How will the battle against climate change be fought and – let’s hope – eventually won?
Will it be through big, bold strategies, commitments and plans, announced with fanfare by CEOs and politicians? Or through thousands – maybe millions - of smaller decision and actions taken by all of us, by the organisations we work for and the governments that represent us?
That question came to mind last week when a Tweet from Clare Nash caught my eye. She is a nurse by training, now Head of Clinical Products Management at Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust and Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust. She is also one of the leaders across the NHS in terms of sustainability, net zero and related matters. I’ve heard her speak at events and she is a real inspiration.
But she Tweeted her disappointment that her organisation’s entry for the CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply) SM Awards had not been short-listed in the “Best Sustainability Project” category. However, as she said, “Shell and the Cabinet Office, who are about to literally burn billions of pounds worth of useless PPE, did”. (That is the government doing the burning, not Shell, I should stress).
The judging panel for the Awards is very eminent, but tends to be from the global multi-national company world, so perhaps is most comfortable with that sort of entry. There are also potential conflicts of interest I’ve mentioned in previous years – I’m sure Matt Swindall of Britvic wasn’t a judge for the sustainability category specifically, but he is a judge and his firm’s entry is shortlisted in that category, and there are other examples of this cross-over.
Anyway, based on the short summaries provided on the awards website, many of the short-listed entries are pretty aspirational in nature. For example:
“….with plans focused on reducing energy demand and a transition toward full electrification of operations”.
“Globally, 1019 suppliers are formally onboarded and have committed to strong decarbonization. More than 70% of participating suppliers are embarking on emission reduction trajectory for the first time …”
“So far, we have supported 119 companies to estimate emissions and set emission targets, which equates to more than 15% of our supply chain (by spend)”.
Even the Cabinet Office entry is about asking suppliers to do something rather than an initiative with measurable results. “This new policy requires all suppliers bidding for major Government contracts to publish a 'Carbon Reduction Plan' (CRP). CRPs confirm a supplier's commitment to achieving Net Zero by 2050 at the latest; detailing their carbon footprint and environmental management measures they have in place”.
This sort of project or programme is by definition all about getting suppliers to sign up to plans, to make commitments, to agree to a certain process. Now there is nothing wrong with that, and we might argue it is a necessary step in the journey to net zero. Hoverer, it is certainly not a sufficient step.
Suppliers simply telling you that they’re making plans means nothing in itself. Those plans must be feasible, properly resourced and funded, and capable of being monitored. Then progress must be tracked, corrective actions taken where necessary and transparent reporting should be in place back to the buyer who has originated the process. Asking suppliers to make plans is the easy bit, really, and making plans is only slightly more testing. Achieving real results is the challenge.
The entry from Clare’s Trustswas very different. We’ll give you more highlights from it later this week, but it focused on detailed actions, with measured results, but some of which in themselves were relatively small.
So, coming back to my original question – what do we need? The grand statements, and CEO pledges? Or millions of people, working at the frontline, looking for net zero projects, opportunities and actions that incrementally may be small, but together will add up to real change?
The answer, as you may have guessed by now, is that we need both approaches. It seems a shame that the NHS has not been recognised by CIPS for its tangible and detailed work - and I do hope that the shortlisted projects that are aspirational really do deliver in the fullness of time.
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PS Nothing to do with sustainability, but I did laugh when I saw Diageo short-listed for the Best Procurement Transformation project at the Awards. “Our high-performing Procurement function needed to move beyond our traditional remit of cost savings to unlock new value for the business.”
Two observations – this must be about the tenth “transformation” I can remember at Diageo in my lifetime. I very nearly joined as CPO to run one of them in 2003 (I still have the draft contract somewhere. Amazing pension scheme…) And I know that Diageo procurement had a remit well beyond “cost savings” going back to the 1990s, with some very strong procurement leaders in place back in those prehistoric times. Maybe the function has gone backwards more recently, or maybe it is just the tradition that every new CPO has to “transform”.