BSR’s Center for Sustainable Procurement: Year 1 Findings and Insights

As one of the leading business networks in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability since 1992, BSR has conducted numerous engagements with member companies and their stakeholders focused on sustainable supply chain management.

One of our major partners in this work has been Hilton Worldwide, with whom we have been working since 2010 to integrate sustainability considerations into the way they procure a wide range of products and services.

BSR worked with Hilton Worldwide to develop nearly 100 different sustainability criteria for measuring the impacts of a large number of products the company purchases.

Based on this work, BSR and Hilton learned some key lessons that prompted the development of the CSP:

• While product sustainability data is becoming increasingly available, it is still a long way from enabling buyers to make sound, fact-based decisions on many products.
• Even where reliable sustainability information is available, there is little guidance for buyers on how to compare different products, weigh the many different factors, and integrate these considerations into their decision-making alongside traditional procurement attributes, such as cost, quality, and delivery.