Certification Profile
The purpose of ISO 20400 is to assist organizations of any kind and size with the development and implementation of a responsible sourcing strategy.
Sustainable Procurement Certification
The standard offers both an overview of the general principles of sustainable procurement as well as guidance on the implementation process.
ISO 20400 does not contain requirements for suppliers and is not a tool to assess the sustainability performance of suppliers.
Rather, it describes how organizations can integrate sustainability into the procurement process.
Benefits of working with the standard
The main reason to adopt ISO 20400 is that it enables organizations to integrate sustainability into procurement in a systematic way. As such, it helps the organization to:
- Meet the demands of customers and other stakeholders to assume responsibility for its supply chain
- Identify legal, financial and moral risks associated with sustainability in the supply chain
- Monitor and improve the sustainability performance of suppliers
- Build supplier relationships that create long-term, sustainable value
How dqs helps you implement a sustainable procurement strategy
- Sustainable Procurement Certification
Our qualified auditors confirm the implementation of a sustainable procurement system through an on-site assessment. The detailed audit report outlines their key findings and makes recommendations for improvement, if applicable. After passing the audit, the organization receives the Global Conformity certificate with the Sustainable Procurement label. The certification requirements are based upon the principles and concepts of ISO 20400. - Supply Chain Assessments
When developing a sustainable procurement strategy, it is of vital importance to understand the current risks, strengths and weaknesses of your supply chain. With its global network of auditors, DQS performs risk-based assessments of selected suppliers to give you a full picture of the current situation, including a recommendation of KPIs to focus on to monitor improvement. This helps you set priorities for the supplier selection process. - Supplier Audits
Once a specification or standard for your suppliers is in place, DQS can monitor compliance through supplier audits. This can be based on a company-specific code of conduct or an established auditing scheme, such as Sedex SMETA, FSA 2.0, REDcert 2.0, UTZ and many others.
