Professionally managed purchasing offers immense leverage to make change at the scale needed to address global warming, and improve many other environmental, social, and economic outcomes. Institutional purchasing of goods and services represents more than $10 trillion of spend in the US each year. And every contract that a corporation, government, university or health system uses to purchase goods or services represents an opportunity to reduce or reverse negative impacts – on climate, environment, worker health and safety — and to increase positive benefits – to community development, robust supplier relationships, transparency, equity. and accountability

Yet all too often Sustainability and Climate leads pursue standalone projects, and purchasing professionals pursue cost savings, while the huge opportunity that purchasing offers to drive change into core business operations goes unaddressed. Often the gaps in language and culture between the different disciplines simply get in the way of effective collaboration.

Join staff from the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council for an interactive workshop designed to change this dynamic. Through presentation, case study material and individualized exercises, we will help participants engage, align, and activate sustainability champions within procurement, and partnerships across silos and teams to leverage the sustainability potential of the dollars your organization spends.