Optimizing waste management is an important step towards making your organization more sustainable. How do you ensure that your waste management procurement is sustainable?
What is sustainable procurement?
Sustainable procurement, or rather, socially responsible procurement is almost the standard for buyers today. Where previously the lowest price was the most important criterion, other indicators are now taken into account in tenders and tenders. For example, how organizations reduce the negative impact on the environment with their purchasing, and also contribute socially. Sustainable procurement includes environmentally and climate-friendly procurement, circular procurement, biobased procurement, social procurement with a focus on social return and international social conditions. It is expected that the attention for circular procurement, local sourcing and climate neutral procurement will only increase in the coming years. Sustainable purchasing is therefore high on the trend list for purchasing managers.
Why sustainable procurement?
There are a number of reasons why sustainable purchasing is high on the agenda for a purchasing department. With a sustainable procurement policy, risks in the field of human rights, tax evasion, corruption, raw material scarcity and thus standstills can be minimized. Another important reason for sustainable procurement has to do with the climate problem, which is urgent and increasingly apparent. The latest IPCC report endorses this. The global climate agreements and the stricter Dutch climate targets ensure that sustainability is increasingly embedded in legislation and regulations. Consider, for example, the approaching European directive, the Corporate Sustainable Reporting Directive, which obliges organizations to report, among other things, how they take supply chain responsibility.
How do you approach this for sustainable waste management?
How do you bind the right supplier for waste management to your organization? And how do you ensure that the focus is not only on the financial parameters, but also on social, ethical and ecological indicators?
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Give identity to waste
For sustainable waste management, there are now various tools and methods that buyers can include in their purchasing policy. For example, databases such asMadaster and the Raw Materials Database give materials an identity so that they no longer become waste. Increasing attention is also being paid to the material-related CO2 footprint of products, components and raw materials, and there are tools that can measure this impact. In this way companies can also steer towards this. Each and every one of these ways to monetize the value of raw materials. -
Shift ownership
Ownership of materials, resources, and products also shifts. Calculating according to the Total Cost of Ownership (or Total Cost of Waste in the case of waste management) is slowly making way for Total Cost of Usership, in which the value of the use of raw materials and materials is leading, not the possession. -
Make use of quality marks
There are also quality marks that assess the sustainability of a supplier, such as Ecovadis. In addition, the ISO 20400 guideline helps organizations to organize a procurement process in a socially responsible manner. All of this is driving sustainable procurement increasingly emphatically in the direction of circular procurement. Expertise centers such as Pianoo and Nevi, among others, use the ikwilcirculairinkopen.nl platform to encourage organizations to base their purchasing processes on the principles of the circular economy. In this way we work together on a circular economy in the Netherlands by 2050 at the latest. -
Use a suitable procurement method
Choosing the right procurement method is also crucial for sustainable procurement of waste management. Procurement procedures were traditionally set up strictly, which limited the contractor's scope for innovation and initiative. The separation between client and contractor was hard. For sustainable waste/raw materials management it is important to make optimal use of the expertise of suppliers. For example, by choosing a sustainable approach via best value procurement, which is based on partnerships and performance agreements, an organization can rely more on the expertise of the supplier. He is used for his qualities, in this case his knowledge and experience in the field of raw materials management. Stimulating the dialogue between client and contractor is endorsed in the Government Program Beter Aanbesteden.
Choose the right mix
The right mix of method, quality marks and principles offers an organization the perfect opportunity not only to set up waste management sustainably, but also to optimize and make its primary business activities more sustainable. Milgro supports organizations in making waste management more sustainable, keeping a grip on raw material flows and thus making the entire business operations more sustainable.
Milgro
Milgro's mission is to integrate natural capital management into organizations' business operations in order to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. We realize this mission by applying our proven technology, methodology and approach. The result is profitable sustainability: earth & earn together.
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