SLGP7117

The general sentiment for including sustainability within the procurement or purchasing function is to i) reduce risk, more specifically ESG risk, and to be able to identify new business opportunities for the organization, and ii) to help companies protect their brand reputation which in turn requires them to develop ESG risk related mitigation practices. These reasons, although not wrong, are quite limiting of the potential of the procurement role to move an organization beyond the efficiency conundrum.

By expanding from risk management to prioritising ethical suppliers, minimizing overproduction and waste and improving efficiency in supply and demand management, the organization can leverage off the procurement role to move beyond mitigation, and focussing within the four walls of the operation to looking more broadly at relationships, upstream resource dependencies, social and communities more holistically. The organization can gain a better understanding of the operational environment and the overarching sustainability context.

This course will offer a deeper and more comprehensive perspective of the potential and opportunity for procurement to play a key role in organizational sustainability performance. With a particular exploration of functional roles, in this case procurement, this course will cover – relevant standards, frameworks and topics such as supply chain policy and strategy; reviewing trends and the relationship of suppliers to supply chain performance; how might organizations increase value creation beyond financial value; discussions concerning identification, assessment and management of sustainability-related risks and opportunities using examples; the importance of logistics and inventory; how might cross functional and cross-stakeholder collaboration improve problem-solving and increase circular initiatives. Purpose – to provide greater insight and reframing of functional roles toward sustainability.

Assessment: 100% coursework