, resilient and local portfolio of partners.

To sum up, deploying a sustainable purchasing strategy will make it possible to :

  1. Improve overall company performance.
  2. Improve the company's image and make its employer brand more attractive.
  3. Increase the quality of our offering and our ability to innovate.
  4. Strengthen relationships with suppliers and partners.
  5. Better cost control
  6. Better control of risks.
  7. Comply with environmental and social regulations.

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The main stages in implementing a responsible purchasing strategy in your company

Implementing a sustainable purchasing policy can seem complicated if you don't know where to start. Here are 5 steps to help you get started with your sustainable purchasing strategy:

🔍 Step 1 - Diagnose your current purchasing policy

Carrying out a diagnostic of your current purchasing policy will enable you to clearly identify your company's needs and assign them a level of importance, formalize your current decision-making criteria when choosing a supplier, and identify your support policy for key suppliers. Among other things, an internal audit will enable you to identify the good practices you have already put in place, as well as the changes that could complement these good practices.

An initial diagnosis is fundamental to implementing an optimal, effective strategy that meets your company's specific needs. To carry out your diagnosis, you can :

  1. Conduct qualitative interviews with your internal and external stakeholders.
  2. Study and interpret your company's key documentation, particularly concerning your suppliers.

At the end of this diagnosis, you'll have an initial view of your current situation and will have identified the first opportunities for improvement.

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🗺️Step 2 - Map your purchases and measure their impact

A complete mapping of all your purchases and suppliers will enable you to prioritize your future sustainable purchasing action plan. Mapping your purchases should enable you to obtain the following data, which will be cross-referenced with your future sustainable purchasing criteria:

  • An exhaustive list of your purchases
  • An exhaustive list of your suppliers
  • Group your purchases by purchasing segment or product family
  • The carbon footprint of your purchases, used to calculate your company's Scope 3 balance.
  • The overall environmental impact of each of your purchases: pollution, water use, impact on biodiversity, etc.
  • The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the products you buy.
  • The social impact of each of your purchases.

Relevant mapping is often the result of collaborative work between the company's various internal and external stakeholders. Involving your suppliers as much as possible in this process is crucial, as they hold key information on the impact of their products.

Today, unfortunately, few suppliers are able to provide an LCA of their products.

This mapping should enable you to obtain an initial hierarchy of your purchases and suppliers. This prioritization will be reviewed in line with new purchasing policy criteria that you will then define.

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🎯 Step 3 - Formalize your new purchasing policy and define supplier evaluation criteria

Now is the time to define and formalize your vision, the main guidelines and the concrete objectives of your new responsible purchasing policy. This vision will take the form of key criteria for evaluating your purchases and suppliers. How will you judge whether or not a purchase should be made? What aspects do you want to prioritize when selecting your suppliers?

Your criteria will necessarily be specific to your industry and organization (size, locations, business model, etc.), and you need toalign your criteria with your company's CSR policy to ensure the coherence of your actions and the support of your stakeholders for the future deployment of your new purchasing policy.

The mapping carried out in the previous step should also help you define these criteria. If your company wishes to decarbonize its activity, and your purchases represent a significant part of your Scope 3, you will certainly give more importance to criteria linked to the level of commitment and maturity of your suppliers on carbon issues.

To define your criteria, you can also draw on the 7 key principles of ISO 26000 (the benchmark standard for CSR): governance, human rights, working conditions, fair practices, consumers, environment and local development.

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🤝 Step 4 - Define and manage a responsible purchasing action plan

Once you've defined your purchasing criteria and your supplier evaluation grid, you'll be able to use this analytical prism to make adetailed assessment of your purchases and suppliers. In particular, this new evaluation will enable you toidentify the purchasing segments on which you should focus your efforts, and the key suppliers you should engage as part of your overall CSR approach.

This assessment of your purchases and suppliers, set against the objectives of your new policy, should enable you to identify a concrete action plan for implementation. What steps need to be taken? Which stakeholders need to be involved in implementing this action plan? What KPIs will help you monitor the progress and success of your actions? What is the timetable for implementing these actions?

Since each buying segment has its own particularities, it's a good idea to draw up a specific buying strategy and action plan for each of the segments you mapped out in the previous step.

Your action plan could, for example, include actions such as :

  • Ask a supplier to share its CSR policy and impact figures.
  • Support a key supplier in improving its environmental impact.
  • Map potential new local suppliers.
  • Directing production and innovation to reduce purchasing volumes in a product category with high environmental impact.
  • etc.

The deployment of your new strategy will surely be based on three pillars:

Supplier relations. To make your responsible purchasing strategy work, your relationship with your suppliers will be crucial. To bring your strategy to life, you need to build a relationship of trust with your suppliers by giving them clear guidelines, explaining your approach and supporting them in their own CSR improvement process.

Leading a network of players. To optimize your performance, you can suggest to your purchasing department that they visit the production sites of the products they buy, in order to strengthen their understanding of the ecosystem and global performance issues. Raising awareness among internal and external teams can also be achieved through workshops, downstream communication (newsletters, etc.) and the transmission of practical information sheets.

Continuous improvement. When piloting a sustainable purchasing strategy, it's vital to put in place tools to monitor performance. You can identify friction and improve your internal processes to boost your overall performance and your company's sustainability over time.

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📣 Step 5 - Report and communicate

Communicating on your sustainable purchasing strategy offers many advantages, such asa more attractive employer brand and an enhanced external image.

It will be essential to base your communication on the measurement of relevant KPIs: evolution of the % of committed suppliers, carbon footprint linked to purchasing, pollution linked to purchasing, working conditions within the partner portfolio, etc.

Communicating on your progress is an integral part of your sustainable purchasing strategy, with the aim of rallying stakeholders and society around this vital issue.

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Simply take action

Implementing an ambitious sustainable and responsible purchasing policy is one of the most effective and impactful actions you can take to improve your overall performance and your company's impact on the environment.

Without the right tools and support, such a strategy may still seem complex to implement and manage. With Traace's Supply Chain module, you can use an easy-to-use interface to define your own evaluation grid, map all your suppliers and quickly identify the suppliers you need to prioritize for improvement.

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➡️ Learn more about Traace's Supply Chain module

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Sources

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