A Better Future for Our Members: Promoting Sustainable Indirect Spend
How Amazon Business helps the credit union industry meet their ESG goals
By Amazon Business
September 21, 2023
The term environmental, social and governance (ESG) has now been firmly embedded in the world of financial services. Regulatory pressures, social unrest and heightened investor and consumer awareness drive members to double down on their ESG spend and ensure long-term, measurable changes. Increasing ESG spend can be a challenge given the monetary pressure that these companies face in the post-COVID world. The smartest alternative for financial organizations is to improve sustainability in their indirect purchasing practices. To achieve this, they need to be aware of available local, diverse and sustainable suppliers.
“Purchasers have many indirect needs, from break room supplies to cleaning supplies. We ensure they buy sustainable office products to hit their ESG goals,” says Todd Heimes, director, global marketing, business prime and expansion.
Amazon Business helps numerous customers worldwide reshape their procurement with cost and time savings, greater productivity and insightful purchasing analytics. Amazon has partnered with trusted third-party certifications to highlight products with sustainability standards. As of May 2022, over 300,000 Climate Pledge Friendly (CPF) products are available on Amazon Business. With the Sustainability Preferred policy enabled, organizations can steer spend toward these preferred products now that they are more discoverable.
A Comprehensive Analytics Tool in Place
Amazon Business’ comprehensive analytics tools allow clients to visualize everything that their Amazon Business account users have purchased. They can then determine how much of their spend align with the ESG goals. The company helps customers buy sustainable products with proper certifications.
“We have the ability to help customers purchase sustainable, environment-friendly products from local suppliers, veteran-owned suppliers or minority-owned suppliers,” says Heimes. “We have policies in place, helping customers determine how successful they’ve been in meeting their ESG goals.”
For the largest customers, Amazon Business has designed professional services or white glove services to help them better utilize the suite of Amazon Business products. As a result, they can be more successful in meeting ESG objectives.
Amazon Business takes a hands-on approach while serving clients and provides proper support at every stage. A typical client engagement process includes helping purchasers set up their accounts, keeping in mind their different departments and users. As a result, all the accounts are mapped to the clients’ organizational structure.
Once the account set-up is done, clients can add the guided buying tool designed by Amazon Business. This paid feature enables them to determine different purchasing policies or spend thresholds (approvals) based on the user groups.
A Continuous Focus on Sustainability
To help organizations achieve their ESG objective, Amazon Business has launched the Climate Pledge Friendly program. It is a part of the company’s commitment to preserving the natural world. The company has partnered with trusted third-party certifications and created its own certifications, Compact by Design and Pre-owned Certified, to highlight products that meet sustainability standards and help preserve the natural world. Another important initiative in the company’s arsenal is to add more buying policies pertaining to purchasing to enhance clients’ guided buying experience.
"We have made concerted efforts to support the sustainability objectives of our clients,” says Heimes. “Apart from the initiatives, we have also made our trucking fleets more energy efficient and cloud services more sustainable. In the coming years, the world will see Amazon Business upholding the principles of sustainability.”
Learn how your credit union can create a free Amazon Business account, or how you can link to your existing Amazon Business account, to take advantage of special member benefits from Amazon Business.
About Amazon Business
Whether shopping for home or work, people value Amazon for its convenience, selection, and value. But credit unions have different needs than individual buyers. That’s why we created Amazon Business – to combine the selection, convenience, and value you expect from Amazon, with features that can help improve business operations.