BBA3207 Sustainable Procurement (Procurement & Supplies)

In the wake of several climate change and environmental sustainability issues, sustainable development has emerged as one of the top national and international agenda items. Sustainability is equally, increasingly becoming an integral part of any organizations way of doing business. Sustainability ensures that our actions today do not impact adversely on the quality of life in the future whilst making more efficient use of resources and optimizing benefit. Sustainable procurement offers manufacturers, suppliers and contractors the opportunity to develop environmentally sustainable and cost-effective goods and services. Therefore, sustainable procurement plays a pivotal a role in delivering and bringing together economic, social and environmental policy objectives – achieving value for money for the taxpayer whilst delivering goods and services people need and expect.

Objectives of the course

• Learn effective and leading practices on how procurement policy and decisions can influence sustainability to deliver positive environmental and social outcomes across the procurement process and supply chains.
• Understand how to embed and plan an approach that is relevant to an organization – its culture, its people, its policies, its leadership, and its suppliers. 
• Gain knowledge and techniques on how to ensure that products are sourced sustainably, with due regard to the current and future needs of the organizations, the society and generation.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Explain why sustainable procurement is good for business and why it operation should be linked to organizational strategy
• Analyze global social, economic and environmental trends affecting sustainable procurement
• Describe how the operation of sustainable procurement impacts on the procurement function
• Propose effective ways to communicate and gain commitment to sustainable procurement policy throughout an organization
• Identify the key stages and requirements for development of sustainable procurement implementation plan and purchase specifications for materials, components, processes and services across different organizations and sectors
• Examine contract management activities in the context of sustainable procurement