The book was awarded the Diódoro Sánchez prize by the Board of Directors of the Colombian Society of Engineers to the Colombian engineer who has completed the most important engineering work in the country in the immediately preceding year, or who has published the best book on technical, economic, or historical issues related to national engineering.

Many companies are advancing on the road to improvement through coherent policies, processes without redundancies that increase visibility and control, reduce costs and provide greater profitability; indicators to measure performance and provide evidence to make decisions; human talent aware of their roles and responsibilities with core competencies, technical and soft skills to perform their position in Procurement.

The road ahead looks clear with a more or less clear vision of the risks that may occur.

However, some warnings of an unexpected storm have been consciously or unconsciously ignored and its negative effects are likely to be irreversible.

If accelerated climate change exceeds the temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius in the 2030s it will have a devastating effect on the planet, for which we are responsible without any.

It is not possible to take a break to fix the burdens, because Supply's inertia in continuing to meet the needs of internal customers prevents it. An abrupt break in the environment will then occur.

Procurement must be not only strategic but sustainable in the face of a disruptive change that requires a radical turnaround to rewrite the rules of the game, to establish a new reality and ensure survival to make the Company competitive.

Little has been done on a large scale and possible consequences are unknown. There is no certainty to face this challenge, accepting that there may be many alternatives, and that the decisions to be made will have an impact for years and perhaps decades to come.

This responsibility takes on a special tinge in Procurement; over time, procurement and contracting professionals have become more aware of the need and desirability of achieving a synergy between Procurement and sustainability. The function is perhaps the one that has the greatest impact on the Company's policy on sustainability issues, due to its dynamics and interfaces with its stakeholders.

In the function's micro-environment, we have some influence and capacity to seek results and in the macro-environment we must accommodate ourselves to interact effectively with bidders, contractors and suppliers with one objective: sustainable procurement.

The responsibility is such that it is often unknown or ignored by senior management. It is essential to acquire the knowledge and develop the skills to meet this challenge.

Collaborative action will generate a legacy of solidarity, trust and cooperation that will help solve or at least alleviate similar crises in the future. Failure to do so will be toxic.

The book recounts the circumstances that have caused the current situation; it externalizes very representative manifestations of concern and generation of awareness about sustainability in distinctive fields of art, culture and knowledge; it dabbles in practices that companies should carry out to influence their suppliers translated into environmental management programs in the supply chain and the key steps to initiate or expand these activities; analyzes the link that should exist between the SDGs and sourcing; approaches training programs that articulate new competencies and skills of human talent in sustainability; and draws on experts to ask what is next on a path full of surprises and challenges that cannot yet be anticipated.