10 Golden Principles for Sustainable Procurement Practices

Key Takeaways

• Embed sustainability into normal procurement processes.
• Prioritise the supply categories and impacts that matter most.
• Link procurement activity directly to organisational sustainability goals.
• Engage and develop suppliers rather than relying only on selection.
• Measure delivery after contract award.
• Consider carbon, social value, human rights and whole-life value together.

Since ISO 20400 was first published in 2017, sustainable procurement has become firmly established in mainstream procurement strategy. Organisations are now expected to consider carbon, social value, human rights, resilience and environmental impacts alongside traditional priorities such as cost, quality and risk.

Effective sustainable procurement practices turn these ambitions into practical decisions about what you buy, who you buy from and how you manage suppliers.

ISO 20400:2017 remains the current international guidance standard, having been reviewed and confirmed in 2023. View ISO 20400. Our founder, Shaun McCarthy, led the UK delegation that helped write it, and we’ve been helping organisations turn it into practical procurement processes ever since.

Learn more about sustainable procurement and supply chain management.

What Are Sustainable Procurement Practices?

Sustainable procurement means considering the environmental, social and economic impacts of purchasing decisions throughout their life cycle. That can include reducing carbon emissions, improving labour standards, creating social value, cutting waste, supporting circularity and improving supply chain resilience.

Find out more about what sustainable procurement means in practice.

1. Sustainable Procurement Is Good Procurement

You cannot bolt sustainability onto a poor procurement process and expect strong results. Sustainable procurement depends on the same fundamentals as good procurement: understanding the business need, engaging the market, setting appropriate specifications, evaluating suppliers fairly, managing risk and monitoring contracts effectively.

Think About Whole-Life Value

Lowest purchase price is not always best value. Consider operating costs, maintenance, durability, resource use, disposal, resilience and wider environmental or social outcomes across the contract life cycle.

This helps move the conversation away from whether sustainability costs more and towards which option creates the strongest long-term value.

2. Call It What You Like, but Be Clear

Sustainable procurement, responsible sourcing, ethical procurement, green procurement and social procurement are all used by different organisations. The terminology matters less than the outcome.

What matters is having a shared understanding of what sustainability means for your organisation and translating that into clear procurement priorities. Whether your focus is net zero, human rights, circularity, social value or resilience, colleagues and suppliers need to understand what is expected.

3. Engage More Than the Procurement Team

Sustainable procurement is not something purchasing professionals can deliver alone. Procurement teams need input from sustainability, finance, legal, HR, operations, technical specialists and contract managers. Suppliers should also be involved early enough to help shape realistic solutions.

Public procurement guidance now encourages early market engagement for exactly this reason. Suppliers know what’s achievable in their market, so ask them before you write the requirement.

Action Sustainability has supported organisations including Imperial College London to embed sustainability across procurement activity. Read the Imperial College London case study.

4. Have a Policy, but Make It Practical

Yes, you need a sustainable procurement policy. But a policy written in isolation will achieve very little. It should explain your organisation’s priorities, responsibilities and expectations of suppliers, while giving procurement teams practical guidance.

Turn Policy Into Process

Sustainability should influence:

• Category strategies
• Specifications
• Sourcing plans
• Tender questions
• Evaluation criteria
• Contract clauses
• Supplier management
• KPIs and reporting

A strong policy only creates value when it changes procurement decisions.

5. Follow the Golden Thread

Your procurement policy should translate your organisation’s sustainability strategy into language your supply chain can respond to. If reducing carbon emissions is a priority, procurement should identify the categories that can make the greatest contribution.

If social value is important, sourcing strategies should identify realistic opportunities to create additional economic, social or environmental benefits. If human rights risks are significant, due diligence and supplier management should reflect them.

6. Focus on Sustainable Supply, Not Just Sustainable Suppliers

A common mistake is judging suppliers primarily on how sustainable their own organisation appears. A supplier can have a strong sustainability strategy and still offer a weak solution for your contract.

