Procurement with Social Impact – Diversity and Inclusion
Through High Impact Procurement, organisations in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area – from startups to SMEs and corporates – are contributing to a fair, sustainable and innovative procurement environment. We are now focusing primarily on Diversity & Inclusion in recruitment and retention at the strategic and management level: Purchasing with Social Impact. Get in touch if you would also like to contribute.
This is what we are working on with D&I
In 2023, the focus of the Procurement with Social Impact working group, which the Amsterdam Economic Board has formed with partners, is on the procurement of personnel at the strategic and management level. We focus primarily on promoting diversity & inclusion (D&I). By discussing possible barriers for embracing D&I in an organisation. We also collect best practices and share them with the network through events and interviews. This is how we’re moving forward.
Would you like to share your best practices? Please contact Marjan Schrama or Lia Hsu.
What has already been accomplished?
When the High Impact Procurement initiative began, the focus was on facility management. Because for their own core business, each organisation purchases their specific raw materials, services and products. Almost every organisation needs generic purchases, such as energy, office space, ICT, catering, office furniture and transportation. If we’d all make an impact when purchasing, hiring or leasing these facility items, the returns on that investment would be interesting in may ways:
- It would encourage the demand and supply for things that contribute to a smart, green and healthy future, such as: clean transportation, circular furniture and healthy catering.
- It would reduce the demand for things we actually no longer want, such as: fossil energy and disposables.
Check out the news releases and our quickstarts to learn more about High Impact Procurement – focusing on facilities.
Please explore the Dutch website ikwilcirculairinkopen.nl. Here you will also find the quickstarts we have developed. These quickstarts offer various sectors concrete tips and practical tools for high impact facility procurement in their own organisations.
In all of our initiatives, we make sure to apply High Impact Procurement. For example, several organisations are collaborating on the procurement of circular softshell jackets and provide procurement expertise on circular and energy-efficient data servers.
Results High Impact Procurement
By now, a large part of our network has embraced high impact (facility) procurement. They increasingly demand and offer products and services that contribute to a smart, green and healthy future. That also reduces the demand for unsustainable stuff. The Amsterdam Economic Board’s efforts resulted in the following:
- The Socially Responsible Purchasing (MVI) checklist (Excel download in Dutch) gives you an easy insight into the level of circularity you’ve already attained while purchasing for some key facility product groups. This tool is based on PIANOo’s criteria for SRI.
- We collect relevant procurement criteria for data servers and circular solar panels, at the Circular Labs we organised with Utrecht University and AMS Institute. We unlock those data for our network.
- We have put together a working group to explore any questions in the area of Purchasing with Social Impact.
Learn more about how to get started with sustainable purchasing right away.
Invitation to collaborate
Is your organisation also embracing High Impact Procurement? Would you like to share your expertise and experience? Or would you like to know how to start a movement in your organisation? Then contact Marjan Schrama.
