12 August 2020

The NSPR welcomes two new members joining the movement.

• ENGIE. ENGIE is a global reference in low-carbon energy and services. ENGIE’s purpose is to act to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral world, through reduced energy consumption and more environmentally-friendly solutions, reconciling economic performance with a positive impact on people and the planet. ENGIE relies on its key businesses (gas, renewable energy, services) to offer competitive solutions to customers. ENGIE has been present in Singapore since 1979, notably through ENGIE Services Singapore and is an active player in facilities management, power generation, district cooling, energy-efficient data centres and renewable energy. ENGIE established its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore in 2019 with a focus to grow its footprint in this region.

• INSEAD. INSEAD is a top-tier business school that believes in forging responsible and analytical leaders that create value for their organisations and society. INSEAD’s Asia Campus in Singapore set up in 1999 was a pioneer in ‘creating a bridge between Asia and the rest of the world’. INSEAD already publishes extensively on topics such as environmental sustainability, gender diversity, social impact, etc. and plans to by 2023 increase the proportion of sustainability-related publications to 30%.

Including the three new members announced in July – Accor, MSIG and Ricoh, the NSPR is now backed by 12 leading organisations across a myriad of sectors.
 

8 July 2020

NSPR today announced the addition of three industry leaders joining the movement,

• Accor. Accor with its well-known Planet21 program is also the global hospitality group with the greatest number of hotels in Singapore, with a full range of hotel brands such as Raffles, Fairmont, Ibis, Banyan Tree, etc.
• MSIG. MSIG has been in Singapore for over 100 years and is Singapore’s leading general insurer. A part of the global MS&AD insurance group, MSIG is a leader in the protection of biodiversity and has been driving this agenda in Singapore and across Asia.
• Ricoh. Ricoh is a global leader in the office document market and in workflow improvement. Ricoh is Singapore’s pioneer in driving public environmental protection awareness with its annual Eco Action Day currently in its 14th year running.

With the strength of these new members across a myriad of industries, the NSPR has charted their strategy for 2020. The NSPR aims to:

• Increase knowledge through research and the sharing of best practices
• Drive sustainable impact at scale through engagement and networking
• Drive supplier performance and product development

To increase the knowledge of the procurement community, the NSPR has published three publications through members’ contributions. This was made possible through the passion and efforts of local practitioners that are already more advanced in their sustainable procurement journey. These are available to non-NSPR members upon request. The NSPR will also make available the following publications section on the NSPR website.

• Packed Water, by Wildlife Reserves Singapore
• Supplier Sustainability Pathways Reporting Guide, by DBS
• Sustainable Gifts and Premium, by DBS and StarHub

In April 2020, the NSPR held its first webinar to promote sustainable sourcing for food, hosted by food services and facilities management company Sodexo. During the event, Sodexo shared their responsible food sourcing practices including their overall framework, research on plant-based menus and Wastewatch – a new Sodexo programme to reduce food waste, among others. The event was well attended including participants from different organisations that were not NSPR members.
 

The NSPR will continue to push the sustainable procurement agenda for the rest of 2020 and beyond, with initiatives led by its various members.

11 May 2020

Sodexo shared sustainable procurement practices for food sourcing at NSPR virtual event

The sustainable procurement of food is a topic of increasing interest among many organisations in Singapore in recent years. While the Singapore government has in early 2020 unveiled its plans to ramp up local food production in view of climate change risks, the pandemic underlined the importance and urgency of those plans. Indeed, at the NSPR knowledge event on responsible food sourcing practices, participants indicated that the pandemic has made sustainable procurement for food more important for their respective organisations, with key interest areas including the use of local produce, carbon footprint of food and food safety.

At this knowledge event hosted by Roshith Rajan, Director Corporate Responsibility – Asia Pacific and Mauricio Zuazo, Director Supply Management – Asia Pacific, of Sodexo, various responsible food sourcing practices were shared, including concepts about an overall sustainable food practice framework, research around plant-based menu and its presentation, Wastewatch – a new Sodexo program to reduce food waste, among others.

A total of 21 participants from mainly sustainability and procurement roles attended the virtual event on 29 April 2020.