To achieve sustainability in procurement, it’s best to prioritize where to start rather than attempting to roll out a project across all suppliers or products and services. One effective method is to consider the degree of supply risk, such as availability, number of suppliers, type of market, and impact on profit. Companies often choose to focus on high-risk strategic and bottleneck categories to reduce the risks of scarce materials, unreliable suppliers, or politically unstable supply chains. Alternatively, low-risk or non-critical categories may be chosen if the buyer has more buying power or if sustainable criteria can be easily introduced into specifications. The Kraljic matrix is another method used by organizations to determine which purchases to undertake first with sustainable procurement activities, benefiting both the organization and the environment.
