Supplier Sustainability Is Growing in Importance at 71% of Companies, But Few Reward Vendors for Green Programs Today: Jones Lang LaSalle

CHICAGO: Nearly 60 percent of JLL procurement managers surveyed say their clients view environmental sustainability as a key factor in supply-chain decisions, and more than 70 percent see the importance of green products and services continuing to increase, according to a survey conducted by Jones Lang LaSalle.  Yet, only 13 percent of those surveyed can point to company programs that recognize vendors for improving their carbon footprint, energy efficiency, or environmental performance.

“Addressing sustainability in the supply chain is one of the biggest ways a company can reduce its environmental impact, but it is also one of the most challenging ways,” said Marc Campbell, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Procurement at Jones Lang LaSalle. “Companies in service sectors such as banking may not have a high direct impact on the environment, but they often purchase goods and services from industries with the highest impact. Integrating sustainability criteria into procurement procedures helps companies make better choices, not only for the planet but in many cases for their own bottom line.”

“Jones Lang LaSalle is committed to being the sustainability leader in the facility management industry,” said Chris Browne, Managing Director of Integrated Facility Management at Jones Lang LaSalle. “That means not only reducing our own environmental impact as a service provider to the world’s leading companies, but also helping them develop supply chain and procurement processes that integrate sustainability factors with traditional cost and quality criteria.”

With 2.1 billion square feet under management worldwide, Jones Lang LaSalle is responsible for more than $1.5 billion in annual client expenditures on services such as janitorial and food services as well as products ranging from light bulbs to carpeting.

For the past several years, Jones Lang LaSalle has collected basic information about the green purchase decisions in procurement spend managed for corporate and investor clients.  In response to increasing client interest, the firm recently launched its second-generation service capability, customizable to each company’s needs.  Capabilities of the new service include:

1. Ratings of products and services across multiple environmental screening criteria—such as carbon footprint, impact on air and water quality, and supplier transparency—in a way that allows clients to give greater weight to criteria most important to them;

In refining its sustainable supply chain capabilities, Jones Lang LaSalle sent surveys to more than 60 procurement officers on client account teams, who collectively oversee about $1.5 billion in annual expenses on facility related products and services. The procurement managers were asked to share their insight into the role that supply chain plays in the overall sustainability efforts of the companies they serve. Findings of the survey include:

More than half (57 percent) of companies consider improvements to the environmental / carbon footprint of their supply chain important; About 71 percent of sourcing managers feel that supplier sustainability is growing in importance at the companies they serve;