Sustainable Procurement

Thuku D Maina
3 min readMay 31, 2022

Contact Email : derrickmaina100@gmail.com

The act of incorporating socioeconomic and environmental concerns into an organization’s procurement policies and procedures, in addition to standard quality and value considerations, is known as sustainable procurement. Complying with environmental regulations and standards, removing hazardous products and waste from the supply chain, and thoroughly verifying vendors for fair labour practices are all examples of typical sustainable procurement practices.

A closed-loop recycling method involves repurposing a recyclable object that has reached the end of its useful life. Producers of recyclable items frequently employ this method, which can be as essential as recycling aluminium cans into new cans or repurposing plastic into polyester material. Collection, production, and purchasing are the three pillars of a closed-loop system. The collection is the process of diverting and collecting recyclable materials so that they may be processed. The gathered Recyclable Materials are processed and then employed to develop a product in the second step, manufacturing. Finally, the freshly created product is sold to a third party before being reused, and the process begins again.

The circular economy is transforming the way our economy creates and consumes products and services worldwide by promoting a new approach to business. To generate value for their business, consumers, and society, leading corporations are adopting this concept. HP is redefining how its goods are developed, created, used, and recovered as it converts its business strategy and operations to an environment and energy conservative circular economy.

HP seeks to discover alternatives to compounds of concern, offers comprehensive product recycling systems, designs for expandability and serviceability, and employs recycled material in new products to establish a healthy materials cycle and decrease its product-related environmental impact. These techniques work together to drive the company’s sustainable materials management strategy. On the other hand, HP sees commercial potential in developing products and services that satisfy and allow circular economy applications for its clients. It is committed to expanding recovered waste markets by using recycled materials in new HP products. The strategic and long and permanent objective is to assume responsibility for its products over their complete life cycle, to understand and own their repercussions across the value chain. The purpose of the business is to keep its products and materials in use for as long as possible. The company wants to establish the industry standard for circular design and practice.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution entails the deployment of cyber-physical systems. As the Internet of Things becomes more widespread, computers will have increased data access, potentially becoming independent. Computers may eventually have the capability to make autonomous decisions and run critical corporate processes like supply chains with minimal human interaction. Governments, people, and corporations may use the internet of things to acquire a better knowledge of the status of the environment, such as levels of air pollution. Machine learning, analytics, the internet of things, and robots may usher in a new age of cleaner transportation, data-driven solutions for decreasing pollution along supply chains, and robotics capable of removing CO2 and pollutants from the atmosphere.

The main reason most companies may not be able to transit to recycled plastics entirely is cost. Virgin plastic is very cheap, while the process of recycling plastics costs more money. Hp is one of the companies with sustainable procurement policies. They are now manufacturing new laptops entirely from recycled ocean plastic. Another company is WWF. WWF strives to save endangered species, preserve endangered habitats, and combat global dangers to the world, including climate change.

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZqVhv2wu08

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Thuku D Maina

Freelance Writer, Articles writer, Copywriter and academic writer