Sustainable procurement, as defined in the Sustainable Procurement Standard (ISO 20400) is “procurement that has the most positive environmental, social, and economic impacts on a whole life basis.”  

In the majority of cases, capital cost appears to be the metric that overrides all others when evaluating a project’s merits during a tender process. We need to advocate for new approaches to procurement that places value on social, environmental and cultural issues. 

The Sustainable Procurement Standard (ISO 20400) provides guidance for organisations of any size, sector, industry or geographical location that needs to deliver sustainable outcomes through their supply chains. It is relevant to anybody in an organisation who contributes to procurement decisions and/or works with suppliers (including sub-contractors). 

Contractors spend 70 to 80 per cent of revenues on their supply chain. So if an organisation only adopts sustainable practices internally, its impact on sustainability will be necessarily limited. 

ISO20400.org is a not-for-profit website for people with interest in ISO 20400 to share best practice, benchmark and learn.