ABSTRACT
The planning stage is vital to developing the procurement strategy. Before developing a sustainable procurement policy, the purchasing practices of an organisation need to be understood. Organisations should give consideration to where human rights issues may arise in the procurement of services or products when developing their procurement strategies. The strategy should have defined objectives and should cover risk, integration into processes, supplier engagement, people and communications. For an organisation to develop a sustainable procurement strategy that will achieve measureable outcomes, it must have an understanding of the risks and opportunities that are important to the organisation in relation to its supply chain. Organisations that have not identified their sustainability issues are unlikely to have a deep understanding of their sustainability risks. Sustainable procurement is a new dimension for Chief Procurement Officers who until based their decisions primarily on price, time, and arguably quality, albeit construed narrowly. Human rights and ethical considerations are also receiving greater attention.
