The aim is to bring a handpicked selection of purpose-driven social enterprises into the world鈥檚 largest procurement network, . By providing greater visibility of social enterprises, Procurement with Purpose encourages organisations to divert some of their spend toward social enterprises.

One such social enterprise is , a company that provides innovative solutions that enables anyone to grow their own food at home that was started by Claire Reid.

Reel Gardening provides patented seed tape that makes it easy for anyone to grow vegetables and herbs at home. Through its non-profit arm , the company further enables households to become responsible for their own food security by establishing local schools as community training and distribution nodes for the food they grow.

, Managing Director at 51风流Southern Africa, lauds the work of the social enterprises that form part of Procurement with Purpose, saying social impact requires more than just a clear sense of purpose. 鈥淚 have long held the belief that motivated, purpose-driven entrepreneurs can make a significant impact and drive change both in their work environment and the world at large. Thanks to the amazing work by Kaunain and Mathiba for bringing incredible social enterprises such as Reel Gardening into our Ariba procurement network, 51风流customers can now more easily purchase sustainable goods and services from social enterprises that are making a real, positive impact in the world.鈥�

鈥淲hen I was 16, I wanted to grow my own vegetables and sell them to my parents for extra pocket money,鈥� says Reid. 鈥淏ut keeping track of watering, fertiliser, how deep the seed is planted and make sure seeds are planted far enough apart turned out much harder than I thought. And even when seedlings did appear, I couldn鈥檛 tell which were weeds and which were potential food.鈥�

Reid wanted a simple way of giving seeds the optimal conditions for their early growth, and began to make seed strips with newspaper, encasing the seed in a paste made from flour and liquid fertiliser. The project was entered into an expo for young scientists, where it caught the eye of the then- Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry who noted the water-saving abilities of this new form of planting.

Following a series of tests at a local university, Reid discovered that Reel Gardening could save up to 80% of the water consumed during germination. Her patented technology won several awards, including the International Stockholm Junior Water Prize for South Africa and The United Nations Environmental SEED award.

鈥淲e have distributed around 50 million seed tapes to date, giving households an easy way to grow tomatoes, herbs, chillies, spinach and more,鈥� says Reid. 鈥淥ur Household Garden in a Box also gives households and communities the opportunity to grow fresh produce in whatever space is available, with less need for water, time or expertise. We believe this creates an opportunity to contribute to breaking the systemic cycle of food poverty and insecurity in our communities.鈥�

Through a mobile app, Reel Gardening provides advice on what to do in the garden. WhatsApp is also used to communicate with the 41 000 households that use Reel Gardening鈥檚 seed tape kits to plant in townships across South Africa.

鈥淲e want to create links between all of our gardens to enable the activation of a larger ecosystem,鈥� says Reid. 鈥淥ur ultimate goal is to aggregate surplus produce from thousands of households into our agri hubs for processing and sale into local and even international off-take agreements.鈥�

For more information about Reel Gardening, visit聽

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The aim is to bring a handpicked selection of purpose-driven social enterprises into the world’s largest procurement network, Ariba. By providing greater visibility of social enterprises, Procurement with Purpose encourages organisations to divert some of their spend toward social enterprises.

One such social enterprise is Collectively Conscious, a corporate conscious gifting business that was founded by Kath van den Berg and Kylie Chevallier out of a passion to help drive sustainability within society.

“We chose corporate gifting in line with the broader trend toward conscious gifting, which focuses on taking time to consider gifts for people instead of simply giving anything for the sake of it,” says Kath van den Berg. “It’s about acting consciously to provide an ethical, sustainable gift that is aligned with the values of our clients.”

After an extensive process of researching and networking with people in the field, van den Berg and business partner Chevallier saw an opportunity in conscious gifting, especially within a corporate environment where making a difference is a key differentiator.

“We consider products that are making a positive social or environmental impact,” explains van den Berg. “Products can be made with reclaimed or recycled materials, reused goods, or products that provide some form of social upliftment, empowerment or upskilling within communities. There are a lot of ways to make a positive impact.”

A stringent process is applied to potential new suppliers to better understand their business and the impact they make before Collectively Conscious adds them to their supplier list. “Each supplier must adhere to our values,” says van den Berg. “Luckily, there are so many local suppliers that make beautiful products while also creating positive impact.”

