Procurement with Purpose Newsletter no. 85 – Sept. 24th 2024 with medals, tech emissions, dirty rivers, CIPS awards and supplier diversity

Last week I mentioned that I’d got to hold a Paris Olympic gold medal. It belonged to Imogen Grant, who along with Emily Craig won gold in the women’s lightweight double sculls . They are also world champions, world record holders and basically unbeatable. Grant is also the world record holder in the women’s lightweight single sculls.? Sadly, lightweight rowing is disappearing from the Olympics, but that does mean Grant and Craig will probably be the “forever” Olympic champions in their event.

The medal was on display at a dinner to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the women’s lightweight club and the 50th of the men’s lightweights at Cambridge – I coxed the boat to victory in 1978 against Oxford in the 5th ever race. Grant didn’t row at school, she started her rowing career at Cambridge, and within 18 months was rowing for the university lightweight crew. A year later she was in the open weight Cambridge “blue boat” and she carried on from there. She is about 5ft 6 inches tall, slim, not obviously a sportswoman at all.? She gave a very good short speech, I’ve seen her described as the best technical rower (of any size or sex) in the world, and has just started work as a doctor at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, having managed to qualify whilst training for the Olympics. She is basically an inspiration.

--------------------

Protect our rivers

Just to add to Imogen Grant’s general amazingness, she is also an ambassador for The Rivers Trust , a charity that campaign to improve the quality of our rivers n the UK – “to restore rivers to a healthy, natural and wild state for wildlife and communities”.? Here is an article she wrote for the charity in 2023. It isn’t just the obvious danger of sewage being discharged into rivers that should concern us, as she says. Illegal dumping, effluent from agriculture and increased river traffic can all cause problems, as she points out.

“It isn’t uncommon for rowers to get sick after water splashes over their water bottles or into their mouths. I have had to dodge a fridge that was floating down the river, and often have to avoid logs that have been washed into the river that could damage the boat or cause me to capsize. Weed growth that chokes rivers also catches on blades and rudders. Excessive wash not only makes rowing hard, but we see it eroding the banks and destroying nests of swans and ducks. Floating oil on the water from launches and cruisers coats our boats and makes them dirty”.

We have a new government now but that doesn’t mean the problems with the UK water industry have miraculously disappeared. Recent reports suggest Thames Water could go bust later this year, and whilst the “Water (special measures) Bill” unveiled recently by the government promises large fines and even jail sentences for executives who persistently pollute watercourses, that won’t in itself stop sewage flowing into rivers and seas whenever we get heavy rain. ?

?-------------------

Procurement sustainability and purpose exemplars rewarded

Congratulations to the winners of the CIPS Excellence in Procurement and Supply Awards last week, particularly those with a purpose and sustainability theme. Here are the relevant winners and the short descriptions from the CIPS website.

Diversity and inclusion in procurement teams - EDF Nuclear Operations

Everyone is welcome was the sentiment underpinning EDF’S win this year. Its operations supply chain team has made a significant effort in fostering equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. And their actions are bringing about positive changes.

Best sustainability project - Sainsbury's

Sainsbury’s has been accelerating positive change and reducing its carbon footprint with the help of its procurement team. Its procurement team partnered with the business to develop and roll out a retail-first, ultra-rapid charging network across its sites for Electric Vehicles (EVs).

Commitment to carbon reduction in the supply chain - Nationwide Building Society

Winner Nationwide puts environmental consciousness at the core of its purpose. The building `society has committed to reducing its upstream Scope 3 emissions by 42% by 2030. And, with the efforts of its procurement team, it has driven activity to establish new, proportionate science-based target expectations for suppliers of high value contracts, supported by internal capacity building.

?

Initiative to deliver social value through procurement: National Highways

Winner National Highways is on a mission to serve its communities better and enhance its strategic road network. Its initiative for achieving this is a company-wide social plan focused on maximising its impact in the community through its procurement activity.

Initiative to build a diverse supply base – the Co-op

Winner Co-op has a long history of driving social value for its colleagues, communities, and members. And is committed to building inclusive partnerships. Its Endless Inclusion Hub has enabled it to collaborate better with suppliers and achieve ED&I goals more broadly.

