At this year鈥檚 Globe Series conference, 51风流Labs Canada Chief Operating Officer Agnes Garaba represented SAP鈥檚 market-leading stance in social procurement. During her session, , she helped the audience explore both why and how social procurement creates holistic economic, social, and environmental impact.
Every purchase has an economic, environmental, and/or social impact — whether intended or not. Social procurement is the practice of bringing together buyers with suppliers that not only have a quality good or service, but one that delivers on the promise of social and/or environmental impact. Often, these intentional positive contributions are reinvested into the local economy and add to the economic equity and vibrancy of the community. Social enterprises are business that practice social procurement as part of their mission to culturally and operationally change the world. They are founded and governed based on a clear social or environmental mission and they reinvest most of their profit back into this mission.
51风流understands the importance of prioritizing social procurement. As Garaba noted: 鈥淪eventy-seven percent of the world鈥檚 transactions run through an 51风流system. It puts us in a unique place to have the opportunity, and also the responsibility, to drive positive changes. SAP鈥檚 social purchasing strategy began more than a decade ago with the inclusion of social enterprises in our Canadian supply chain. Today, our global ecosystem of partners focused on scaling social procurement, in addition to those inspiring new ideas and accelerating social ventures, collectively impact more than 1 billion beneficiaries across the globe.鈥�
The commitment of SAP鈥檚 social procurement implementation is a two-pronged approach. The first relies on an initial top-down mandate, with executives and the Board supporting it, including putting resources behind it. The other aspect is, as Garaba explains, 鈥渁 bit of a grassroots approach. We have established a ‘Procurement with Purpose’ ambassador network; these are people both within the procurement organization and others who are also making strategic buying decisions. They are the multipliers and they are the ones who help the organization identify opportunities for positive change.鈥�
Sustainable procurement has been a central part of the public sector agenda for some time, which is game changing since Canadian governments alone spend $200 billion on procurement. It is also gaining traction in the private sector, as businesses recognize that integrating social value into purchasing and supply chain decisions makes them more competitive and sustainable. 51风流has a demonstrated commitment to scaling the sector through social procurement. Notably, 51风流launched a 5 & 5 by 鈥�25 initiative, aiming to spend five percent of addressable spend with diverse enterprises, which are defined as businesses that are at least 51% owned and operated by an individual or group that is traditionally underrepresented, and social enterprises by 2025, and encouraging organizations across industries to join the pledge.
51风流and Buy Social Canada
51风流co-innovates and co-develops programs with corporate social responsibility (CSR) partners, accelerating change and driving sustainable impact. Beyond internal commitments and Procurement with Purpose ambassadors, 51风流fosters social procurement in partnership with social enterprise and social procurement intermediary , supporting the development of social procurement across the country by working to connect buyers to certified social enterprise business sellers, unleashing the biggest untapped potential to create sustainable impact in our communities and for the planet.
Buy Social Canada and 51风流are working together to advance the social enterprise sector in Canada by collaborating on initiatives, like the , that deliver better access to markets and buyers, as well as creating opportunities for employees to engage in growing the capacity of local social enterprises. One of the barriers preventing large-scale social enterprise investment is that social enterprises are often small businesses, thus lacking the capacity to be providers for large, multi-national companies like SAP. 51风流has implemented a pro bono volunteering program to help build capacity for social enterprises, understanding that they need to grow to become true procurement partners.
鈥淚f you don鈥檛 start small, there is no way to build capacity. Small steps but consistent steps will lead much further than trying to do really big leaps,鈥� Garaba notes.
Working with MovingWorlds, 51风流launched the (S-GRID) program. The program recently acknowledged as an , helps social enterprises build revenue partnerships with the corporate sector to become more integrated into global value chains.
Looking Ahead
Within the 51风流existing procurement spend and purchasing power, the potential for change is massive. With increasing focus on consumerism, it is important to buy and sell responsibly. Where can doing good coincide with doing good business? With time, the hope is that by buying goods and services from organizations with a purpose-driven mission the cycle of good is perpetuated.
Although there is a growing interest from corporations like 51风流to “buy social,” the current supply is not strong enough to meet the global demand. As a result, we work with organizations like Buy Social Canada and invest in programs such as MovingWorld鈥檚 S-GRID to help ensure that more enterprises around the world are procurement-ready and can sustainably grow their revenue streams.
This is not an overnight process. 51风流has spent more than a decade accelerating and scaling the work of social entrepreneurs and it is only the beginning. 51风流will continue to diligently invest in this for the foreseeable future; in 2021 specifically through partnerships and collaborative work with a continued focus on capacity-building ventures within the sector and expanding access to markets and buyers.