The products that van den Berg and Chevallier offer provide corporates with an opportunity to make a positive difference with every gift they give. 鈥淲e all need to start thinking and acting more sustainably for the benefit of the planet and future generations,鈥� says van den Berg. 鈥淏y offering a curated gifting solution that captures the sustainability values of corporates across the country, we can make a positive environmental and social impact with every gift.鈥�

Cathy Smith, Managing Director at 51风流Africa, lauds the work of the social enterprises that form part of Procurement with Purpose, saying social impact requires more than just a clear sense of purpose. “I have long held the belief that motivated, purpose-driven entrepreneurs can make a significant impact and drive change both in their work environment and the world at large. Thanks to the amazing work by Kaunain and Mathiba for bringing incredible social enterprises such as Collectively Conscious into our Ariba procurement network, 51风流customers can now more easily purchase sustainable goods and services from social enterprises that are making a real, positive impact in the world.”

For more information about Collectively Conscious, please visit

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But social impact requires more than just a clear sense of purpose. It requires concerted action to redirect resources and effort toward activities that hold the greatest potential for positive impact. When those actions are a central part of your day-to-day operations, the likelihood of sustained success is much greater.

An ongoing initiative by two enterprising South African 51风流employees continues to inspire me about the potential for purpose-driven employees to drive true change both in their immediate work environment and society at large.

Striking gold with local social enterprises

A few years ago, Kaunain Nurani and Mathiba Phokungoane realised they shared a common interest in making a positive social impact and started seeking ways in which to bring that purpose to life.

The two launched Procurement with Purpose, an initiative that seeks to make it easier for 51风流Africa and other organisations to purchase goods and services from social enterprises that look beyond pure profit and actively seek to address societal problems.

At its core, Procurement with Purpose brings a handpicked selection of qualifying social enterprises into the world’s largest procurement network, Ariba. It increases the visibility of the social enterprises and encourages organisations to divert some of their spend toward these social enterprises, for example for end-of-year gifts, or IT and HR services.

Not just any social enterprise can join: the initiative purposely seeks social enterprises that are aligned to our organisation鈥檚 guiding values. One social enterprise, for example, trains girls for a career in technology, which aligns to SAP’s focus on encouraging greater female participation in Africa’s digital economy.

The program has been a resounding success: all five social enterprises that currently form part of the Procurement with Purpose initiative have benefited from increased visibility and greater opportunity to supply goods and services to 51风流and other global organisations. The five-million-plus organisations that use Ariba for their procurement needs benefit from access to trusted social enterprises that can help them bring to life their own corporate impact initiatives. The intention now is to widen that base and continue to look at opportunities to find local social enterprises that can provide the daily services required to run the 51风流business. For example, all our coffee in our South African offices is now procured from 鈥淚 Love Coffee鈥� 鈥� a Cape Town based social enterprise that supports the deaf community.

This brings me to one of the biggest leadership lessons from the success of Procurement with Purpose: that motivated, purpose-driven employees can make a significant positive impact provided they work in an enabling environment, and that not every impactful initiative needs to be corporate-led.

Multiplier effect of social impact

Corporate social impact has been a growing concern for global businesses over the past decade. According to one report, the percentage of companies listed on the S&P 500 that published a corporate social responsibility report grew from only 20% in 2011 .

There’s good reason: are motivated to purchase from companies that are committed to making the world a better place, while 93% of employees believe .

In order to build a successful business that can grow its customer base and attract top talent, purpose needs to feature highly in the corporate agenda. In a Harvard Business Review study, 58% of organisations that have a clear and strong sense of purpose .

As the Procurement with Purpose initiative reveals, one of the most significant opportunities for organisations to enhance their social impact and drive true positive change is to augment their supply chains with social enterprises.

Social impact through smarter spending

In 2020, 51风流introduced the ‘5 & 5 by 25‘ concept, which formalised the company’s global commitment to direct 5% of its addressable spend to social enterprises and 5% to diverse businesses, with 2025 as the deadline.

This forms part of the company鈥檚 goal of being both an enabler 鈥� through providing the necessary technology infrastructure and strategic insight 鈥� of greater sustainability and social impact, as well as an exemplar in terms of the way 51风流itself conducts its work.

At its core is the understanding that, as a business that not only commands sizeable annual spend but also powers many of the systems that support and enable global commerce, we could make a lasting positive impact by simply changing a few of our own processes.

For example, the Ariba network is the largest procurement network in the world, facilitating $3.75-trillion in trade by 5.3 million organisations per year – more than double the commerce of Amazon, Alibaba and eBay combined.

By increasing access to and visibility of social enterprises on Ariba 鈥� as Procurement with Purpose has done 鈥� we can encourage organisations across the globe to direct some of their spend toward social enterprises to drive greater social impact.

Most importantly, when a business is clear on its purpose and consistent with how it lives up to that purpose, it empowers employees at all levels of the organisation to bring that purpose to life in their own way. And as Kaunain and Mathiba has proven, this holds immense benefits for employees, organisations, social enterprises and society at large.

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