And I was pleased to see that Mat Langley won the sustainable procurement champion award (after my comments on a cigarette industry executive being on the short list.) He is currently co-chair of the Scope 3 Chapter of the Sustainable Procurement Pledge, and former global head of procurement for sustainability at CBRE, the largest real estate company globally. (I didn’t know he’d left CBRE actually).

--------------------

Jason Busch talks sense on supplier diversity

My ex-business partner Jason Busch published a useful article on LinkedIn the other day titled (provocatively) Your Supplier Diversity Program is Illegal – Here’s How to Fix It. We’ve reported here previously how firms are pulling back from DEI initiatives after challenge by some investors and political activities. Supplier diversity initiatives are getting caught up in this, although it is mainly staff diversity programmes that are under fire.

Anyway, Jason lays out some thoughts on how to make supplier diversity initiatives more criticism-proof (or even lawsuit-proof) and genuinely useful to the organisation. ?He is not adverse to “doing good” – but he is correctly very outcomes-based and anti-the box-ticking approach we often see. This is one of his recommendations.

“Launch pilot programs focusing on investing in struggling communities' suppliers and facilities. Think of it as turning your KPIs into something useful, like outcomes-based data: income improvement, education, even criminal history (yes, helping second-chance workers counts, as I've done in one of my investments). Then, report on these metrics”.

I agree with everything he says here, although Jason doesn’t really get into the “why” we should be “helping blighted communities and boosting local manufacturing”.?? The starting point for supplier diversity programmes in my opinion should always be that they will help the organisation become more flexible, resilient and ultimately gain competitive advantage. Even the “doing good” aspect should clearly relate back to benefitting the organisation by appealing to stakeholders (customers, staff, shareholders etc.) in some manner. But his suggested five steps are all sensible and useful and the article is well worth five minutes of your time.

------------------

Tech firms emissions are higher than they claim

The Guardian carried out an interesting investigation into the carbon emissions claimed by the world’s biggest tech firms – Apple, Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft. The headline was “Data center emissions probably 662% higher than big tech claims. Can it keep up the ruse?”

I’m not sure the word “ruse,” which has connotations of illegality or at least deception was fair, as the firms aren’t doing anything that isn’t allowed in terms of reporting emissions. However, there are important issues underlying the report. The big reveal was that the emissions reported don’t reflect the real emissions generated by the firms, in the main via their huge and numerous data centres.

That is because the firms use a type of “offsets” to apparently reduce their own emissions. But of course those purchases don’t actually reduce emissions by a single gram – they just allow the firms to report a lower emissions number.? Firms buy renewable energy certificates, or Recs. As the Guardian explains,

“These are certificates that a company purchases to show it is buying renewable energy-generated electricity to match a portion of its electricity consumption – the catch, though, is that the renewable energy in question doesn’t need to be consumed by a company’s facilities. Rather, the site of production can be anywhere from one town over to an ocean away”.

If you look at the actual, real emissions, the growth in AI for instance (which as we’ve commented on recently, drives up emissions as it requires more power than conventional search) is if anything driving up the numbers.

Now Google has already phased out its Rec use and Microsoft aims to do the same with low-quality “unbundled” (non location-specific) Recs by 2030. But for now, it is difficult to see what firms are really doing to reduce emissions other than in effect simply paying for the problem to go away. There is also the paradox that we could get to a situation where every big firm is claiming “carbon neutrality” (through the use of various types of offsets) – yet at the macro level, we would still see global emissions at a high or even increasing level.

--------------------

A final note on Reading highlights

So it is over a month now since Reading Festival, and here’s a final list of some of the lesser known acts I enjoyed that I haven’t yet mentioned yet. ?Several of the links are from the excellent BBC coverage of the Introducing Stage at Reading.

Baby Said – London based Punjabi / Italian sisters playing pretty heavy rock very capably (not the best recording here tbh – sounded better live!)

South Arcade – enjoyable female-fronted pop / punk, definitely ones to watch.

Soft Launch – young indie boys with smart indie-pop songs (the Introducing video wasn’t their best song!)

Michael Aldag – talented Liverpudlian singer-songwriter with Sheeran / Ezra vibes.

Only the Poets – local Reading lads, strong performers with tuneful anthemic indie.