Green Supply Chain: Procurement
Procurement also known as purchasing is “Securing supplies, materials, and services of the right quality in the right quantity at the right time from the right place (source) at the right cost price”.
So the procurement in traditional supply chain could procure you the best possible cost to meet the needs of the purchaser in terms of quality and quantity, time, and location.
However Green Procurement will require collaboration between suppliers / manufacturers / producers and requires suppliers to implement, and possibly certify, Environmental Management Systems.
“In turn therefore, Green Procurement provides education to suppliers about the use of efficient materials’ for pollution prevention.
This also helps manufacturers to design for disassembly and develop with their own suppliers, new materials, parts or processes to address environmental concerns.
Therefore Green Procurement represents an important aspect in the total end to end Green Supply Chain
The role of Green Procurement in Green Supply Chains will require the creation of a healthy relationship with the buyer’s first level of suppliers and to create a platform to build a model to align incentives for suppliers, manufacturers and other service providers;
who in turn, will need to engage with their own supply chain through the second level of suppliers and so on up the supply chain back to the primary sector suppliers.
Green Procurement aims to reduce overall expenditure on organizations products and services by removing or minimize the usage of “hazardous to green initiatives” in the entire supply chain.
This also reduces expenditure on waste treatment of end-of-life products and other by-products.”
Green Procurement emphasizes waste reduction at source and sets up the procedure to consider this before procuring any good and has a number of quantifiable benefits.
Learn more about these benefits and challenges of Green Procurement in Green Supply Chain – An action manifesto.