Implementing Responsible Procurement Over the Long Term

Embedding sustainability throughout the value chain requires a fundamental transformation of procurement practices, supplier relationships, and management approaches. It’s well worth the effort: for the most advanced companies, responsible procurement has become an integral part of their performance and risk management strategies.

Photo of professionals with containers to illustrate the responsible procurement action plan

Implementing Your Responsible Purchasing Initiatives

Approaching procurement from a responsibility perspective means selecting suppliers with whom one can “minimize environmental and societal impacts and promote best practices in terms of ethics and human rights, ” as defined by AFNOR.

Maliro supports its clients throughout their responsible procurement process, assisting them with risk mitigation and prevention efforts and with the monitoring of their action plans.

To firmly embed sustainability principles into the value chain, working closely with suppliers is essential for the company:

We help suppliers build their skills by training them on these issues. We regularly conduct these types of sessions for our clients, whether through webinars with hundreds of suppliers around the world or in-person meetings.
We engage suppliers in the company’s sustainability efforts. We help our clients establish a code of conduct and a supplier charter that define the values, commitments, and sustainability criteria to be followed. We involve suppliers in shared goals, such as the SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative) to reduce carbon emissions based on a common framework.
We introduce them to a TIO (Total Impact of Ownership) approach that combines economic, environmental, and social performance.

Another key factor in ensuring the long-term viability of the solutions deployed is to make sustainability a central part of the procurement process.

We guide our clients in integrating ethical, social, and environmental criteria at every level:

During the process of defining product specifications
During the process of selecting their suppliers
During the review of the contract terms, in order to establish incentives and clauses to hold the supplier accountable for its impacts
As part of supplier relationship management , to measure progress made.

Purchasing departments also turn to us to measure and reduce the carbon impact of their value chain. Beyond the average emission factors used in a carbon footprint assessment, we train buyers and suppliers to collect product carbon footprints (PCF). This is an important first step toward jointly develop decarbonization initiatives, particularly with strategic suppliers.

Finally, for companies seeking RFAR (Responsible Supplier Relations and Procurement) certification, we provide our expertise and methodology to help them prepare for the certification audit, in line with the evaluation criteria of the ISO 20400 and ISO 26000 standards, which serve as the authoritative guidelines in this area.

Discuss your responsible purchasing action plan

Toward a Transformation of the Procurement Function

Gaining a better understanding of the environmental impacts of a company’s value chain naturally leads to an interest inthe Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of its products. The concept of sustainability then extends to every stage of manufacturing and use: raw material extraction, processing and assembly, transportation, storage and distribution, use, and end-of-life management.
To reduce these impacts, more and more companies are focusing on the eco-design of their products.

We support our clients across all of these technical areas, as well as in transforming their business models:

Towardindustrial and territorial ecology (ITE) to optimize the use of resources (materials, energy, water, etc.) at the regional level by drawing inspiration from the functioning of natural ecosystems. This model is built on cooperation among businesses to promote the reuse and sharing of resources.
Towardan Economy of Functionality and Cooperation (EFC) to focus value on the use of a good rather than on its sale. This model is based on cooperation among stakeholders (companies, customers, regions) within a service-oriented framework by mobilizing intangible resources: skills, relevance, trust, and health.