Project: Retailer

This retailer was looking to further its commitment to sustainability by embedding social and environmental criteria into its procurement and travel policies, but was receiving push-back from employees due to a reigning mindset of not sacrificing quality or performance for sustainability.

Sustainable Business Consulting helped debunk the myths of sustainable purchasing and worked with the retailer to:

• Develop decision-making criteria that would balance cost, convenience and sustainability to increase sustainable procurement without sacrificing performance or quality
• Identify opportunities to formally embed local and sustainable purchasing criteria into RFPs, contracts, and supplier screening requirements
• Develop easy-to-ask sustainability questions across its eight primary purchasing areas to provoke environmental thoughtfulness when making a purchase

The company was able to align its employee mindset with its sustainability mission and realized over $65,000 in cost savings from sustainable policies and green business criteria that were implemented.