social purchasing portal/business directory
Welcome to the Vancouver Social Purchasing Portal (SPP)
We invite you to join an innovative partnership of industry, employment trainers and businesses with a common goal. The goal? To build healthier communities by creating employment opportunities for the hard to employ and initiating targeted economic growth.
The SPP
The Social Purchasing Portal integrates supply chain economics and corporate social responsibility to achieve community benefits. Simply, the Social Purchasing Portal (SPP) provides an environment for business-to-business (B2B) procurement transactions to leverage community economic development activity.
- Promotes the use of existing purchasing of everyday business goods and services, such as office supplies catering, and couriers, to create local economic and social value without added cost or loss of purchasing value
- Allows socially responsible purchasing to occur through blending business and social values
- Utilizes a business model versus a charity model, to contribute to building a healthy community
- Is founded on the principle of building relationships and partnerships by integrating a community socio-economic development vision, business objectives and government goals
- Provides purchaser of goods and services an easy and effective means to initiate Corporate Social Responsibility
- Purchasing Partners can search for, see product and service profiles, and contact participating suppliers of goods and services
- For suppliers of goods and services it opens up new markets and business growth opportunities
- Supplier Partners market directly to motivated purchasers
- Generates positive community economic and social impacts
How it Works
In the process of purchasing goods and services companies already choose suppliers — such as food services/catering, printing, packaging, couriers, promotional materials, building maintenance, recycling, and landscaping — based on the values of quality, service and price. In the Social Purchasing Portal the purchasing companies add one other criterion to the selection process — social value.
So, all things being equal (price, quality, value, etc.) in quotes from the suppliers of goods or services, the purchaser is interested in one additional component that the provider could offer — what social value can be generated through the purchase agreement? Will the supplier of the services and goods as a part of the contract hire new employees from the targeted training programs? Or is the supplier of services and goods located in a geographically defined development area?
Benefits
The Social Purchasing Portal integrates corporate social responsibility into existing business-to-business purchasing and supplier relationships and builds on the existing community based employment services and community development efforts. The components already exist — SPP is the tool that brings them together into a mutually beneficial relationship. It offers benefits to everyone participating.
Participating purchasers of goods and services
This is a direct and meaningful way to initiate Corporate Social Responsibility
The SPP creates the situation where the participating purchaser can stimulate social benefits in the community using existing purchasing expenditures. Examples include Pivotal Software's choice of vendors for some catering events, choosing Cook Studio Catering, a Downtown Eastside caterer that is also a training program for welfare recipients moving to work and youth at risk. The SPP allows companies like Crystal Decisions, which last year changed their purchasing policies to include social value, the easy opportunity to implement the policy with access to suppliers that meet their desired CSR goals.
Participating suppliers of goods and services
Your products and services will be promoted to Purchasing Partners, generating new market and growth opportunities.
Successful community economic development requires business retention and growth. The SPP, markets directly to motivated purchasers, and directs contracts to participating suppliers creating the opportunities for the local suppliers to gain a direct advantage to grow their businesses.
Communities
The SPP promotes economic development for inner city businesses and employment opportunities for the hard-to-employ or long-term unemployed to the participating purchasers and suppliers. In the DTES, working with a network of employment development services, the SPP suppliers sign a contract that will give employment advantages to qualified persons who are ready to re-enter the labour force.