Support your sustainability efforts by considering your value chain partners’ perspective on your procurement practices. You can start by reflecting on the values and narratives your procurement team communicates through its actions and decisions. Consider how your buying practices might place undue pressure on suppliers and how you can work collaboratively with suppliers to alleviate this.
To best understand external perspectives, it is necessary to also engage directly with your suppliers and other value chain partners. You can do this by conducting listening exercises with past, current, and prospective suppliers; and seeking anonymous supplier feedback. This can help you gain insights into supplier pain points and sustainability performance challenges, as well as potential solutions.
EXAMPLE: Mars seeks external stakeholder perspectives5
Mars engages with its value chain partners through regional stakeholder dialogue events. Its first Asia Pacific event dialogue convened government officials, NGOs, academics, and business leaders to share perspectives and co-create regional sustainability priorities for the year ahead. Mars also conducts surveys to gather feedback on the company's procurement policies and practices and the impact of these policies on suppliers.
EXAMPLE: Annual supplier events at Walmart6
Walmart's annual Global Sustainability Milestone Summit invites associates, suppliers, and NGOs for sustainability progress discussions and best practice sharing. Suppliers give feedback on Walmart's sustainability goals, initiatives, and procurement via surveys and meetings, which are used to enhance sustainability practices. The summit covers topics like sustainability reporting and supplier sustainability scorecards.
