The Point

We spoke a few days ago about What is today in 100 years? The theme was about sustainability and adopting that strategy and practices into your procurement organization. Buyers Meeting Point has a motto of Learn, Share, Grow. Certainly as we do that with sustainability practices, we move as a whole faster to a better environment.

You might not think so, but watching the mainstage speakers from AribaLIVE in LasVegas this week was an excellent substitute for being there in person. Somehow the picture in picture slides plus camera angle streaming video captured the energy from the live audience and the enthusiasm of the speakers.

There is a lot of news lately about the Titanic and the voyage of 100 years ago. With that in mind, I looked at today in history and saw many interesting facts from hundreds of years ago to just a few years ago. It always strikes me that something I think just happened was actually in 1980 or 1990 something.

 So how does all this tie into procurement. What are you doing today that someone will look at 100 years from now?

On Wednesday, the Sustainable Business Forum hosted "Supplier Management - Social Responsibility" presented by SGS, the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company. The Sustainable Business Forum is a platform for the voices of leading experts and promotes constructive discussions on business sustainability, focusing on the crucial topics that make up the core of sustainable business strategy.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is taken very seriously by many organizations. I know retail food companies that contribute to local food banks, schools and community organizations. This blog by Aberdeen really hit the mark and discusses how BMW has implemented CSR and made it a key differentiator.

This week’s featured webinar was run by ISM and provided a “how-to” on market intelligence with examples of market data usage, potential sources of information and some real-world examples of why this topic is so important (or should be). Although Reed Elsevier (owners of LexisNexis) sponsored the event, it was remarkably non-salesy. The event is available on demand (as are the slides) and can be accessed on ISM’s site with their other Previous Web Seminars.

Being Green is a large movement in households as well as businesses. We are switching our  light bulbs, recycling, shopping with reusable bags and buying local to reduce on the use of fossil fuels. Of course people want the environment protected for future generations. However, it sometimes is not that simple. In these tough economic times, it is difficult to take on the green movement if it is more expensive.

One organization I know prides themselves on building LEEDS certified locations. They utilize that as a marketing tools and their customers feel good about working with them. Another organization worked very hard to categorize all their opportunities for their customers to work with them on green projects, and the effort fell flat.  Why was one so successful and the other not at all?

We went out to dinner last night as a celebration of our daughter's recent promotion. The restaurant was chosen specifically because they feature locally grown items on their menu. We had an interesting conversation about the virtues of that approach for the environment. Then the flip side was discussed about how many jobs are created by having food choices from other parts of the globe. 

Although we are supposed to be spending the next few weeks resting and planning for 2012, I couldn’t resist taking in one more webinar for 2011. This week’s featured event was based on a research study into the procurement practices of the U.S. Fortune 100 (the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500) conducted by Trading Partners.  You can view the slides here. You can also request a full copy of the research report by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

For more information about TradingPartners, click here to view their page in our vendor directory.

Covering the September ISM Non-Manufacturing Report on Business this week, with the uncertainty of the supply availability and prices of Diesel Fuel, reminded me of a very good webinar I attended last month but didn’t have an opportunity to share with you. My notes are below, but you can also view the webinar recording and download the sides from CombineNet’s site.

As CombineNet did, I’ll start my notes with some background information on sustainability itself, aside form any transportation specific concerns. I have also included some additional reading at the end of my post if you want to know more.