{"id":561,"date":"2021-07-15T10:24:13","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T10:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-485533-2256537.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=561"},"modified":"2022-07-18T17:23:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-18T17:23:59","slug":"the-story-behind-greenbuying-interview-with-founder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenbuying.co.uk\/the-story-behind-greenbuying-interview-with-founder\/","title":{"rendered":"The story behind GreenBuying: Interview with Founder"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this blog, published today on\u00a0EthicalMuch.com<\/a>\u00a0Bird Lovegod chats with Matt Roper, founder of\u00a0GreenBuying.co.uk<\/a>, and how he aims to bring ecological decision-making into procurement<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bird:<\/strong>\u00a0Matt, every startup has a story behind it. What is yours, and GreenBuyings?<\/p>\n

Matt:<\/strong> Hi Bird.. My story \u2013 well I come from a procurement background, and have advised many companies and public sector bodies on best practice procurement over the last 17 years. Given my personal passion for sustainability, I became more frustrated from a buyer\u2019s perspective that it wasn\u2019t straightforward to source eco-friendly products<\/a> and services for businesses, schools, councils, and so on. Yet I know from experience that organisation\u2019s supply chains are one of the biggest single impactors on our environment \u2013 every time a buyer decides to spend money, the supply chain response is to take more resources from the earth, use energy to manufacture and of course this process also generates waste materials too. If we\u2019re to make serious inroads into protecting the planet, my view is that procurement people need to step back from their day-to-day activities and reflect on whether they\u2019re considering the impact on the environment when making their purchasing decisions. What behaviours are they encouraging and discouraging through their decisions?<\/p>\n

So because I see how critical this is, I decided that we must start to develop a web-based sourcing tool to help busy buyers to more easily procure products and services which are more eco-friendly, whilst acknowledging that any procurement is not perfectly eco. As innovations in materials come on line, then we want to be showcasing these new products too. I see it as a continuum, and even if we can marginally change buyer behaviour, we\u2019re progressing. So that is why I started GreenBuying!<\/p>\n

Bird:<\/strong>\u00a0Ok Matt, well this is interesting, I can safely say I\u2019ve never really considered procurement and supply chains in this context\u2026 Hmmm. I can see the logic of it though, and if you know the industry from the procurement perspective you\u2019ll understand it from the buyers view\u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019m guessing the challenge is to deal with what might be rather slow moving organisations? Are you finding them willing and able to change suppliers for the ecological benefits? I\u2019m guessing price also has to be comparable\u2026? When did you start this business anyway\u2026? Sorry for the stream-of-consciousness questions!<\/p>\n

Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes I started it back in 2005\/6. Yes organisations can be slow in changing \u2013 it\u2019s an educational journey! They are under more pressure now from a CSR perspective so I think demand is growing. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll attract those who are focused purely on price \u2013 whilst we seek to be price competitive we can be slightly more pricey than non-green equivalent products, though the gap is very small. We need to educate buyers that they need to start building into their buying decisions the need for environmental protection. Then they might stop fixating solely on unit price! That said, I\u2019ve read research into buyer behaviour which states that price only makes up 10% of a purchasing decision. Quality and service are also key, as is the story of the company they\u2019re buying from. We can differentiate our offer versus all the non-eco big corporates, and that makes us attractive \u2013 particularly bearing in mind that we want to invest some of our revenues and time into developing our\u00a0Schools Programme.<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0This is the other side of GreenBuying\u2019s vision\u2026we have 2 missions: a) to change buyer behaviour in favour of environment protection and damage mitigation, and b) we want to educate school children \u2013 the next generation of consumers \u2013 about sustainability and the importance of challenging retailers re the products they sell.<\/p>\n

Bird:<\/strong>\u00a0I get it Matt. Schools and education is a great place to start. Not only are they major users of these products, they have the ability to educate on the importance of it.<\/p>\n

Thanks Matt, looking forward to working towards a greener and more eco-conscious World.<\/p>\n

Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0My pleasure Bird, and good luck with\u00a0EthicalMuch.com<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0which is a great concept for ethical organisations to network together online!<\/p>\n

Footnote: Another way of hearing (and seeing) Matt explaining why he set up GreenBuying.co.uk is to\u00a0watch this video clip.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this blog, published today on\u00a0EthicalMuch.com\u00a0Bird Lovegod chats with Matt Roper, founder of\u00a0GreenBuying.co.uk, and how he aims to bring ecological decision-making into procurement. Bird:\u00a0Matt, every startup has a story behind it. What is yours, and GreenBuyings? Matt: Hi Bird.. My story \u2013 well I come from a procurement background, and have advised many companies and […]\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"no","footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe story behind GreenBuying: Interview with Founder - Green Buying<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/greenbuying.co.uk\/the-story-behind-greenbuying-interview-with-founder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The story behind GreenBuying: Interview with Founder - Green Buying\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this blog, published today on\u00a0EthicalMuch.com\u00a0Bird Lovegod chats with Matt Roper, founder of\u00a0GreenBuying.co.uk, and how he aims to bring ecological decision-making into procurement. 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