eyeforprocurement's (Miami, www.eyeforprocurement.com) recently released Green Purchasing Report highlights both the benefits and obstacles that businesses face when implementing "green" purchasing practices. Going green is no longer an obscure item somewhere near the bottom of a priorities list. It has become a major focus of governments, industry and the general public all over the world.
Not only are industry watchdogs and authorities falling over themselves to introduce recommendations, regulations and penalties for those who contribute unnecessarily to pollution levels, but customers are also beginning to demand that entire supply chains, from raw materials sourcing to final delivery of the finished products, be as eco-friendly as possible.
In an effort to establish the degree to which the purchasing segment is focusing on environmentally friendly strategies, eyeforprocurement conducted the Green Purchasing survey in June-July 2007.
The survey reveals that while green purchasing is a growing trend, few companies are realizing any spin-off benefits in terms of reduced costs. In fact, the cost of implementing environmentally friendly purchasing is seen as one of the primary barriers to adoption.
However, nobody said that going green would be easy. Or cheap. But, for those who persevere, there are benefits in the form of long-term cost savings, as well as new and retained customers who would otherwise have taken their business elsewhere. The results of the survey have been published in the Green Purchasing Report, which can be downloaded from the company's Web site.
Many of the critical issues revealed by the survey will be examined in depth at the Green Purchasing Summit, which takes place on November 29-30 in Miami. At the summit procurement professionals from Wal-Mart, GM, Nike, Boeing, Office Depot, and others, will discuss the importance of green purchasing.
