Findings from our Sustainable Procurement Research

Grosvenor and Progressive Systems undertake regular research to understand the state of the procurement profession in Australia and New Zealand. This report details our findings from surveying 98 organisations about their efforts to implement sustainable practices in their procurement function.

Our key findings/takeaways from this report includes:

1. Only 29% of organisation had a program relating to the eradication of modern slavery. Of those 29%, 61% are Private Sector organisations. With new legislation at Commonwealth and State Government levels, this will become an even more important topic for procurement teams in coming months.
2. 42% responded they had little to no knowledge of the ISO 20400 Standard for sustainable procurement. While the Standard has been available for almost two years, it seems the attention this topic gets at senior management level is still not where it needs to be.
3. 27% of respondents reported little to no knowledge of their entire supply chain.While not knowing who you are (ultimately)buying from is a problem for any organisation, it further increases the challenges around implementation of sustainable procurement practices.
4. 50% of Respondents had programs in place to directly employ people with a disability, 58% of these respondents were from the Public Sector. It is good to see that the private sector is not far behind but can still invest more into this important area of inclusion.
5. 48% have an Indigenous business support program in place, of these, Public Sector represented 67%. This is clearly an area where private sector organisations have a lot to catch up.

Few firms have a Sustainability Statement at an Organisational level or awareness of the International Standard for Sustainable Procurement (ISO 20400). Using the Standard can help drive and deliver all elements of sustainability within and across Organisations. With greater detail on these findings and insights, download your free copy of our 2019 Sustainable Procurement Report, below.

We’d also like to thank those who took part in this survey. We had pledged a $5 donation to the ‘Fred Hollows Foundation’ as a thank you for your participation, as a result, we enabled 19 people to access cataract surgery.