Paint It Green: An ESG Jam Session

Is ESG just another corporate checkbox, or is it a strategic opportunity?

In our most recent Proc & Roll episode, hosts Natasha Gurevich, Conrad Smith, and Zachary Bachir provide a practical playbook for procurement teams to make Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives a real value driver.

The conversation centers on shifting the corporate mindset. Instead of just chasing metrics to follow the “letter of the law,” the hosts argue that procurement professionals should embrace the “spirit of the law” by recognizing the “power of the purse” they hold to make a genuine impact.

This episode provides a clear playbook for putting ESG into practice:

• Focus your efforts: Align with business leaders to select 3-5 key ESG priorities instead of trying to do everything at once.
• Integrate into core processes: Embed ESG criteria directly into your supplier selection (RFPs) and supplier management (QBRs and scorecards).
• Negotiate creatively: Instead of a simple price cut, ask suppliers to invest that money in a sustainability initiative, like installing solar panels.
• Empower your team: Give your team permission to be creative, for example, by using a “30-day challenge” to brainstorm and champion new ESG ideas.

This episode is a must-listen for any leader looking to move beyond talking about ESG and start implementing a strategy that delivers real results. For a deep dive into these actionable strategies and more, listen to the full episode of Proc & Roll below!

Watch now or read the transcript below.

Transcript: Proc-N-Roll | Paint It Green: An ESG Jam Session

Zach: Welcome to Proc and Roll. Today, we’re diving into ESG and procurement—not the theory, but the practical side. We want to explore the real challenges procurement teams face when trying to be more ethical and sustainable, what works, what doesn’t work, and where to even start. Natasha, having been a CPO dealing with this agenda, what does ESG mean in practice for you?

Natasha: For me, ESG parallels with the word “opportunity”. I learned that when small, diverse businesses try to push their way into large enterprises, they have almost no chance. As a CPO, I’d receive 50 cold emails a day, and while I didn’t have the bandwidth to review them, I knew I was archiving two or three “gems” that could be extremely beneficial for my organization. These smaller businesses are often more agile and nimble; during COVID, they adapted their offerings much faster and had deeper connections with their customers. Because of this, I believe in a “pull” strategy, where procurement proactively reaches out to find these valuable partners.

Conrad: There are two different ways organizations approach this. The first is just trying to amp up the numbers to meet a metric, which is understandable given government contracts and other expectations. But Natasha is talking about something different: moving beyond the “letter of the law” to the “spirit of the law”. It’s the difference between asking, “Are we just doing this to tell a story?” versus “Are we trying to make a difference?”. For example, someone might just buy a bunch of carbon credits to say they are carbon neutral, which looks good on paper but may not drive real change. If you’re focused on making a real difference, your strategies will be totally different.

Natasha: I agree. Procurement has a greater chance of getting support when it puts ESG in the center of its value proposition to the enterprise. I always told my team to ignore the numbers and just do the right thing for the company, and the numbers will follow. There’s also a significant socioeconomic benefit; a study found every dollar spent with smaller, underrepresented businesses can generate a multiplier effect of up to $1.47 as it cycles through communal services like groceries, barbershops, and schools. By doing good, you’re also doing well as an enterprise and improving the economic balance of the entire society.

Conrad: It’s so important to recognize the “power of the purse” we control in procurement. When I first started, I felt conflicted between my manager telling me to do supply-base consolidation and others telling me to work with smaller suppliers. I hope listeners don’t just tune this topic out. We have to step back and say, “I want to be the kind of person that makes a difference” to the environment, to society, and to our company’s values. If you can help one small business get an opportunity and build a successful venture, that’s freaking cool. That’s different than just amping up your numbers by routing all your Microsoft spend through a diverse-certified middleman, which doesn’t really help anybody.

Natasha: If you embed ESG in your thinking, you find many creative opportunities. I’ve seen this in practice, from putting grass on a building’s roof as a natural cooling system at the Gap and for the 62-floor Salesforce Tower, to figuring out how to cool a data center in the Arizona heat without massive energy consumption. You can also ask suppliers if they recycle their “dark water” or look at your own CPG packaging to see if it can be done in a more ecologically effective way. I may not be able to fix Social Security, but in procurement, I can make a difference in an area I have control over.

Conrad: To make it practical, the first step is to understand what really matters to your business and focus on just 3-5 key ESG priorities, because you can’t do a hundred things. Most large US companies already have a net-zero goal, so understand those commitments. Then, embed those priorities into two fundamental processes: supplier selection, by making it part of your RFP, and supplier management, by using scorecards in your QBRs. When a customer clearly states what matters to them in a review, it moves their suppliers’ business. You don’t need to start with a big technology investment; the hardest part is getting alignment, not budget.

Natasha: To get teams involved, leaders can trigger creative conversations. I had an idea to create a friendly competition like a “30-day challenge,” where team members share their clever ideas related to ESG each month. This gives people permission to be creative. I also think you can use ESG as a negotiating lever; instead of a price cut, tell suppliers you want them to invest that 10% in something like solar panels.

Zach: But as a CPO doing all this great work, how do you get recognition for it in the business, especially if it can feel like a thankless job?

Natasha: I would first ask, does the recognition matter more than the continuity of the work? But to answer the question, at Nike we grew diverse spend from $137 million to $1.4 billion in three years, and everyone knew procurement owned that because it was in the public impact report. If you track it, make it part of your goals, and put it in the center of your value proposition, it will be visible.

Conrad: If you’re working on things the company cares about, recognition will follow. You can’t get recognized for doing things the company doesn’t care about; you’ll just lose credibility. Instead of only reporting on savings, we need to present a balanced, rounded scorecard of value that includes ESG contributions. When you show stakeholders how you’re helping them achieve their goals, they’re going to love that.

This transcript has been edited for clarity while maintaining all substantive content