Initial Stages of Company Contact

By: Ryan Hallman, Stephanie Hauschildt, Gabriel Hernandez, Corbin Kehrberg, Ayahna Mack, and Monica Portillo. Edited by Chloe Ney.

The Sustainable Purchasing Team continues to evaluate the methods of ASUCLA licensees and suppliers to develop an effective survey. Survey questions were drafted regarding waste management, resource management, materials sourcing, worker rights, and workers conditions of respective companies. Currently, questions have been drafted and are awaiting review by stakeholder Cindy Holmes. One survey will be sent to UCLA purchasers, while a separate survey will be sent to licensees. Google forms will be the method of distribution, as the team expects it to be the most reputable and user-friendly form of communication.

The survey will provide the team quantitative and qualitative information which can be used for data analysis. With a scaled and short answer portion, companies will have the opportunity to fully express their answers while including a scaled portion, 1 – 10. In order to maximize company cooperation, surveys will be sent with precursor and follow-up emails to create friendly contact with representatives. If all goes as planned, the Sustainable Purchasing Team will have substantial data to further communications with companies and begin drafting the ALGORITHM. Information regarding the ALGORITHM and our search for preferred products will be provided to survey recipients. This may provide extra incentive for recipients to provide thorough feedback. Follow-up surveys may be distributed to companies particularly interested in the team’s activities and initiatives.

The survey sent to UCLA’s various departments that purchase promotional products from ASUCLA will ask about the importance of sustainability in regards to their purchasing decisions, which licensees are most frequently purchased from, and departmental cost-benefit analysis of more eco-friendly and ethical products.

The team attempts to remain studious in the Anderson School of Management.