Responsible purchasing and HR: a winning CSR duo

Responsible purchasing is an increasingly prevalent concept in the business world, aimed at integrating social, environmental and economic considerations into purchasing and procurement processes.

The aim is to minimize negative impacts while maximizing benefits for the company.
In this context, human resources play a crucial role, as they can influence an organization’s purchasing practices through talent management, corporate culture and internal policies.

The ISO 20400 standard, published in 2017, provides guidelines for sustainable purchasing.
It helps companies align their purchasing practices with sustainable development objectives.

This article aims to introduce the concept of sustainable procurement in human resources, while providing detailed information on the ISO 20400 standard.
It is intended both for novices wishing to understand the basics, and for HR professionals looking to deepen their knowledge and implement sustainable practices within their organization.

Understanding responsible purchasing

Responsible purchasing is more than just an economic transaction.
It involves taking into account factors such as environmental impact, suppliers’ working conditions, and the sustainability of the products and services purchased.

By integrating these aspects, companies can not only contribute to sustainable development, but also improve their own performance.

The fundamental principles of responsible purchasing include transparency, ethics, respect for human rights, environmental protection and the circular economy.

1. Transparency ensures clear purchasing processes and open communication with stakeholders.
2. Ethics means respecting ethical standards in all transactions and relationships with suppliers.
3. Respect for human rights guarantees that products and services are obtained without human rights violations.
4. Environmental protection minimizes the environmental impact of purchasing activities, by promoting sustainable products and services.
5. The Circular Economy encourages practices that extend product life cycles and reduce waste.

The benefits of responsible purchasing for companies are numerous.
By selecting responsible suppliers, companies can reduce the risks associated with reputation, litigation and supply chain disruption.

What’s more, adopting sustainable purchasing practices can improve brand image and attract ethically-minded customers and partners.

Working with sustainable suppliers can also encourage innovation and lead to more environmentally-friendly products and services.

Finally, sustainable purchasing can lead to long-term savings through more efficient resource management and reduced waste and energy costs.

The role of human resources in responsible purchasing

Human resources play a key role in integrating responsible purchasing into the organization.
They are responsible for developing and implementing policies that promote ethical and sustainable purchasing practices.

This includes setting standards of behavior for employees and suppliers, and promoting a corporate culture focused on social and environmental responsibility.

Close collaboration between human resources and purchasing departments is essential to successfully integrate sustainable purchasing.
Human resources can help define supplier selection criteria that include social and environmental aspects.

In addition, they can support buyers by providing training in responsible purchasing practices and raising awareness of sustainable development issues.
This collaboration ensures that purchasing policies and practices are aligned with the company’s values and objectives in terms of social and environmental responsibility.

Human resources also have a crucial role to play in training and raising staff awareness of responsible purchasing.
They can organize workshops, seminars and ongoing training programs to ensure that all employees understand the importance of responsible purchasing and learn how to put it into practice in their day-to-day work.

By developing a responsible corporate culture, human resources contribute to employee commitment and the effective implementation of sustainable purchasing policies.

Introducing the ISO 20400 standard

The ISO 20400 standard was developed in response to the growing demand for more responsible and sustainable purchasing practices.
It was published in 2017 after several years of collaboration between experts from different countries and sectors.
The standard provides guidelines for organizations to integrate social responsibility into their purchasing and procurement processes.

The main objective of ISO 20400 is to provide a framework for sustainable procurement, applicable to all organizations, regardless of size or sector.
The standard is structured around several key principles.
Leadership and governance emphasize the importance of management commitment to the implementation of sustainable procurement.
Leaders must define clear policies and provide the necessary resources to support these initiatives.

Purchasing strategy involves integrating sustainability objectives into the organization’s purchasing strategy, ensuring a coherent approach aligned with corporate values.
Purchasing processes need to be adapted to include sustainability and ethical criteria, ensuring that every stage of the purchasing process takes account of social and environmental impacts.

Finally, evaluation and continuous improvement involve setting up monitoring and assessment mechanisms to measure the performance of responsible purchasing and commit to the ongoing improvement of practices.

