How Your Bar Can Put Sustainable Sourcing Practices in Place

Environmentally friendly: What sort of impact are your ingredients and products having on the world around you? Think in terms of packaging, carbon footprint, water use, the impact of farming practices, food miles, pollution and waste. 

Socially just: Consider things like labour rights, fair compensation, safe work environments and the absence of forced labour, slavery, human trafficking and discrimination. 

Put it in writing. The first step towards any sustainable supply chain is to define your own requirements. What does sustainable mean to you? Maybe you’re aiming to increase the proportion of organic ingredients you buy year on year, or perhaps it’s time you implement a firm ban on single-use packaging. Formalise your stance on issues like these through implementing a written procurement policy. This will set clear guidelines for procurement in your establishment and make it easier to home in on the right suppliers for you.  Stay up to date with supply chain issues and update your policies regularly to reflect evolving goals. 

Evaluate your current supply chain. Once you have clear policies in place, it’s time to audit your current supplier list to check whether they meet your criteria for sustainable sourcing. One way to do this is by creating a short survey for your supplier network, then analysing the results in order to capture a baseline. You can then set improvement targets, collect data annually and track progress.  

Open a dialogue. Where suppliers don’t already meet your criteria, it’s worth taking the time to chat to them. Ask more questions, explain your own terms and find out whether they’re willing to make a change. If a supplier is willing to ditch unnecessary plastic packaging for you, chances are they can do it for all their customers – and that’s creating real change! 

Look at your options. If suppliers are not ready or willing to work with you on becoming more sustainable, it’s time to do some research and find alternatives. 

Build relationships. Ensure traceability and visibility throughout your supply chain by fostering strong relationships with suppliers, producers and farmers. Build supplier visits into your annual calendar so that you can have a real connection with the sources of your ingredients. 

Monitor as you go. In an uncertain world of supply shortages, it’s possible for sources to shift and change. Be sure to spot-check things like labels, invoices and delivery notes on a regular basis to ensure that they still work with your procurement policy. Is it coming from where it should be? Are there any composite ingredients you don’t recognise? Does it arrive in unnecessary packaging?