GEC Public-Private Webinar Series: Sustainable Procurement Through the Public and Private Sector Lens
The GEC Public Private webinar series considers approaches to sustainable procurement as viewed through the public and private sector lens. The ongoing series brings together procurement professionals from verticals within the public and private sectors to share their unique and shared experience in implementing sustainable procurement within their organization. Sessions highlight novel approaches to advancing sustainability and the challenges and goals that can be applicable to a broad array of commodities and focus areas. In 2019, the webinar series addressed, "Approaches to Leadership in the Public and Private Sector" and "Sector-Specific approaches to utilizing Global Reporting Structures." The series was designed to highlight the differences and similarities in motivation and approach and allow organizations to communicate lessons learned, successes, and challenges they've faced as they pursue sustainable procurement.
In 2019 the GEC Public Private Webinar Series expanded to include a total of five installments since it was launched in 2018. The series has been one of GEC's most popular webinars attracting hundreds of registrations and attendees. The series is founded on the premise that though sector motivations, governance, and stakeholders may vary there is much to be learned from hearing different perspectives towards accomplishing shared and similar goals. This year the series featured two new installments including one that discussed different approaches to leadership across sectors, and a second that talked about how the public and private sectors utilized global reporting initiatives. A third installment, discussing approaches to sustainable procurement in the healthcare sector was scheduled for December 2019, but will instead be held in January 2020. This year's Public-Private sector installments included two new installments including: Webinar 1: Sector Specific Approaches to Leadership During this installment of the Public-Private webinar series, leadership from the State of California Department of General Services and the Director of Sustainability discussed how unique governance landscapes, motivations, and organizational goals inform their approaches to leadership in sustainable procurement across their organizations. Webinar 2: Sector Approaches to Utilizing Reporting Tools Use of global reporting platforms such as CDP and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have typically been leveraged by for-profit organizations to assess and rate their sustainability. This webinar discusses ways in which public sector organizations, such as the GSA are finding ways to leverage these platforms as well. Representatives from the Federal government and CDP discussed the GSA's decision to ask its suppliers to voluntarily begin reporting to CDP. Also, during this session, representatives from GRI and the UN Global Compact talked about how efforts to align GRI reporting with the SDGs is helping to bridge the gap between business and government efforts to promote sustainability.
