Fwd Certified

Fwd certified

Description of Fwd 
Fwd is an Ākina programme that helps procurement to deliver positive social, cultural and environmental outcomes. Fwd was created to grow the understanding of social procurement to influence procurement and to increase support for social enterprises (suppliers) that trade business-to-business with other large public and private organisations (buyers).

Ākina 
Ākina is New Zealand’s leading impact development organisation, and works with enterprises, charities, businesses and government to grow the positive impact they are making. 

Ākina is part way through a Government-funded programme to help create the conditions for a thriving social enterprise sector in New Zealand. 

Social Procurement 
Social procurement is what happens when businesses intentionally purchase products or services to create positive social or environmental outcomes – otherwise known as ‘impact’. Social procurement is also sometimes known as sustainable procurement or progressive procurement, but they all mean the same thing. 

Social procurement is like traditional procurement but with the addition of positive impact delivered through supply chains. Social procurement is an increasingly common way to deliver impact, with more and more businesses choosing to buy from impactful suppliers, like social enterprises and Māori enterprises. 

What does it mean to be Fwd certified? 
Being Fwd certified means a social enterprise or impact-driven business is ready for social procurement. The positive impact generated by a Fwd certified supplier is independently verified as part of the certification process. Fwd certification indicates that a supplier has a good track record, verified impact, and that they’re ready to trade business to business!