ISO 20 400 has been in development since 2013 involving organisations from 40 countries. By implementing the standard and completing the assessment, Balfour Beatty has demonstrated that it has a sustainable procurement strategy in place.
Aaron Reid, head of sustainable procurement at Balfour Beatty, said: 鈥淲e are extremely proud to be the first company in the world assessed against ISO 20400. The standard gives us a clear framework to determine 鈥榳hat good looks like鈥� in terms of sustainable procurement and how we compare against it.
鈥淭he assessment itself was robust, practical and coherent. It held a mirror up to us as a business, enabling us to uncover areas of existing good practice to be shared and areas for improvement to focus upon.鈥�
Shaun McCarthy, director of Action Sustainability and chair of the Supply Chain School, said: 鈥淪ocietal expectations for supply chains to minimise impact on the environment and respect human rights are at a tipping point. In response, ISO 20 400 sets out a strategic framework for achieving sustainability and value for organisations competing in a global market. Procurement professionals and their stakeholders need to step up to this sustainability challenge and the standard provides a global framework for doing so.鈥�
He said that Balfour Beatty was leading the way on the issue worldwide.
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