Award recognizes Thomas Udesen and Bertrand Conquéret, Chief Procurement Officers for Bayer and Henkel, for harnessing the power of corporate procurement and founding The Sustainable Procurement Pledge to address the impact of procurement on accelerating sustainability.
STOWE, Vt., June 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Corporate Eco Forum (CEF) presented the 2024 C.K. Prahalad Award for Business Sustainability Leadership to Thomas Udesen and Bertrand Conquéret, Chief Procurement Officers for Bayer and Henkel, and the powerful collaboration they founded together: The Sustainable Procurement Pledge. The award was announced during the 2024 CEF Annual Executive Leadership Retreat, attended by senior executives representing CEF member companies with combined revenues of more than $5 trillion.
Udesen and Conquéret founded The Sustainable Procurement Pledge (SPP) in 2019 with the belief that the decision-making power of procurement professionals must be harnessed to accelerate and scale positive impact across global supply chains, transforming how companies tackle climate change and environmental challenges. Today, over 15,000 individuals participate in SPP as “ambassadors” in over 140 countries, supported by 28 corporate “champions” whose Chief Procurement Officers regularly meet to have open dialogue, share challenges and exchange solutions.
“We are thrilled to honor The Sustainable Procurement Pledge and its founders Thomas Udesen and Bertrand Conquéret with the 2024 C.K. Prahalad Award,” said M.R. Rangaswami, Founder of CEF. “Strong collaborative efforts such as SPP are needed more than ever as sustainability is increasingly embedded within companies and across complex supply chains and we’re proud that CEF members in the SPP Champion Program include CBRE, GSK, SAP, and Schneider Electric.”
The Sustainable Procurement Pledge’s strategy empowers and equips procurement professionals at all levels across regions, topics, and industries with the tools and insights required to make change within their organizations while forging invaluable relationships with peers to move toward unified action. Those engaged with SPP personally commit to: stand up for people and the planet; together with others, change the world; start (change) with myself; share knowledge and listen to others; and leave the right legacy.
“We are honored for The Sustainable Procurement Pledge to receive the esteemed C.K. Prahalad Award” said Thomas Udesen, Chief Procurement Officer at Bayer, “This recognition underscores the enduring importance of our resolute purpose: to instill sustainability at the heart of supply chains, recognizing that as stewards of procurement, we hold the power to shape a more ethical and ecologically balanced future.”
Bertrand Conquéret, Chief Procurement Officer at Henkel added “We are grateful to our community of procurement professionals for their tireless dedication and boundless belief. Receiving the C.K. Prahalad Award provides inspiration to continue the journey together, forging ahead toward a future where sustainability is not a goal, but an inherent part of the way we procure and shape our world.”
“The C.K. Prahalad Award is a cause for celebration of the SPP community,” said Mélissa de Roquebrune, Executive Director of the Sustainable Procurement Pledge, upon accepting the award, “we are honored to have the commitment and collaboration of our community recognized.”
The C.K. Prahalad Award is bestowed in honor of renowned business strategist C.K. Prahalad, who emphasized the importance of business collaboration to tackle the challenges of our world. Prahalad believed that true collaboration goes beyond resource sharing and knowledge exchange, instead uncovering opportunities to “create new value that could not have been created alone.”
SOURCE Corporate Eco Forum
