In a post last month I made the claim that “as with many things in life, talk is cheap and since green often equals more expensive few organisations are willing (or able in truth) to genuinely embrace a shift to eco-procurement.” 

It seems that the public at large share the same sentiment, with new research from BT has uncovered huge scepticism from consumers about the efforts being made by retailers to act sustainably.  

While 96% of companies in the sector believe that operating sustainably is important to their reputation, only 3% of customers think businesses are fully open and honest about their actions. What’s more, 33% believe they exaggerate what they are doing to become more sustainable in order to gain consumer favour.  

Perhaps even more worryingly, in the retail sector at least, even the staff display a similar scepticism. The research found that over 30% of them do not believe the organisation they work for is environmentally and socially responsible, while the same number believe that their employer only takes action when forced to by external pressures such as suppliers or customers.  

No doubt a significant contributor to the latter is the fact that, even where companies are actively involved in promoting sustainable sourcing across their supply chain, it is an activity that is largely hidden from the workforce. But this can easily be addressed through a purchase-to-pay solution that factors (and prominently displays) the green credentials of products and services to users across the enterprise, even going so far as to influence the buying decisions of requisitioners. 

It’s not enough to be doing the right thing, you have to be seen to be doing it too!