Lauren McCann, founder and CEO of Procure Impact, joined Forbes Chief Impact Officer Seth Cohen in the Forbes studio to discuss the role that socially responsible procurement can knock down barriers for marginalized product designers and manufacturers. Lauren also discussed Procure Impact’s new campaign in partnership with the American Hotel & Lodging Association. The “Dignity of Work Pledge” aims to provide 100,000 paid employment hours for overlooked populations via the use of Procure Impact’s B2B marketplace platform.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 [ Music ]
00:02 >> Hi everyone.
00:04 I'm Seth Cohen, Chief Impact Officer for Forbes.
00:07 And I'm here today with Lauren McCann, the founder
00:11 and CEO of Procure Impact.
00:14 Procure Impact is a first of its kind B2B marketplace.
00:17 There's over thousands of products manufactured,
00:20 created, designed by individuals who face barriers
00:25 and limitations in the economy in which they serve.
00:28 So Lauren, welcome.
00:29 Thank you for joining us.
00:31 >> Thank you, Seth.
00:32 Happy to be here.
00:33 >> So tell me more about Procure Impact.
00:36 I just captured what I understand it to be,
00:39 but explain to me in your terms what Procure Impact does.
00:45 >> Yeah, we're a B2B marketplace and we work with all types
00:48 of corporations, retailers, wholesalers, people looking
00:51 for corporate gifts or products for their office space.
00:55 But what makes us unique is that all of the products
00:57 on our platform are made by individuals
01:00 with barriers to work.
01:01 So that means the products are made by resettled refugees,
01:04 by veterans, by individuals who've experienced poverty,
01:07 incarceration, homelessness, individuals with disabilities,
01:11 people who have extraordinary talents.
01:13 And we're trying to help them get access to opportunities
01:16 so that they can grow and scale their talents
01:18 and grow in their income.
01:20 >> So I know this is a new model that you've been engaged in,
01:24 but it sounds like it's a new model generally.
01:26 Why is that?
01:27 Why have -- if this is such a good idea,
01:29 why hasn't this been developed before?
01:32 >> Yeah, there actually are efforts related
01:35 to what's called social procurement.
01:37 So when you think about responsible sourcing
01:39 or supplier diversity, I would say Europe is much far along
01:43 than the U.S. They're much further along than we are.
01:46 And so we're trying to make it easy for companies
01:48 to get access to these suppliers.
01:50 And so we built this product and this marketplace to really act
01:54 as a one-stop shop, because it's really hard for companies
01:58 to go out in the field and find these vendors on their own.
02:01 And so a lot of companies have stated goals and objectives
02:04 around supplier diversity,
02:05 but they really don't have the experience cultivating
02:08 relationships with local suppliers or suppliers
02:11 that employ underrepresented groups.
02:13 I had decade-plus experience working with social enterprises,
02:16 and I realized they'd never been networked
02:18 into a one-stop shop shopping experience,
02:21 and that was the gap that we're filling.
02:24 >> So tell me a little bit about your journey to this,
02:27 because I know you had a career that has always been focused
02:30 on impact and creating change.
02:32 But how did this -- do you have particular experience in this,
02:35 or was this just something you felt and saw
02:37 from some other experiences you had in the impact space?
02:41 >> Yeah, I spent years in philanthropy, and we invested
02:44 in a lot of social enterprises
02:46 and workforce development programs.
02:48 And many of those enterprises manufactured products,
02:51 and I realized these were high-quality products.
02:54 These weren't just makers making these products, but enterprises
02:57 with 30,000-square-foot manufacturing facilities
03:00 that acted as a supportive work environment
03:02 to help people get access to the ability to learn new skills,
03:06 to heal, and to ultimately find their long-term opportunities
03:10 for employment.
03:11 And then I had a personal experience,
03:12 which really drove me to build the model itself.
03:16 I have a family member who, for most of their life,
03:19 they've suffered from chronic mental health issues,
03:22 addiction, and chronic disability.
03:25 And my family member ended up becoming homeless
03:28 and a missing person at one point.
03:30 And yet, they're extremely talented.
03:33 My family member is an artist and a creative and a writer
03:36 and would paint to help themselves heal
03:39 and to share their story.
03:40 And during one of the darkest points
03:42 in my family member's life, they were discovered for their art
03:45 and their talents, companies like Pfizer and Merck
03:49 and airports started buying my family member's art
03:52 for their office facilities and spaces.
03:55 And those purchases completely changed the trajectory
03:58 of their life.
03:59 It wasn't necessarily the money.
04:00 It was about being seen, feeling valued,
04:04 feeling like they had a sense of belonging.
04:06 And that mindset shift enabled my family member
04:08 to get an art studio and ultimately live independently,
04:11 find employment, and live a life
04:14 that we never thought was possible
04:15 for my family member just a decade ago.
04:18 And so I built Procure Impact
04:20 because I realized the transformative power
04:22 of one purchase.
