2026 Agenda

As ESG expectations on procurement continue to rise, many teams are still grappling with the practical question of how to embed ESG into procurement without creating unworkable processes, inconsistent decisions or added friction for the business and suppliers.
In this practical masterclass, participants will work through the core elements of an effective ESG procurement playbook,  from planning and governance through to supplier engagement, tender design, due diligence, contracts, technology and risk management.

Key learning objectives include:
•    Building an ESG procurement playbook that works in practice
•    Creating a practical, end-to-end ESG procurement plan
•    Designing stronger and earlier supplier engagement strategies
•    Embedding ESG into sourcing and tender processes in a commercially credible way
•    Strengthening due diligence, verification and auditability
•    Using contracts and supplier management to support delivery
•    Leveraging technology and AI effectively (and responsibly)
•    Balancing cost, risk, continuity and ESG priorities in decision-making

By the end of the session, participants should walk away with a clearer understanding of how to design procurement processes that are practical, defensible and scalable, and how to navigate the real trade-offs that come with ESG in day-to-day operations.

• Examining what boards and executives now expect from procurement in navigating risk, trade-offs and long-term priorities
• Elevating procurement’s role in the boardroom through stronger commercial judgement and risk insight
• How to embed social value at the front end of project planning, and account for how you generated it
• Translating procurement decisions into business impact: cost, risk, continuity and reputation
  

• What do you do when data is incomplete?
• How much evidence is enough?
• What does relational contracting look like to ensure net benefit outcomes?
• When a supplier falls short: escalate or walk away?
• Setting clear thresholds for verification

Many organisations have now measured their carbon emissions and started to understand their supply risk. The real challenge is what comes next. This session focuses on how procurement teams move beyond measurement into action. It also challenges us to think beyond the metric and into the community centred success factors, like the value of storytelling as part of our standard reporting to shareholders and back to the communities we come in contact with.

•  Engaging suppliers
• Building practical processes
• Embedding sustainability into day-to-day procurement decisions

• Sharing what implementation looked like in practice for Transgrid
• Surfacing where the hardest data gaps appeared and how teams responded
• Prioritising suppliers and hotspots without waiting for perfect information
• Using better supplier data to shape procurement decisions, not just reporting outputs

• Workshopping real procurement challenges raised by the room
• Testing how to build sustainability into tenders with tight timelines and heavy renewals
• Learning from peers facing similar constraints, pressures and trade-offs

• Moving beyond resilience: from reacting to risk to clear, decision-led strategy
• Making trade-offs that hold up: balancing cost, ESG, risk and value
• Designing value chains for long-term strength, not short-term fixes
• Turning volatility into clear, defensible decisions at the leadership level

Traditional contracts weren't built for sustainability, and it shows. This presentation challenges the old model of penalties and rigid compliance, and makes the case for a smarter approach: collaborative contracting that drives real ESG outcomes rather than just ticking boxes.

• Cutting through the complexity to cover what actually works: flexible performance frameworks, innovation clauses, and total cost of ownership thinking
• Breaking down organisational silos to turn ESG from a procurement footnote into a genuine competitive advantage
• Building ESG into the way you contract so it stops being a burden and starts being a differentiator

• Examining how leading organisations are using technology to move beyond ESG reporting into measurable procurement action
• Using AI & digital tools to strengthen supplier verification & surface risks that traditional processes can miss
• Improving visibility across multi-tier supply chains through stronger data platforms & real-time insight
• Embedding ESG into sourcing, supplier engagement & decision-making so it drives outcomes rather than extra process

• What are the biggest time savings?
• How can you use AI to enhance process automation?
• What are the risks of ungoverned automation or AI pilots?
• How can you be sure you can defend your ESG data using AI?
• How do you use AI to validate supplier ESG data and flag risk?

• Identifying where procurement processes commonly break down across modern slavery compliance
• Engaging suppliers more effectively without overwhelming them with forms and duplication
• Building evidence that is credible, proportionate and more defensible under scrutiny
• Moving beyond box-ticking toward due diligence that is practical, visible and useful  

The Indigenous Business sector has grown rapidly over the last 10 years, leading to a wide range of benefits for communities across Australia. A key part of this success has been the role of procurement and the new partnerships with Indigenous businesses and intermediaries that have evolved over this time. This panel session explores what we’ve learned, the benefits we’ve seen, what good practice looks like, and on-going challenges and opportunities.

• Where are some key process barriers that prevent stronger Indigenous supplier participation?
• How can we improve early engagement instead of waiting until the tender stage?
• How can we streamline requirements without compromising probity or rigour?
• What practical approaches work to tackle verification and black cladding concerns?

• Mapping where climate and other disruptions create supplier and continuity risk
•  Developing frameworks to navigate geopolitical risks
• Prioritising what must be protected when not everything can be protected at once
• Stress-testing sourcing strategies against volatility, outages and operational shocks
• Improving continuity planning without losing sight of cost and delivery realities

• Defining what "community value" actually means in sourcing, contracts and supplier decisions
• Exploring how buyers are measuring social outcomes rather than just promising them
• Balancing community benefit with cost, probity, delivery pressure and market reality

• How does government procurement policy impact economic, social & environmental results?
• What can we learn from industry case studies, including major construction, infrastructure, and government projects?

• Interpreting shifts in investor, lender and corporate sentiment without overreacting to headlines
• Understanding why credibility, verification and practical action are under sharper scrutiny
• Examining what changing market signals mean for procurement priorities and supplier expectations
• Separating genuine direction of travel from short-term noise and recalibration 

• Can procurement drive decarbonisation and reduce costs?
• Balancing decarbonisation targets with cost pressures, supply continuity, and operational realities
• Leveraging government procurement to create a market for low carbon products
• Managing competing government objectives in procurement
• How to assess cost-effectiveness and value for money for sustainability/decarbonisation options

• Understanding how PPAs can support emissions goals, budget certainty and supply resilience
• Clarifying the role procurement plays alongside sustainability, finance and operations
• Learning where these deals work well, where they do not, and what teams often miss

• Converting policy ambition into requirements, contracts and delivery mechanisms that hold up
• Working with internal and external stakeholders to ensure targets are practical
• Measuring what is being achieved
• Identifying what tends to fall away under cost, timeline or delivery pressure

• Building capability of procurement teams around environmental sustainability
• Scaling change across NSW Government to drive market reform
• Working with suppliers on innovation in design, repair, reuse and end-of-life
• Embedding circularity into sourcing, specifications and commercial conversations
• Demonstrating where circular approaches improve both environmental performance and business value