09:00 - 17:00
Proud launch at the World Social Entrepreneurship Forum 2023
Responsible procurement is a €500 billion market opportunity for social enterprises at EU level. This type of procurement is considered key to the transition towards an inclusive and sustainable economy.
Buy Social Europe B2B receives ≈0.5 million in funding from the European Union and SAP and officially launches during the World Social Enterprise Forum 2023 in Amsterdam
A consortium of 23 partners, led by Euclid – the European Social Enterprise Network, is working together to accelerate the further development of the Buy Social B2B marketplace and trade partnerships between mainstream and social enterprises in 17 countries in Europe.
Buy Social Europe B2B officially partners with the People and Planet First movement and verification, opening the door to new co-financiers and partners
Growing societal and regulatory pressures are driving more and more companies to firmly integrate sustainability into their business strategies and operations. Social procurement – buying from social enterprises that put people and the planet first – is a powerful strategy for sustainability. This type of sustainable procurement unites purpose and profit for a better tomorrow, allowing large companies to acquire the goods and services they need, while adding social benefit and innovation to their supply chains.
In 2021, the European Commission launched its 'once in a decade' EU public policy - the European Commission's Social Economy Action Plan (SEAP). The SEAP aims to increase social investment, support social economy actors and social enterprises to start up, scale up, innovate and create jobs. Over the next few years, more than €2.5 billion will be invested in the sector. Furthermore, the UN General Assembly historically adopted a new UN resolution on the social and solidarity-based economy earlier this year.
These significant policy frameworks are the result of years of joint work by government and social enterprises, as well as actors in the social economy sector, on how to effectively transition to a more socially inclusive and sustainable economy and society and accelerate progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
In the transition to this new economy, responsible procurement is seen as a key lever and a key opportunity, if not the most important lever of all. According to McKinsey, two-thirds of the average company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) impact lies with suppliers. BCG and Yunus Social Business recently estimated that the total value of the social procurement market is a €500+ billion market opportunity for social enterprises. The European Social Enterprise Monitor highlights that “if corporations buy more from social enterprises, these corporations can transform the European social enterprise sector.”
With responsible procurement representing a key opportunity in the transition to a new economy, there is momentum to significantly increase funding and investment in the sector and create supportive policy and legislative frameworks to ensure that sustainable procurement is feasible and its presence increases.
Accordingly, the European Commission launched a call for proposals for existing key market players in 2022. The aim of the call: to stimulate the further development of European and local Business 2 Business (B2B) social procurement markets and to increase trade partnerships between mainstream and social enterprises. “Buy Social Europe B2B” was one of the key awarded projects. Buy Social Europe B2B is now officially launched, during the week of the World Social Enterprise Forum 2023 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
This initiative will take the social procurement movement in Europe, and globally, to the next level. With 23 partners from 17 countries joining forces, social procurement pioneers from across Europe will rise to the challenge. The initiative brings together the longest-standing and most experienced experts in the field of social procurement globally today in one movement. In this way, the movement can build on the decades of experience of its key partners, well-recognised and respected social enterprises of the international and national Buy Social networks and ecosystem actors. The establishment of a consortium and the inclusion of partners can offer a one-stop shop for social procurement through a broad network with international and local reach.
The partners’ unified approach and radical collaboration will help raise awareness, build capacity, and increase connectivity opportunities for both sides of the supply and demand spectrum of social and large enterprises. The goal: more successful trade partnerships between mainstream and social enterprises, more long-term opportunities to scale innovation through partnerships, and positive progress in the transition to the new economy in the next few years.
The B2B consortium Buy Social Europe is led by the Euclid Network – the European Social Enterprise Network, which has been bringing together the social procurement community of practice in recent years, together with the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) at a global level. Partners include Social Enterprise UK – the inventor of the Buy Social brand and the owner of the Buy Social brand since 2012. The B2B initiative Buy Social Europe works in complementarity with the Buy Social Europe Corporate Challenge, led by Social Enterprise UK, in partnership with SEWF and the Euclid Network. The latter initiative has successfully redirected over €400 million spent on procurement from social enterprises since its launch seven years ago. The initiative has recently been transferred to a newly established social enterprise, Telos.
Other key international partners include Yunus Social Business, Social Entrepreneurship Netzwerk Deutschland (SEND), Social Enterprise NL, Reach for Change, Sustainable Procurement Pledge, SAP and Zurich Insurance, along with 13 other partners operating at the national level. ACT Group is the national partner for Croatia.
Buy Social Europe B2B has so far received €0.5 million from the European Union and the multinational software company SAP, a long-standing expert and business leader in the field of social procurement. In addition, each partner in the consortium co-finances at least 10% of the activities taking place. New co-financing partners are welcome and can contact their local national partner.
The activities planned for the implementation of the BuySocialEurope B2B project will last until October 2024, and include:
Mapping the ecosystem of social enterprises, suppliers, and their B2B customers, in 17 markets, including collecting data across partners into a European-level database and producing a market insight report on the findings;
Creating greater visibility and understanding of social entrepreneurship and social procurement through campaigns, development and exchange of best practices and case studies of successful B2B trade partnerships;
Assessing the need to build the capacity of social but also mainstream enterprises and intermediary organizations to increase trade readiness across the sector;
Increasing collaboration and value chain integration between social and mainstream enterprises by identifying suppliers, vetting social enterprises, further developing and providing matchmaking services, and organizing matchmaking events;
Building a strong business case to convince more local, national and European policymakers, financiers and investors to make long-term strategic investments in social procurement, to increase support for Buy Social Europe B2B partners and key intermediary organisations developing the market, thereby accelerating the transition towards a socially inclusive and sustainable economy.
Euclid Network – The European Network of Social Enterprises, also on behalf of its partners, invites large organizations to apply for the B2B initiative Buy Social Europe to jointly unleash the potential of social procurement for positive social and environmental impact!
Stay tuned, learn more about the initiative, all 23 current partners and join the Buy Social European and global movement today as a social enterprise, mainstream enterprise, financial partner, or procurement representative, here: https://buysocialeuropeb2b .eu/