ISO 20400 defines several performance criteria for sustainable procurement:

• A crucial aspect is supplier evaluation, which involves assessing suppliers on the basis of their social, environmental and ethical performance.

• Risk management involves identifying and managing purchasing risks, including social and environmental risks.

• The environmental impact of purchasing must be minimized by favoring sustainable products and services.

• Social responsibility guarantees fair working conditions and respect for human rights in the supply chain, ensuring that purchasing practices support the principles of justice and fairness.

Implementing responsible purchasing in accordance with ISO 20400

To implement ISO 20400 sustainable procurement, it is essential to follow several key steps.

First and foremost, management commitment is crucial.
Executives must not only actively support sustainable purchasing initiatives, but also set an example by integrating these practices into their own work and company policies.
Next, it’s important to carry out an issues analysis to identify the social, environmental and economic aspects relevant to the organization.
This analysis enables us to understand the main challenges and opportunities associated with sustainable purchasing, and to develop appropriate strategies.

Defining a sustainable purchasing strategy is an essential step.
This strategy must be aligned with the company’s objectives and integrate sustainability andethical criteria.
Human resources play a crucial role in training and raising employee awareness of responsible purchasing.
They can organize training courses, workshops and seminars to ensure that all employees understand the issues and benefits of responsible purchasing, and know how to integrate it into their day-to-day work.

Integrating sustainable procurement into purchasing processes is also a key step.
This involves adapting purchasing procedures and policies to include sustainability and ethical criteria at every stage of the process.
Finally, it is important to put in place evaluation and monitoring mechanisms to measure sustainable purchasing performance and identify areas for improvement.
This ensures continuous improvement in practices and guarantees that sustainability objectives are met.

Numerous tools and resources are available to help organizations implement sustainable procurement to ISO 20400.
Detailed guides to implementing the standard are available, providing practical information and advice for every stage of the process.
Training courses and webinars can help employees understand and apply sustainable procurement principles.
Assessment tools can be used to measure sustainable procurement performance and identify areas for improvement.

Many companies have adopted the ISO 20400 standard and reported significant benefits.
Integrating sustainable procurement into a purchasing strategy promises a significant improvement in a company’s reputation and stakeholder relations.
It also helps reduce operational costs through better resource management and more efficient purchasing practices.

For this reason, it’s important to stress the importance of organization-wide commitment to the successful implementation of sustainable purchasing.

Implementation of Responsible Purchasing by SQORUS

We specialize in transforming HR, Finance and IT functions.

For over 30 years, our consultants have been working with small and medium-sized businesses and major corporations on structuring projects with an international dimension.

As a signatory of the Global Compact since 2021, we have taken stock of our CSR practices, based on the 7 core questions of the ISO 26 000 standard.
We took stock of our day-to-day practices and analyzed them in different contexts, in order to continually anticipate new practices and changes in working methods.

At present, our purchasing activities cover marketing, human resources, general resources and IT.

Through the implementation of a responsible purchasing policy, SQORUS General Management will establish a specific budget dedicated to responsible purchasing from the year 2025.
The aim is to move towards responsible purchasing that is positive for the environment, the economy and society, by implementing various actions progressively and effectively.

The choice of supplier, service provider or subcontractor is therefore a central issue.
In addition to minimizing the environmental and social impact of their products and services, suppliers must also commit to good ethical and human rights practices, and in particular guarantee decent working conditions for their employees.

To this end, SQORUS has drawn up a Responsible Purchasing Charter, the purpose of which is to define the principles that will ensure ethical and sustainable business relations with its suppliers of goods and services, and its subcontractors, in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and with SQORUS’ commitments to corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSR).
This charter has been sent to all our suppliers, service providers and subcontractors.

We have therefore trained all our buyers internally, to make them aware of the application of our policy and the responsible purchasing process.

Conclusion

Responsible purchasing is essential for companies wishing to align their practices with sustainable development objectives.

The ISO 20400 standard provides a valuable framework for integrating social, environmental and ethical considerations into purchasing processes.
Human resources play a crucial role in this process by developing policies, training staff and working closely with purchasing departments.

By adoptingresponsible purchasing practices, companies can not only improve their performance and reputation, but also make a positive contribution to society and theenvironment.