What is green purchasing?
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Every organization needs to obtain goods and services to fulfill and maintain their operations. As our planet heats up and society
What is green purchasing?
Transform how you buy, sell, and exchange resources with Rheaply.
Rheaply is trusted by:
Every organization needs to obtain goods and services to fulfill and maintain their operations. As our planet heats up and society considers the need to consume less, the traditional field of procurement has begun to adopt a more eco-friendly mindset. This attitude has become known as green purchasing.
What is Green Purchasing?
Green purchasing is the procurement of products and services that have a reduced effect on the health of humans and of our environment. Essentially, it’s bearing in mind the environmental impacts of practices such as raw material extraction, production, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, reuse, maintenance and disposal, when purchasing new products or services. The goal of green procurement is to promote conservation and responsible management of resources through the use of renewable or recycled materials and reducing waste wherever possible.
Organizations leverage green purchasing principles to address climate change and mitigate the over-exploitation of scarce resources. In general, this practice should lead to the procurement of goods and services that have a lower environmental impact compared to conventional ones. By studying the life cycle of various products and services, procurement teams can make more conscious purchases at every stage without contributing to pollution, biodiversity loss, or habitat destruction.
Sometimes referred to as green procurement or sustainable procurement, this practice not only has the potential to benefit the environment, but to also promote social responsibility and economic resilience. This framework is known as the triple bottom line, a popularized accounting framework. Green purchasing considers social policies of equality, international labor standards and human well-being throughout all stages of a supply chain. At the same time, green procurement leads to the saving of energy, waste and water over the lifetime of a product or service, which can provide significant financial benefits in the form of efficiency gains.
Green Purchasing examples
While commonly associated with government green purchasing policies (GPP), there are many types of green procurement across both the public and private sector. Within the private sector, companies implement Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS), which are stakeholder-derived guidelines for incorporating sustainable policies, such as green purchasing. This often involves relying on certain certifications, like B Corp or Fair Trade, to ensure sustainable procure