Have you seen the adverts on the TV with the Meerkats? I like the idea of two slightly different words with different meanings. Market and Meerkat. The business of sustainability is littered with similar misunderstandings. Government departments are currently obsessed with CSR. Anybody from the business world would be pleased to hear of their focus on Corporate Social Responsibility but in Government this is Comprehensive Spending Review, the outcome of which is having a profound effect on the public sector. There are many such expressions in the sustainable world, often dismissed as "Greenwash" or "Eco-bling". Phrases like "carbon neutral", "environmentally friendly", "responsible sourcing" and any word prefixed by "eco" should be treated with great suspicion.
Embedding behaviour change in the long term requires a common language, common understanding and common systems. Our industries were a bloodbath before the Health and Safety at Work Act and the concept of safety management systems were introduced in the 1960s and 70s. In the 1980s our industry was being killed by cheaper, better quality products from Japan before the introduction of BS 5750 and subsequently ISO 9001 quality management systems. The environmental impacts of businesses started to be much better managed in the 1990s through application of ISO 14001. As a result, our rivers are cleaner, our air is fresher and our land is less contaminated. There is still a long way to go but a common approach exists, in some cases backed by legislation.
Sustainable procurement has no such common language or accepted definition of good practice. The Flexible Framework from the Sustainable Procurement Task Force made a start by describing organisational conditions under which sustainable procurement can happen but it did not describe how to do it. Current "best practice" can range from sending each supplier a standard environmental questionnaire (which usually contributes nothing to procurement decisions) to the highly sophisticated approaches taken by companies such as Marks & Spencer and United Utilities.
The introduction of BS 8903 in September 2010 will revolutionise the way we think about sustainable procurement. For the first time end users will have a standard they can call up in their specifications which can be replicated down the supply chain. We will have a common standard against which we can train procurement professionals and evaluate the capability of businesses in our supply chain. Although the standard represents a common approach, it is not a "one size fits all" solution. The standard recognises the need for individual organisations to define sustainability within their own context.
This standard represents an opportunity to send a clear signal to the supply chains of the big purchasers that a consistent and clear approach is coming which will help to enhance the reputation of those using it.
I have been involved in the development of the standard and my colleague Cathy Berry was the lead technical author. We have spent a busy summer developing training courses and evaluation programmes to be ready for the launch. The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply support the standard and offer training for procurement leaders to implement it, which I will be delivering personally. We have already received enquiries about training and consultancy services related to the standard from UK, Italy and Australia before it is published. I am already scheduled to deliver some training in Australia in November. This has great potential to become an international standard which will help the global players in financial services to adopt a consistent approach throughout their organisations
I would encourage purchasers in all industry sectors to use the standard as a common approach and an opportunity to deliver competitive advantage through sustainability.
To find out more about the training courses we have developed around BS 8903 click here.
To find out more about our evaluation service around BS 8903 click here.
Shaun McCarthy September 2010