Training:
Sustainable Sourcing
My eyes were opened up to sustainability during a sourcing trip to South and Central America in 2008, when I saw the excellent, the poor and the downright disgraceful side of fruit growing. Brazil was poor - mile upon mile of orange groves without any indigenous trees, nor a bird to be heard or seen. It felt wrong and judging by the significant damage to trees from disease including the aptly named 'sudden death', it indicated just how wrong this sort of farming is. In contrast, Costa Rican orange groves were interspersed with significant sections of natural forest. It looked right and when the supplier explained that insects and birds from the forest kept a check on pests in the groves I realised there are other ways to generate a good yield besides mono-culture. In Ecuador I witnessed highly acidic, yellow passionfruit waste being discharged directly into the river. It was shameful and I cancelled the contract then and there.
Sustainability is a huge topic and isn't always the easiest to make sense of. During this course we'll bring rationale thinking and tangible ideas to your sustainability strategy. We'll explore the different lenses of sustainability: environmental, social and economic, we'll assess your company's current sustainability position and that of your suppliers and we'll find ways for your business and suppliers to operate way beyond compliance. We'll also understand what matters to you personally and how you can make a real difference.
Benefits
True sustainability doesn't just create a good marketing story. True sustainability brings real tangible benefits to the environment, the people and communities who work throughout your supply chain, your suppliers and your business too. The story is then very easy to tell as it's true, it's meaningful and it's accurate.
True sustainability won't be a cost or inconvenience to your business; in fact quite the reverse. True sustainability brings advantages that will out-weigh the effort many times over. Likely benefits will include:
A meaningful environmental, social or economic benefit to our precious World
Safeguarding or improving brand reputation
Creating value and delivering cost savings that aren't at the detriment of suppliers, communities or the environment
Increasing the security of your supply, with less waste
Step changing material quality
Creating marketing stories that are credible and brand enhancing
Attracting top talent and improving employee engagement and retention
…and you'll feel more equipped and empowered to make a difference to the World's sustainability woes.
Other Details
To discuss your specific needs or to book this course, contact Frost, Procurement Adventurer:
Phone: +44 (0)7967 372378
Course Prospectus
Course approach: A fun and highly interactive mix of theory, many examples and two case studies. It's usually followed up with two further sessions – one to apply the techniques to your portfolio and the second, several weeks later, to ensure the skills are embedded in your DNA and your business.
Course duration: 1 day intensive, 2 days advanced
Trainer: Frost, Procurement Adventurer. Sometimes, I enlist the support of one of my long-standing business colleagues for specialist topics like accreditations.
Course level: I tailor the training specifically to you and your team catering from junior procurement experts to senior sourcing managers. It's not unusual for Category Directors and Heads of Procurement to join too.
Sectors covered: The techniques covered work across direct and indirect spend. I tailor the course material and case studies specifically to your portfolio.
Location: This course can easily be run virtually by video conference. If you'd still like it run face-to-face, I'm happy to run the course where it's most convenient for you.
Cost: Depending on your specific needs and on request.
Course material: Attendees will receive a full training pack containing a summary of content from the day as well as copies of all case studies and group exercises.
What you will learn
The overall objective of this course is to design a sourcing strategy based on robust sustainability principles. As sustainability is a very broad subject and needs vary considerably depending on your product offer and circumstances, I'll tailor the course around your needs. Typical areas that can be covered are:
Core sustainability concepts - environmental, social and economic
Facing head-long into sustainability and hard truths
Your role and how you can make a difference
Conducting a sustainability assessment of your portfolio and supply chains
Creating a sustainability framework fit for your business
Engaging your team and business to take sustainability seriously
Identifying sustainability value drivers
Creating sourcing mechanisms suitable for sustainability
Devising investment and budgeting mechanisms for sustainable sourcing
Getting to sustainability compliance and then going well beyond compliance
Gaining sustainability accreditations (Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade, MSC, Organic etc)
Supplier selection using sustainability measures
Working with your suppliers to drive a positive sustainable change
Partnering with NGOs, other companies and third parties
Devising and managing smallholder growing programmes
Optimising supply chains to minimise waste
Creating a meaningful and tangible sustainability action plan
Tracking progress of your sustainability action plan
Creating meaningful sustainability stories that aren't based on marketing spin