Focus instead on the impact of the goods, services or works being purchased. That might include reducing embodied carbon, cutting packaging, improving labour conditions, supporting local employment, increasing recycled content or developing more circular products and services.

7. Prioritise, Prioritise, Prioritise

Not every sustainability issue is relevant to every category. Trying to address everything across every procurement exercise often produces lengthy questionnaires without meaningful outcomes.

A sustainability risk and opportunity assessment, often shown as a heat map, can help identify the categories where action will have the greatest impact.

Consider issues such as:

• Carbon and climate impact
• Waste and circularity
• Resource efficiency
• Biodiversity
• Modern slavery
• Employment standards
• Equality and inclusion
• Social value
• Supply chain resilience

For most organisations, purchased goods and services are one of the biggest sources of Scope 3 emissions, which puts procurement at the centre of any carbon target. The GHG Protocol provides guidance on measuring and managing these emissions.

8. Support Your People

Procurement professionals are integrators of other professions, so don’t expect them to become experts in climate science, human rights, biodiversity and social value overnight. Give them access to practical guidance, training and specialist support.

Action Sustainability helps organisations through ISO 20400 assessments, gap analysis, policy development and training. Explore our sustainable procurement support.

Aim to give category managers enough confidence to spot the big sustainability risks, ask the right questions and know when to call in an expert.

9. Develop Your Supply Chain

Simply choosing suppliers that already perform well can reduce competition and exclude businesses capable of improving. Supplier development is therefore essential.

Communicate expectations early, explain why sustainability information is required and give suppliers opportunities to improve during the contract. For example, better supplier engagement can help organisations improve the quality of carbon data, identify reduction opportunities and encourage innovation.

Developing supplier capability can also strengthen resilience and long-term commercial relationships.

10. Do It for Real

This remains the most important principle. Your prioritisation exercise should identify significant sustainability impacts across your supply categories. Those issues then need to influence real purchasing decisions. The UK policy environment has also developed considerably since this article was originally written.

The Procurement Act 2023 regime came into effect for procurements commencing from 24 February 2025. Updated government guidance also addresses social value, Carbon Reduction Plans and modern slavery risks in supply chains.

Explore UK procurement policy guidance.

Measure What Happens After Contract Award

Tender responses are promises. Sustainable procurement is about delivery. Set meaningful KPIs, establish baselines where possible and monitor performance throughout the contract.

Ask whether emissions have reduced, social value commitments have been delivered, key risks have been mitigated and suppliers have improved.

Action Sustainability’s State of Sustainable Procurement report explores the continuing challenge of turning sustainable procurement into business-as-usual activity.

Put the Golden Principles Into Practice

The terminology and policy landscape have evolved since ISO 20400 arrived in 2017, but the central principle remains the same: sustainable procurement should be good procurement. Organisations that embed sustainable procurement practices into category management, sourcing and contract management can turn sustainability commitments into measurable results.

If you want to benchmark your current approach against ISO 20400 or strengthen your procurement strategy, contact Action Sustainability’s sustainable procurement experts.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is sustainable procurement?

Sustainable procurement means integrating environmental, social and economic considerations into procurement decisions so organisations can reduce negative impacts and increase positive outcomes throughout the life cycle of goods, services and works.

What are examples of sustainable procurement practices?

Examples include assessing category risks, including relevant sustainability criteria in tenders, considering whole-life costs, engaging suppliers on carbon reduction, addressing human rights risks and monitoring sustainability KPIs.

What is ISO 20400?

ISO 20400:2017 is the international guidance standard for sustainable procurement. It helps organisations integrate sustainability into procurement policies, strategies and processes.

How can procurement help reduce Scope 3 emissions?

Procurement teams can identify carbon-intensive categories, request better supplier data, specify lower-carbon alternatives and work with suppliers to reduce emissions associated with purchased goods and services.

Does sustainable procurement cost more?

It shouldn’t, if you measure the right thing. Looking only at purchase price misses costs linked to energy, maintenance, waste, replacement and supply chain risk. Sustainable procurement focuses on whole-life value and can support efficiency, innovation and resilience.