Sustainable Procurement: An Introduction to ISO 20400

Many organisations are looking to reduce their climate, social and environmental impacts and are focussing on making their operations more sustainable, ethical and environmentally responsible. A sustainable approach to procurement is one aspect of that journey and this course covers the issues in sustainable procurement along with an overview of ISO 20400 the international standard which provides guidelines for organisation’s wishing to implement sustainable procurement practices

Sustainable procurement is the application of social and environmental responsibility to procurement policies, processes, and practices, and ISO 20400 is the international standard which sets out best practice for sustainable procurement.

This course provides an overview of the issues involved in implementing a policy sustainable procurement and highlights how ISO 20400 supports this. The topics covered include:

· What sustainable procurement is, and its benefits.

· The drivers for changing to a sustainable approach to procurement

· How ISO 20400 fits into the framework of international standards aimed at supporting businesses moving to ethical and environmentally responsible practices.

· The seven core subject areas in ISO 20400

· The Five Stage sustainable procurement model

· Reviewing the organisation’s current situation in terms of procurement

· Performance measures for sustainable procurement

· Cost analysis when comparing suppliers and sources of supply

· Verifying sustainability in the supply chain

I hope you will use this course to examine your organisation’s supply chain and to plan to improve its social, environmental and ethical impacts.

2025 Update:

Lesson 11 has been added in January 2025 to provide information on a review of ISO 20400 that was carried out in 2023