WHAT IS THAT
UNI ISO 20400 is an international standard that provides guidelines for the sustainable procurement process.The concept of sustainability proposed is the now consolidated, holistic one, which takes into consideration the three pillars of environmental, social and economic sustainability throughout the entire life cycle of the product or service.
The standard aims to be a tool for integrating sustainability into corporate procurement policies and processes.
They are defined:
- what are sustainable purchases;
- how the concept of sustainability is inherent in procurement: policy, strategy, organization and process;
- how to implement sustainable procurement.
The standard does not focus on achieving certain sustainability performances as it allows each organization to choose its own sustainable procurement path , guiding it in the choice of organizational and operational methods.
KEY POINTS
The heart of the standard is represented by the key chapters (4,5,6,7) which address the following topics:- The foundations: in which the concept of sustainability is explored and the drivers that drive sustainable purchases are defined
- The integration of sustainability into purchasing policy and strategy
- The organization of the purchasing function with the aim of promoting sustainability
- The sustainable procurement process
ADVANTAGES
The adoption of the ISO 20400 standard allows the organization to:- harmonize purchasing policies and strategies within the organization
- implement a new structured risk management model deriving from the purchasing process, aimed at protecting one's own product or service and safeguarding the company's reputation
- communicating the organization's commitment to sustainability to its customers and to the market
- increase the dialogue between the interested parties in order to define more sustainable and shared strategies
- monitor performance in order to continuously improve the system