Social Purchasing
Social purchasing happens when business procurement or purchasing includes a social consideration as well as the business considerations. A social value occurs when the business transaction creates targeted economic development or creates employment opportunities for hard to employ persons.

All businesses examine the economic elements when purchasing: price, quality, and product value. There is a growing consideration by many companies to add consideration of environmental impact of their purchasing decisions. A third element of consideration is the social impact of the purchasing decisions. Often this process is called the “triple bottom line” – financial, environmental, and social, or what some refer to as a “blended value bottom line.”

The social purchasing portal attempts to blend two of these elements, financial and social, into a single consideration, by providing the means for businesses to easily identify suppliers that will provide a social impact. We then leave it up to the purchaser and the supplier to complete the business transaction, where they enter into consideration of price, quality, business value; and the environmental impact issues if that is a factor as well.

Social Purchasing Portal
Every business uses office supplies, couriers, catering, promotional materials, and similar goods and services in their daily activities. The SPP directs these business purchases to participating suppliers in order to generate economic growth that leverages employment opportunities for community members.

The SPP creates the “economic demand” from the Social Purchasing Portal business transactions, which leverages employment growth. That is, as more ‘participating purchasers’ buy from ‘participating suppliers’ their business grows, and they need to hire more staff. There’s more capital flowing to the targeted suppliers’ businesses, and jobs are created for targeted unemployed persons.

The SPP, launched in June of 2003, is an on-line database of goods and services that facilitates the potential business-to-business transactions. We now have over 125 participating businesses of all sizes and a full array of sectors engaged. As a result of the SPP facilitated business activity in the last six months we are able to document 35 job placements and over $500,000 in new business activity brought to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Significant to the SPP model is how it helps to build long-term multi-sector collaboration and partnerships among three key community sectors:

1. Purchasers of business goods and services throughout the community.

The SPP offers an easy means to implement corporate social responsibility into daily business activities, often engaging an entirely new group of corporate partners in the effort to alleviate poverty. The SPP purchasers include law firms, IT companies, non-profits, credit unions, etc.

An example from Vancouver is Pivotal Software. Pivotal, a major international software company with nearly 200 local employees, has basically only one entry job, a receptionist. They use their significant catering needs to leverage social value by ordering from Cook Studio Café. The increased business for Cook Studio results in business growth and the need to hire six employees from their youth-at-risk training programs.

2. Suppliers of business goods and services

The SPP creates new markets for the suppliers of business goods and services who commit to participate in locally defined SPP social and economic goals. These businesses benefit from new market exposure to a group of interested and focused purchasing companies.

Examples are:

• Mills Basics, a locally owned Vancouver, eastside located office supply company, has added new accounts through their SPP Supplier participation. Their business growth has resulted in adding three warehouse staff and a receptionist, all provided by the community.
• Logotex a local family-owned business that supplies corporate promotional items has increased business and hired two employees from the community. 2010 Legacies Now and Sales Works are examples of new business accounts and sales that are the result of their enrolment as an SPP Supplier.

3. Community-based services

Community-based services participate in a number of ways:

• Employment development providers can now use a demand-based employment model with their participants, having real jobs ready at the end of the pre-employment or training program.
• Community economic and local business organizations are able to support the suppliers in new business-to-business activity that helps to meet their economic development objectives.
• Governments’ investment in training and community development organizations experiences a greater and measurable social and economic return on investment.

Ultimately, the Social Purchasing Portal (SPP) is a win, win, win…

• Participating “Purchasers” use their existing business expenditures to practice corporate social responsibility while still meeting their business purchasing criteria for value, price and quality.
• Participating businesses and social enterprises who participate as “Suppliers” of goods and services have access to new and expanding markets, growing their businesses and requiring new employees.
• The SPP initiated business growth creates employment demand, providing opportunities for hard-to-employ persons seeking employment.