There is a need to dispel the misconception that sustainability and procurement struggle to coexist and are not complementary of one other, beverage company Distell South Africa sustainability group head Eric Leong Son said during day one of Smart Procurement World’s Sustainability Summit Africa on May 18.

He emphasised the need for organisations to reflect on the culture from the top, with a proper belief system needing to be embedded.

Son said organisations should also ensure that proper process frameworks and governance exists to ensure sustainable procurement. He emphasised that sustainable procurement must not just be qualitative, but also, quantitative, to measure and track these results.

Son noted that Covid-19 had amplified a set of existing socioeconomic challenges in the country, rather than causing them.

Therefore, he said that organisations, companies, communities and governments had to rise to the challenges of addressing pressure points now.

Son pointed out that embracing sustainability as part of business had become good business practice.

He said that, to do this, organisations must see if an integrated model for sustainability existed; how it could deliver sustainable value across the three pillars of profit, planet and people; and what programmes, frameworks and approaches would deliver these results.

To pursue sustainability, businesses must identify and commit to sustainability; develop targets and key performance indicators; align their sustainability and corporate strategy towards targets; create business opportunities; collaborate and form working groups; and measure, assess, report and communicate, he added.

Son also touched on Distell’s use of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an enabler.

He informed that the company had identified areas along its value chain where it believed it could make the most significant impact and contribute towards sustainable development.

These shape the company’s contribution to the SDGs; and also align with the four pillars of Distell’s sustainability strategy, namely purpose, planet, people and profit.

Therefore, for the company, this entailed promoting responsible actions, achieving transformation, empowering its people, empowering communities and managing its supply chain sustainably.

US university Pennsylvania State University project and supply chain management professor Dr Justin Goldston posited that a systems thinking approach could lead to a more sustainable world.

He said consumers were paying more attention to an organisation’s purpose and dissecting whether the claims it made towards addressing profit, people and planet as part of this were indeed valid.

Therefore, there is a need for transparency, he noted, which would require additional tools. Goldston said augmented intelligence and blockchain offered options in this regard and could engender sustainability.

He suggested that artificial intelligence could be used as a tool in decision-making, and in indicating whether an organisation was working towards the SDGs. 

In pursuing this, he emphasised that there would need to be democratisation of technology to ensure collaboration; and leveraging emerging technologies to create more sustainable supply chains.

Meanwhile, value chain specialist Tomorrow Matters Now South Africa CEO Dr Jaisheila Rajput commented that value chain thinking was critical, as it was the most holistic way to view markets and imminent challenges and move towards a more collaborative way of thinking – thereby breaking away from a silos approach.

She highlighted that customer triggers that businesses need to be cognisant of include supporting active citizenship; focusing on sustainable value-adds; responsiveness to market demand on environmental management/waste; and addressing climate change and environmental challenges.

Therefore, impact areas that businesses need to focus on include energy, water, biodiversity, the built environment and communities.

In pursuing sustainable procurement, Rajput said social and environmental factors must be considered alongside financial factors. 

She noted that businesses had to move beyond the traditional, with decisions to be based on whole life costs, risks, measures of success and implications for society and the environment.

Moreover, procurement must be set in the broader strategic context – value for money, performance management, corporate and community priorities.

Rajput noted that sustainable procurement should take into account value for money; the environmental impact that supplies and/or services have over whole lifecycles; the social impacts such as inequality in resources distribution; and the use of sustainable or recycled material/products.                                                          

She emphasised the need for a circular economy, which ideally would design out waste and pollution; keep products and materials in use; and regenerate natural systems.

Rajput said there was a need to move away from the traditional owner-based approach, to a more user-based approach in procurement.

This would entail the efficient and effective use of resources and data-based decision-making.

Moreover, it would reduce the harmful impact of pollution and waste and encourage innovation.

Rajput said collaboration was key, as was transparency and commitment to a sustainable journey.

Most importantly, she emphasised, there must not be any ‘green washing’, which is when businesses make claims about the sustainability of their products that are not true.