04:24 And if we can make it easier for companies
04:26 to create purchases like that every day
04:28 and find underrepresented organizations and individuals
04:32 through their purchases and help them find access
04:35 to opportunity, access to income,
04:37 we can change millions of lives.
04:39 - So I really love that phrase,
04:41 the transformative power of purchase.
04:44 Obviously, today, there's a lot of brands,
04:49 a lot of businesses that are talking about impact.
04:51 We know that the consumers are very interested in this.
04:54 I think one of the more interesting parts
04:56 of Procure Impact is you really do have a methodology
04:59 and approach to measuring the impact of these purchases.
05:02 Explain that to me.
05:03 - Yeah, every time a company purchases
05:07 on the Procure Impact platform,
05:08 they get an impact receipt that shows the company
05:11 how many hours of work were created through their purchase.
05:15 And that's because we exclusively work with vendors
05:18 that are employing underrepresented populations.
05:21 And so we know their wage data.
05:22 We know how much their cost of goods are for the product
05:25 and how much their labor costs are.
05:27 And so we've been able to bring that into a calculation
05:29 that gives companies the ability
05:31 to track their social impact over time.
05:34 And social impact tends to be seen
05:36 as something you do outside of the business.
05:39 Volunteer hours, charitable contributions,
05:42 things that companies wanna do to help the community
05:44 outside of their day-to-day.
05:46 And what we're trying to demonstrate
05:47 is that it can be part of the how you do your business,
05:51 that it can be brought into all aspects of the business
05:53 and things like responsible sourcing and purchasing,
05:56 which actually create much more impact
05:58 than charity alone could ever accomplish.
06:01 - It makes a lot of sense to me.
06:04 And obviously as two people that both share a passion
06:08 for inclusivity, equity in both supply chains
06:13 in the broader marketplace,
06:15 I can understand how we see that benefit of the impact.
06:18 But I guess we both also live in a world
06:21 where some of these initiatives are right now under attack.
06:25 Diversity, equity, inclusion initiatives are under attack
06:28 in a variety of different contexts.
06:30 How is that impacting the supply chain
06:33 and the programs like you are doing around procurement?
06:36 - Yeah, what's been really encouraging and exciting for us
06:41 is that we've been able to really unify people
06:43 around shared vision.
06:44 And I think the reason that that is
06:46 is because we have an outcome
06:48 that's grounded in tangible impact.
06:50 And a lot of the skepticism around ESG or DE&I
06:54 is not really understanding the outcome we're driving towards
06:58 and getting shared vision within companies
07:00 about what that is.
07:02 And so consumers and customers and people
07:04 become really skeptical if they can't measure it,
07:06 if they don't understand it.
07:08 And I think because we've unified people
07:10 around job creation and shift hours,
07:12 we haven't seen that controversy.
07:14 We have some of the most conservative companies
07:17 working with us to some of the most progressive
07:20 because they recognize the value of the dignity of work
07:23 and the power of a job.
07:25 And so I think if we look at the outcome
07:27 and unify people around the outcome,
07:29 we can get around that politicization and debate
07:33 and really get people around shared vision
07:35 and collective impact that we can create.
07:37 - I really love that optimistic vision.
07:39 Lauren, I've followed your professional journey
07:43 for a few years now.
07:44 And as you've evolved and this project has taken root,
07:47 it's Women's History Month right now.
07:51 We're celebrating all sorts of women leaders
07:53 in different capacities.
07:55 As a woman entrepreneur right now
07:57 that's building something in this space,
08:00 what are you finding to be both kind of the challenges
08:04 and the opportunities?
08:05 Because procurement,
08:07 while there is very much diversity in that workforce,
08:10 it still also has a lot of men
08:12 that have been in those roles for a long time.
08:15 So as a woman founder,
08:17 how has your journey intersected
08:19 with the work of the procurement industry
08:23 and Procure Impact generally?
08:26 - It's been really amazing
08:28 because I think that what we're doing
08:30 is creating human connection and conversation
08:33 around people's purpose and their why.
08:36 And you don't often get on a phone call
08:39 to talk about procurement
08:40 and end up talking about people's shared pain
08:43 and their shared history
08:45 and their shared connection to the work that we do.
08:48 And so we have executives who end up sharing stories
08:51 about children that they have with disabilities
08:54 or family members that are suffering from addiction
08:56 or mental health challenges.
08:59 And I think it's helped kind of as a woman owned company
09:02 that is mission driven,
09:04 bring a bit of humanity into the business conversation
09:08 around things like what we purchase and procurement,
09:10 which tends to not be heartfelt in terms of its ethos.
09:15 And so I think that's actually been a huge advantage to us
09:19 is that we're bringing up sort of things
09:22 that all of us are dealing with
09:24 that are impacting all of our lives
09:25 but might not be hidden in the professional sphere.
