Why Sustainable Procurement Matters — Now More Than Ever

Commercial Real Estate Is A Climate Linchpin

Buildings, infrastructure, and construction account for an estimated ~40 % of global greenhouse gas emissions.  The materials, methods, and lifecycle decisions embedded in procurement ripple outward - from carbon footprints to health impacts, resource depletion, waste generation, and social equity.

Risk, regulation, and reputation are converging. “Buy clean” mandates, stricter reporting requirements, and transparency expectations are no longer niche - they’re becoming the default.  It’s not just Patagonia and Unilever anymore.  Companies like Microsoft, Nike, Wal-Mart, Google, and JP Morgan Chase are putting policies in place to align their massive procurement spend with their value and SBTs.  Companies that lag in sustainable sourcing risk regulatory noncompliance, reputational damage, or being locked out of major contracts.

Let’s dismiss a big myth:  sustainable procurement is not about paying more — it’s about extracting value. By thinking in terms of total cost of ownership, resilience, circularity, health, and brand alignment, organizations can turn supply chains into strategic advantage rather than cost centers.

The Evolution: From Policy to Practice

Many organizations began with greenwashing, sustainability statements, PLEDGES, and targets. But translating those into action is often fraught.  Sustainability pros used to call these tools “on ramps” to more meaningful sustainability programs.  But there is a lot of traffic suck on the on-ramps because:

• Data silos, inconsistent certifications, and greenwashing make comparison hard

• Manual processes slow down decision-making

• Quantifying tradeoffs between impact buckets and cost (i.e. cost vs. embodied carbon vs. health impacts) is complex

That’s where technology and new operating models come in — to bridge intention and execution.

Ecomedes’ Role: Turning Procurement into a Force Multiplier Instead of a Cost

The Ecomedes platform was conceived to solve exactly this disconnect: how to bring rigorous, product-level environmental intelligence into everyday purchasing workflows, and to every person (regardless of their depth of expertise).  

Here’s how we see the transformation in practice:

Verified product-level data

Rather than rely on company-level surveys, marketing claims, unverified data, or stale out of date data, our platform connects each product to third-party verified disclosures—EPDs, Declare labels, material health data, and more. 

This ensures that buyers can compare apples to apples across impact buckets, compliance frameworks, rating systems, and regularity requirements.  Our AI-powered data aggregation makes us a one-stop-shop for comprehensive, up to date product-level sustainability data. 

Integrated, efficient workflows

Our solution enables intelligent filters, compliance automation, and impact calculators to make it faster and easier to identify and evaluate the right products. Gone are the days of juggling spreadsheets, PDFs, or calling manufacturers to get data points.  Gone!!

Bridging buyers and manufacturers

Ecomedes helps with the ask and give “handshake” between buyers and sellers. We help manufacturers manage, publish, optimize, and verify their product data, amplifying those doing the right work.  This type of data fuels buyer-side needs for evaluation, compliance, and reporting. 

Scalability and impact

The time for anecdotal and one-off product evaluation is over.  Long over.  It is time for scale and comprehensiveness.  Ecomedes is one of a handful of software vendors (like Ecovadis) who are at scale.  In the past year alone, Ecomedes recorded 1.9 million sustainable product searches and saved users over $27 million in the time it would take for manual research and evaluation.  The platform saw a 744% year-over-year increase in added product usage in projects, with over 45,000 products added in H1 2025. 

Why This Award Matters

Winning recognition from Environmental Business Outlook is deeply meaningful to us. It’s a signal that the industry is acknowledging the urgency of sustainable procurement — not as an add-on, but as a core business discipline.

It also reinforces our beliefs that:

• Sustainability must be actionable, measurable, and integrated

• Procurement can be the backbone of resilient, lower-impact building construction, remodels, and operations

• Collaboration across specifiers, buyers, and manufacturers is essential

This award energizes us to push harder, scale further, and deepen our impact.

Looking Ahead: What’s Next in Sustainable Procurement

The world is moving fast and so are we!  We are motivated by the recent breach of the 7th (of 9) planetary boundary.  So, we are working on:

• Global expansion & multilingual support — bringing verified product data to new geographies

• Cross-industry collaboration — aligning standards, common data models, and frameworks, like the Common Material Framework for materials.

• Partnerships with folks working on exceptional projects, like GRN Vision and their work on the Las Vegas Library renovation which used ecomedes to ensure sustainable materials and LEED credits.

• Enhanced user collaboration tools — enabling distributed teams to speed up shared decision-making

Let Procurement Lead the Charge:  Vote with your wallet!

To leaders, developers, architects, and procurement teams: sustainability can no longer be siloed. It must be baked into every material spec, every purchase order, every risk assessment.

If you’re curious about how sustainable procurement can transform your projects, organizations, or supply chain, let’s talk. This award is not just for Ecomedes—it’s a milestone for an entire movement. And the best is yet to come.