Sponsor's Message

by Bill Cooper, Associate Vice President & Chief Procurement Officer

April 2018

Sustainable Procurement is a maturing effort that is sometimes misunderstood as being primarily focused on environmental impacts. It actually goes beyond buying “green” and the environmental considerations you typically associate it with like solar power, recycling, water conservation, and electric cars. Sustainable procurement extends to incorporate the social and economic pillars of sustainability as reflected in small and diverse business growth, fair wage and fair work conditions, community engagement, workforce ethnic and gender diversity, local and healthy food production and consumption, etc.

As part of the CFO Division’s 2016-2020 Strategic Plan, sustainability in this broadened sense is one of the priorities of the Supply Chain 500 (SC500) initiative. As we strive to deliver our goal of reaching $500M in annual benefits by continuing to improve the UC Procurement model and extending it across the UC Supply Chain, sustainability plays an important role that can produce positive outcomes, not only for the UC, but for our state and our country’s economy, environment and society, as a whole. Achieving optimum procurement sustainability involves a high degree of collaboration and engagement between all parties in the supply chain.

Here’s what UC Procurement’s leadership in sustainability has accomplished thus far:

  • Established a systemwide membership with the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, a non-profit whose mission is to support and recognize purchasing leadership that accelerates the transition to a prosperous and sustainable future. National membership includes buyers, suppliers and public interest advocates.
  • Kicked off the UC Small & Diverse Business Advisory Council in April 2017, whose mission is to foster, promote, increase and retain spend between the University of California and small, diverse, disadvantaged and local businesses.
  • Re-launched the Sustainable Procurement Working Group at the end of 2016 which has developed a business case for Supplier Diversity, is currently overhauling UC’s Sustainable Practices Policy, is investigating options for surplus and electric vehicle rebate optimization, and is creating a sustainability scorecard pilot
  • Added new Sustainable Procurement information to website

In addition, Strategic Sourcing Centers of Excellence have been requiring that sustainability practices be used as a consideration in the business case of all systemwide RFPs. You can read about one of these examples in the article: Let There Be Light!

UC Procurement has made great progress in laying the groundwork for sustainable procurement. One of the ways we plan to measure our impact within UC’s supply chain is by establishing a scorecard platform. A pilot program is in the works which will include the engagement of multiple stakeholders. More information on this project can be found here.

I trust that the breadth and depth of work that has been completed thus far is an indication of the importance of sustainability within our procurement practices. As an anchor institution within the State of California that just celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary, UC is in a unique position to deliver value and long term positive impacts based on the decisions we make today. Join me in celebrating our history of work and the future to come.

Happy Earth Day everyone!