What is green procurement and why should we care?

In short, green procurement means choosing products and services with the least impact on the environment. Understanding (and questioning) the product’s entire lifecycle – cradle to grave – is key to making greener choices. Knowing the origin, how it was manufactured, identifying its toxins, its packaging, how it was transported to market and how it will be disposed of – these are all things that need to be taken into account, the reasons why we should care. 

Alternative, renewable energy takes priority, water saving is imperative, waste management is a challenge and for the rest, our planet simply cannot continue supplying the raw materials and resources to sustain our current lifestyle and it cannot survive the level of pollution our capitalistic, greedy economy creates. It is up to our generation to undo what we’ve done for the benefit of the planet, animals, plants and our children’s children.

Lorraine will guide you on how to create a carbon-neutral factory or home. We aim to help factories manufacture with minimum negative environmental impact and produce earth and human friendly, non-toxic products. For professional procurement managers, tendering evaluation formulae need to be adjusted to include environmental considerations. Educated assessments need to be made when selecting products. We cover all this in our workshops.

Eco-labelling is yet to establish itself in South Africa but it will in time. Until then, we benchmark against international labels and use years of insight to guide you through your sustainable procurement decisions.