LResponsible purchasing is an essential and increasingly recognized dimension of the social and environmental performance of companies. Through outsourcing, the share of purchasing in turnover has increased considerably in recent years, reaching 70 to 80% in sectors such as aeronautics or automobiles, and 60%. on average across all sectors.
Such percentages have led managers to become aware of the fact that there cannot be social and environmental responsibility (CSR) worthy of the name without responsible purchasing.
It is revealing to note that the 2023 study on “ CSR performance of French and European companies – OECD and BICS comparison », carried out by EcoVadis and the Business Mediator, offers for the second time a specific point on the theme of responsible purchasing, while previous studies remained focused on the environment, the social dimension and ethics.
The performance of the Nordic countries
The study covers a large sample of 25,699 companies in the European Union (EU), including 13% with more than 1,000 employees (companies with fewer than 25 employees are excluded from the study). The three responsible purchasing practices most often observed are the regular CSR evaluation of suppliers and/or the use of on-site audits (52%), the existence of a code of conduct imposed on suppliers (34%) and the insertion of CSR contractual clauses (25%).
The performance of the Nordic countries justified the creation by the authors of the study of a new geographical category, “Nordics”, whose responsible purchasing practices are particularly instructive to observe. We can, for example, note the more frequent use of CSR risk mapping (20%, compared to 14% in France).
Other studies or barometers such as those of the Responsible Purchasing Observatory (Obsar) where the Peak Collaborative Index show that the benefits of responsible purchasing are increasingly understood within organizations.
Room for progress
In the more than 7,000 French companies evaluated by the study cited abovethe theme of responsible purchasing is mentioned by 48% of respondents compared to 45.5% in 2018, a score higher than those observed on average in the EU (44.9%), in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 42.9%) or among BICS (Brazil-India-China-South Africa, 33% in 2022), but lower than those of other themes (environment, social, ethics).
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