Rather than attempt to roll out a sustainable procurement project across all suppliers, or all products and services, it is often easier to get a quick win by prioritizing where to start.
One method is to base it on the degree of supply risk including availability, number of suppliers, type of market, impact on profit, etc. Companies often elect to focus first on high-risk strategic and bottleneck categories to reduce or manage risks of scarce materials, unreliable suppliers or politically unstable supply chains. Low-risk or non-critical categories can also be chosen if the buyer has more buying power, or if sustainable criteria can easily be introduced into specifications.
Similar to classifying procured products, the Kraljic matrix is another method used by organizations to determine which purchases to undertake first with sustainable procurement activities—activities that will benefit both the organization and the environment.
