Procurement with Purpose Newsletter no. 71 – June 18th, 2024

Well, you can’t avoid politics in the UK at the moment, so this week we’re back in the main to climate in terms of the global and UK political perspective.

Meanwhile WHY ARE MY VEGETABLES GERMINATING THEN JUST FAILING TO GROW?? My mother in law has a theory that now we have moved to peat-free compost, the producers are using weedkiller to make the compost look “cleaner”, but the residues are actually killing the plants!? I know, it sounds like a conspiracy theory but I’ve never known courgette seeds to germinate, grow a little into young plants, then just fade away and die the way several have this year. Kale seedlings to just stay at 4cm high for weeks and weeks. ?Or maybe it’s just the weather.

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It’s COP time again!

We’ve got another COP climate summit – number 29 – coming up in November, in Azerbaijan. The preparatory meetings are now underway, to try and make the main event more successful.

The biggest issue seems to be how rich countries will provide funds to poor countries to help them mitigate the effects of climate change and transition to clean energy. As Reuters described the funding situation ahead of COP, “the decision is set to dominate the?COP29 climate talks ?in Azerbaijan in November, where nearly 200 countries need to agree on a new annual financing target for helping poorer countries cut their emissions and protect their societies in a harsher, hotter world”.

But whilst there is the occasional success, has COP become in the main another example of political performative behaviour, or a governmental form of greenwashing?? In other words, countries and their representatives want to give the impression of taking action to placate their own electorate, without actually having to do anything too difficult.

It's interesting to note that the last three hosts, Brazil, UAE and Azerbaijan are all major producers of fossil fuels, and none have reduced their production in the last few years. Indeed, the Global Witness website said last year “Azerbaijan, host of next year’s COP climate summit, is set to boost its gas production by a third over the next decade, with fossil fuel companies forecast to spend $41.4 billion on the country’s gas fields, according to new analysis”.

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But where would the money go?

In the Reuters article, South African climate negotiator Pemy Gasela said, "how are you going to move forward if there's no financing?" South Africa is heavily dependent on coal and needs help to de-carbonise. But sadly, that country has also become increasingly corrupt over recent years , with politicians and officials betraying Mandela’s legacy, and public procurement funds meant for investment are often siphoned off. The danger is that money for climate mitigation and de-carbonisation might go the same way.

South Africa has also aligned itself with Russia and Hamas in terms of current conflicts, so it would not be unreasonable for countries like the UK, Germany and the US to say, OK then, let Russia and Iran support your de-carbonisation. I know that’s an approach that has negatives for the whole world, but I suspect a lot of people might feel that way.? I’m conceptually happy for rich countries to pay more to help poor, but I’m very nervous about where the billions or even trillions might end up in the case of many of the potential recipient nations.

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European Greens suffer at the polls

Elections this month across much of Europe saw Green parties generally losing some ground, and far right parties increasing their vote. ?As CNBC said, “The left-leaning Greens/European Free Alliance were set to win 52 seats in the legislative branch of the 27-member trade bloc, according to preliminary results. That’s significantly lower than the 71 seats the Greens/EFA secured when the green faction enjoyed its?strongest-ever showing ?five years ago”.

Germany was an example of this decline with the Greens receiving 11.9% of the vote, around half of its previous performance. Support also fell in France, where President Macron called a snap election in response to the advance of the far-right National Rally, which received 31.5% of the vote. He thinks voters will feel differently when they are electing their own national parliament, but we will see…?

On the other hand, it looks like the UK might be going against the trend, with polls looking good for Labour in the UK, and the push to de-carbonise is likely to accelerate under that party. However, moving onto other purpose-related issues, I’ve been looking at the manifestos (Tory, Labour and Lib Dem anyway) in the last few days, and one puzzle is the disappearance of any focus on using public procurement to drive “social value”. That has actually been a qualified success in recent years, so it is odd that no-one is mentioning it.

My only hypothesis is that the Tories don’t want to brag about their initiatives because it doesn’t fit with the right-wing, “anti-woke” positioning they have now sadly fallen into, whilst Labour doesn’t want to praise something that has happened on the Tory watch. But it is a shame that no-one is talking in the manifestos about how the hundreds of billions of annual government spend might be used to drive social benefits. There are some mentions of supporting SMEs (yawn) and supporting the UK industrial strategy but nothing really on that social benefit side of things.

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So what?

But why does any of this matter to us as procurement or sustainability professionals? Well, it may not immediately, but over time Boards and business leaders do take notice of the political environment. If they see legislation being gradually watered down, or maybe even public procurement being less concerned about these issues, then they will take note and perhaps de-emphasise “sustainability” work internally in the organisation.

So we have to be aware of what is going on more widely and sensitive to how key people in our organisation might be feeling. Giving an impassioned presentation to the Board about de-carbonising the firm is fine – but if the CEO has just heard an influential politician saying, “we can’t afford to de-carbonise quickly”, you might not get as good a reception as you would have hoped for.

It is another reason to make sure your procurement sustainability and purpose initiatives are grounded in real benefits for the organisation, not just a philosophical belief in doing what seems to be the right thing. I believe boards will be a little more nervous of moving too fast if they see the political sentiment (and voters!) swinging away from these approaches, so we need to be considered and persuasive.

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King’s College London doing all too well…

On a more positive note, congratulations to King’s College London, and Bournemouth University, for finishing joint top in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings related to UN SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.?

And even more kudos to King’s procurement head Veronica Daly who writes here about the actions that have led to this position, and manages to get multiple Taylor Swift song titles into her piece! (My favourite Taylor song is The Last Great American Dynasty, which is not the easiest to work into an article…)

Anyway, Daly says Kings achieved this ranking by taking steps that included:

• Applying selection criteria that ensure only those suppliers who have not breached social or environmental regulations can participate in our tender exercises;
• Evaluating suppliers who wish to be awarded one of our contracts, in accordance with King’s sustainability objectives, including how they intend to manage any waste produced by their good or service;
• Regularly auditing our supply chain to assure against risks such as modern slavery;
• Supporting colleagues who manage our contractors and suppliers to ensure they deliver on their promises in relation to sustainability and other outcomes.

Well done also to Reading for 3rd place, and Sheffield, Plymouth, Exeter, Manchester and Swansea who all made a UK-dominated top ten in what is a very large and international survey.

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RIP Dario G (Paul Spencer)

I was driving yesterday, flicking between Radio1, 2, 6 and X, and Scott Mills started his programme with the football anthem Carnaval de Paris (the theme for the 1998 World Cup in france). Haven’t heard it for years, and what a banger, I thought. On arriving at my hotel, and going online, I discovered the very sad announcement that Paul Spencer, the dance music producer behind Dario G, had died of rectal cancer, aged just 53. I had always assumed that Dario G was a suntanned dude from Ibiza or Naples, but turns out he was from Crewe.

Mills didn’t mention his passing, so I assume it was just a strange coincidence. It is very sad anyway, condolences to everyone who knew him, but he leaves behind some great music.

(By the way, the Carnaval tune is based on the folk song Oh My Darling Clementine, but I remember singing lyrics concerning the referee’s parentage to that tune at matches way back in the 1970s…)