Sustainability
in Procurement Getting Products for a Song, Without Sending a Proverbial ‘Wrecking Ball’ to the World
By Andy Beth Miller
Legendary musician Jack Johnson has a song titled “The 3 R’s,” which is a catchy little kid-focused tune that teaches youth how to be more sustainable in their daily lives. The song’s infectious lyrics, like the repetitive chorus, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” act as a simple road map for children, really driving home the importance of sustainability practices, starting at home. Another verse lilts, “If you’re going to the market to buy some juice, you’ve got to bring your own bags and you learn to reduce. And if your brother or your sister’s got some cool clothes, you could try them on before you buy some more of those.” Sounds simple, right? As I hum the tune, which really gets stuck in your head, I meet Miriam Brafman, Founder and CEO of Packlane, whose professional advice immediately strikes a discordant chord to Johnson’s jolly melody. But, before you go getting upset, Brafman is actually here to help and enlighten, not to bash a nursery rhyme-sounding ditty. Apparently, sustainability, especially in the realm of procurement, is not always as easy as ABC or 123.
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Such awareness could be a tough pill to swallow for most, but when this truth bomb comes from the CEO of Packlane, a packaging manufacturing and sourcing company that combines in-house vertically integrated packaging manufacturing with a network of factory partners, thus making itself an infinitely scalable packaging supply chain and one-stop-shop, you listen. I was indeed listening, and what I most wanted to know now was an echo of the paraphrased lyrics of another blast from the past songstress, Avril Lavigne, who fired off the burning question in all of our minds, “Why’s it gotta be so complicated?” While these particular lyrics may be referencing life and love, my question was aimed specifically at sustainability in procurement. And from that moment onward, the conversation that ensued was an informative discussion of just that. Specifically, the reasonings behind the myriad complexities that plague it. But, before that, let’s start at the beginning, and just what brought Brafman into the procurement arena in the first place. “I became interested in the procurement field a few years ago in 2015, when I founded Packlane,” she explained. “I came from a graphic design and software engineering background and didn’t know a single thing about the procurement field, but had to quickly get up to speed and found it fascinating because of the business
