Meet Your Environmental, Social, and Governance Goals in 2023

Government agencies are adopting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies at a rapid pace. Federal government entities in the U.S. are required to reserve at least 23% of their annual spending for underrepresented and small businesses, while many states have similar stipulations for their funding.

With President Biden signing the Government Green Procurement order, government agencies need to prioritize ESG policies during their budget planning. The order asks U.S. government agencies to create a public procurement model that promotes sustainability by purchasing items that will help reduce pollution. Luckily, over half (53%) of government and nonprofit respondents in Amazon Business’ 2022 State of Business Procurement said improving sustainability in their purchasing practices is a top priority.

According to the U.S. EPA, the federal government is the single largest consumer worldwide, spending more than $650 billion on products and services each year. Government purchasers are uniquely positioned to positively impact their agency’s sustainability goals. With Amazon Business, agencies and organizations can be empowered to take concrete steps towards increasing purchases of more socially responsible products to help reduce climate impacts, improve the health of communities, and increase U.S. industry competitiveness by purchasing local and U.S. made products.

If your state, local, or federal agency are looking for more ways to reach your ESG goals, here are some ways Amazon Business can guide your buyers towards local and certified diverse sellers and products with sustainability certifications:

Discover thousands of products with sustainability certifications

Regulatory restrictions in government can create obstacles between buyers and sellers. Agencies must ensure a fair and ethical process when purchasing products. Amazon Business recognizes 150+ certifications from national certification bodies, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) form 889, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Veteran Affairs, and others that make it easier for purchasers to identify diversity spending. Amazon Business enables public purchasing to meet transparency and quality control standards while delivering a familiar self-service buying experience.

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.

Simplify reporting and track compliance

As agencies incorporate ESG into their budget, tracking spending on products with sustainability certifications will be essential. Amazon Business Analytics and Spend Visibility* allows agencies to track and report on expenditures directed towards more sustainable products and small, diverse, and local sellers with reports such as Spend by Location, Total Diversity Spend, and others. A simplified reporting process can reveal your progress toward spending goals and where to cut back on waste.

Guided Buying* helps track your agency’s purchasing goals by steering employees to the right products or suppliers and identifying product categories that employees shouldn’t purchase. Guided Buying helps buyers find what they are approved to buy and allows them to submit requests to purchase items from restricted categories. Once Guided Buying policies are defined, you can track whether employees adhere to your agency’s guidelines and compare restricted and non-restricted spending based on Spend Visibility’s* Policy Adherence Dashboard.