09:28 And I see that as something uniquely kind of centered
09:32 in sort of the women owned and women founded companies
09:35 that we can bring vulnerability into the workplace.
09:39 - I love that, an emotional intelligence as well.
09:42 So Lauren, I saw that you had a recent announcement
09:45 with the American Hotel and Lodging Association
09:49 regarding a dignity of work pledge.
09:51 Tell me what that's all about and what people should know.
09:54 - Happy to.
09:56 Procure Impact partnered
09:58 with the American Hotel and Lodging Association,
10:00 which is the largest trade association
10:03 for hotel management companies and operators
10:05 and hoteliers in the United States
10:07 to launch this pledge, the dignity of work pledge.
10:10 And HLA has always been a trade association
10:13 that's helping the industry understand best practices
10:16 around sustainability and responsible sourcing
10:19 and social impact.
10:20 And responsible sourcing as a priority for them,
10:23 we actually do that through our marketplace.
10:26 We are a solution in the responsible sourcing space.
10:29 And so what we realized is that we could collectively
10:32 unify the sector towards action.
10:35 And again, those are sometimes challenging things
10:37 for companies to do on their own,
10:38 but if they have a tool and a strategy that's put in place,
10:41 we can really create a lot of impact in our society.
10:45 As we talked about before,
10:46 every time companies purchase through us,
10:48 they get an impact receipt
10:49 that shows them the amount of shift hours
10:51 that were created through their purchase.
10:53 And so we joined with HLA to create a goal.
10:55 Could we get the hospitality sector
10:57 to collectively create 100,000 hours of work
11:01 for overlooked and underestimated populations
11:04 by pledging an impact goal
11:06 and by shifting a percentage of their purchase
11:08 towards social enterprises on our platform?
11:10 To give you a sense, the hospitality sector,
11:12 they spend a lot of money on procurement.
11:15 In 2022, it was 120 billion
11:19 that they purchased out of US businesses.
11:21 And so if you imagine we shift a percentage
11:24 to enterprises that are helping people
11:26 that have a barrier to work,
11:28 that creates a tidal wave of change in our communities.
11:31 And so we announced with HLA just a couple of weeks ago,
11:34 eight companies joined us as founding partners,
11:38 companies like Davidson, Sage, Atrium Hospitality,
11:41 Pacific Hospitality,
11:43 and those eight founding partners,
11:45 they collectively manage 110,000 hotel rooms daily
11:49 in the United States.
11:51 So when you think about what's possible,
11:53 imagine your mini bar snacks,
11:55 the products in your retail store,
11:57 the furniture in your room,
11:59 the art on the walls can all align
12:01 to these underrepresented communities.
12:03 The collective impact is monumental.
12:05 And we've been so thrilled to see the leadership
12:07 in the hospitality sector
12:09 and the interest in joining this initiative
12:11 from others post-launch.
12:13 You know, at the core,
12:14 hospitality is about welcoming people,
12:17 about helping people feel like they belong.
12:20 And the sector has shifted from one of conformity
12:24 and hotel rooms looking the same
12:25 no matter where you are in the world
12:27 to one that is trying to create authentic guest experiences
12:32 that help people connect to purpose and location and why.
12:35 And you do that through the products you buy
12:37 by setting the tone for the space
12:39 and by creating that connection and memory
12:42 for people and guests.
12:43 And so, although you can work with any company,
12:45 any company can purchase products through us,
12:48 we've been laser focused on the hospitality sector
12:51 because of that cascade effect that can happen
12:53 just by small actions that hotels can make.
12:55 - And the raw purchasing power.
12:56 And the raw purchasing power.
12:58 So, well, I really appreciate both your personal mission
13:03 in this endeavor and obviously your efforts
13:06 and your team's efforts to make impact at scale.
13:10 Where can people find more information about Procure Impact?
13:13 - Yeah, please visit the Procure Impact website,
13:17 which is www.procureimpact.us.
13:21 You can also find us on LinkedIn and Instagram
13:24 where you can see the products
13:26 and the people behind the products
13:27 and how they're made and the incredible stories
13:30 of resilience and grit and determination
13:32 that comes with every product that we represent.
13:35 So, businesses can sign up to purchase with us
13:37 directly on our website.
13:39 And it just takes small little changes.
13:41 So, obviously there's a lot of integration opportunities
13:44 for every company that has an office space
13:47 or is doing employee gifts or onboarding gifts.
13:50 But if people just start small
13:51 and they see the quality of the products
13:53 and the opportunity set, we've seen so much scale
13:57 and opportunities for repeat orders and impact
14:00 that we can make as a society
14:02 if we think intentionally about our purchases.
14:05 - I really love that.
14:06 Intentional purchases, creating more access
14:10 and accessibility for individuals and impact at scale.
14:14 Lauren McCann from Procure Impact.
14:16 Thank you so much.
14:17 - Thanks, Seth.
14:18 (upbeat music)
14:21 (upbeat music)
14:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]