The CIPS Salary Guide Survey 2025, in partnership with Hays, paints a strikingly positive picture of how perceptions of procurement are changing.
According to the survey data, gathered from nearly 6,000 procurement and supply professionals around the world, it’s clear that the profession is gaining in status – and crucially, that its role in the most important challenges of our time is really gaining recognition.
These numbers are exciting and heartening for procurement professionals everywhere and at all stages of their career, but they invite an obvious question: what can individuals and teams do to make sure they are really making a difference where they can?
Here are five ways that procurement and supply can help change our world for the better.
1. Drive sustainability across the board
Procurement professionals play a pivotal role in advancing the sustainability agenda. By factoring environmental considerations into their supplier selection and contract management decisions, they can help drive companies’ overall contribution to lowering emissions and alleviating demands on overstretched natural resources.
For example, prioritising suppliers that invest in renewable energy or use recyclable materials can shift entire industries toward greener practices.
But beyond compliance with ESG goals and regulations, sustainable procurement is about future-proofing. Organisations with environmentally conscious supply chains are more resilient to regulatory changes, reputational risks, and consumer demands for accountability. Procurement, therefore, becomes a catalyst for business and environmental resilience.
2. Champion ethical sourcing and human rights
Because modern supply chains stretch across borders, industries, and cultures, they are vulnerable to various forms of unethical behaviour: forced labour, unsafe working conditions, and human rights violations via various forms of exploitation. And it’s procurement professionals who are on the front line of ensuring these risks are identified and eliminated.
Through supplier codes of conduct, due diligence frameworks, and transparent auditing, it’s procurement and supply teams who can hold suppliers accountable for meeting international labour standards.
This responsibility extends beyond risk management. When procurement puts fair wages, safe working conditions, and respect for human rights at the top of the agenda, it helps safeguard the rights of workers worldwide.
In doing so, procurement professionals are in a powerful position to demonstrate that commercial success and ethical integrity are not mutually exclusive – and that tough ethical standards in business are not just optional extras.
3. Support local and diverse suppliers
Procurement decisions up and down any supply chain have the power to shape local economies for the better.
By actively engaging with small businesses and local suppliers, professionals can redistribute opportunities more equitably across communities, and can help open up economic opportunity for previously marginalised groups of people who have previously been excluded from supply chains. This not only strengthens social impact but also reduces supply risk by broadening the supplier base.
Supplier diversity initiatives also bring innovation to the table. Smaller and non-traditional suppliers can often deliver fresh ideas and niche expertise, or enrich supply chains with agility and creativity where established suppliers can struggle to adapt.
The bottom line: procurement can contribute to inclusive economic growth while enhancing business competitiveness.
4. Build supply chain resilience in volatile times
Recent global events, from on-off US tariffs to multiple large-scale conflicts to the developing climate crisis, have highlighted the fragility of supply networks worldwide. Procurement professionals are instrumental in building resilience through proactive risk management, strategic sourcing, and strong supplier relationships.
For organisations to adapt swiftly when disruptions arise, they may need to develop alternative and contingency supply routes, invest in new digital monitoring tools, and forge strong relationships with suppliers that will hold up in a moment of crisis.
Remember, one of the central lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic was that resilient supply chains do more than protect businesses’ bottom lines: they safeguard lives and livelihoods. Ensuring essential goods and services remain available during crises supports communities, and can strengthen trust in both public and private institutions in times of upheaval.
This too-often-unrecognised work is one of the most important roles procurement plays in all our lives.
5. Promote innovation and long-term value
Procurement and supply chain teams are not confined to the work of transactional cost-cutting. They are drivers of innovation.
Procurement professionals who foster the best possible relationships with suppliers can unlock new ideas across all areas of business, be that product design, sustainable materials, digital technology adoption or any number of other opportunities. These innovations can deliver long-term value not only for businesses, but for society as a whole.