Social Impact a Key Theme at the 2023 NZ Procurement Excellence Awards

The Ākina Social Procurement team with Emerging Procurement Talent Award winner and Impact Buyer member, James Parkes from Auckland Transport.

It’s heartening to see social impact playing such a key theme in the 2023 NZ Procurement Excellence Awards where Ākina has been a long-standing supporter and is a sponsor of the Social Impact of the Year Award.

A huge congratulations to all the winners and finalists on the night who were judged by the business community which demonstrates the ‘real value’ of procurement within the wider commercial context. New Zealand businesses spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year, which means business-to-business (B2B) procurement offers a huge untapped opportunity for social, cultural, and environmental impact.

“It’s inspiring to see so many businesses considering value for money within the broader sense alongside price, quality, and risk, including central and local government agencies who were among award winners and finalists.”

It's inspiring to see so many businesses considering value for money within the broader sense alongside price, quality, and risk, including central and local government agencies who were among award winners and finalists. This great impact shone across multiple categories and nominations and demonstrates that social procurement is increasingly recognised as good procurement.

Huge congratulations to City Rail Link – the big winner of the night, taking home the Social Impact of the Year award, Environmental Impact of the Year Award, and the Supreme Winner Award. It was great to see sustainability and procurement coming together on CRL’s project to deliver tangible outcomes. Their environmental award was backed by measurement but there was also a humility and acknowledgement that we still need to learn from this and do more to address the climate crisis. It's also fantastic to see the project’s strong focus on social outcomes.

Ākina champions innovation as a lever for change and social impact, and by having Social and Environmental Awards split into two categories this year, judges were able to recognise not only the amount of innovation in both these areas but also the importance of highlighting the ‘Social’ in ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance).

We’re delighted to have partnered with winners and finalists alike to help them on their procurement journey, including James Parkes at Auckland Auckland Transport (AT) who won the Emerging Procurement Talent Award. We have worked closely with James through our Impact Buyer Programme, our Masterclasses and Community of Practices, where he has been an active participant sharing his insights with new members and champions, and putting new best practice into action at AT.

It’s a privilege to have worked with, or been working alongside, other award finalists such as  Xero’s Procurement Team in the Most Effective Team of the Year, and Naylor Love who partnered with award nominee the Ministry of Education on their Manurewa High School entry in the Social Impact of the Year Award.

Fantastic to also see WSP IN New Zealand, who have recently joined the Akina Impact Buyer programme, as a finalist in the Social Impact of the Year Awards with Road to Supplier Diversity. We’re looking forward to helping them further implement social procurement into their purchasing decisions.