In the last few days, a huge row has emerged about the Science Based Targets initiative and the organisation that runs it. We’ve written many times about carbon credits and the whole offsetting industry which enables organisations to claim they are “reducing emissions” or heading towards net zero when they are doing nothing of the kind. They are basically paying a fee so that they don’t need to take real action in terms of reducing emissions. Now some offsetting schemes may be genuinely beneficial; some  proponents including John Kerry claim they are essential to drive funding into import ..read more

This article really could have been posted here or on my Bad Buying site, as the issues it addresses have relevance to both topics. We hear a lot of talk these days about organisations – both public and private – wanting to work with suppliers who “share our values”.  That leads to supplier engagement and selection policies that ask firms how they approach all sorts of issues, including carbon reduction, human rights, diversity and inclusion… in fact, the list gets longer every year. In the public sector, we ask bidders to explain the “social value” they are going to bring above and beyon ..read more

It is well over two years now since a highly significant “Procurement Policy note” emerged from the team at the UK government’s Cabinet Office.  PPN 06/21 laid out how suppliers to government would have to provide “carbon reduction plans” (CRPs) if they wanted to bid for major public sector contracts. The new policy was aimed at supporting the wider government strategy for the UK to be “Net Zero” by 2050. My sources tell me that the lead author of the policy was David Brambley-Crawshaw, previously a procurement practitioner by background who has worked on the policy side in Cabinet Office ..read more

Richard Beaumont has had an interesting career, to say the least. He served as a British army officer for over a decade, then worked in general management roles for various businesses, and spent time at McKinsey, before pivoting to be a procurement leader in firms including Rolls Royce and the Co-operative Bank.  He now works as a consultant and qualified coach, and is also an excellent conference chair, as many will know having seen him in action at Procurecon and other major events. His is now also a genuine entrepreneur, and his latest venture, SecureCert, caught my attention as it is ..read more

In last week’s Procurement with Purpose newsletter, we mentioned a report in the Mail on Sunday.   “Prince Harry is being urged to quit a conservation charity he helps to run after a probe by The Mail on Sunday uncovered allegations that it operates an armed militia engaged in human rights atrocities in Africa”. Looking into this in more detail, it relates to the African Parks charity, which manages 22 national parks and protected areas across 12 countries. It is investigating allegations of rape, torture and brutality by guards employed by the charity, aimed at the indigenous people who ..read more

What are you getting when you drink bottled water? More than you bargained for, perhaps. “The average litre of bottled water contains almost a quarter of a million nonneoplastic fragments”.  That is the headline from new research from Columbia and Rutgers universities in the US, which suggests if you are drinking from plastic water bottles you might be ingesting more than you bargained for.  As the NPR website reported,, “Researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers University found roughly 240,000 detectable plastic fragments in a typical liter of bottled water. The study was pu ..read more

I mentioned in the Procurement with Purpose newsletter last week a Forbes article about supplier diversity and the pushback against “DEI” initiatives generally in the US. We are seeing that in the university sector in terms of student admissions for instance, with lawsuits making institutions reconsider how they favour some groups over others. But it is also being felt in the corporate world. Investors are getting more vocal if they feel “sustainability,” including DEI programmes, are somehow taking preference over the business getting on and delivering increased shareholder value, which seems ..read more

Just before Christmas, I spotted a couple of interesting purpose-related announcements by Diageo. The first was around water management, an issue which doesn’t often get as much profile as climate but has the potential to be just as big a challenge for the planet over the next 50 years. “Diageo, along with its Tequila brands Don Julio, Casamigos and DeLeon, has announced that it will invest 100 million pesos (£4.6 million) in water preservation schemes in Mexico, in the State of Jalisco. The investment is part of the company’s target to replenish more than 100% of the water used in its operati ..read more

At the recent UK Universities Procurement Conference in Exeter, three esteemed institutions vied for the award for the best “Responsible Procurement Initiative”. Delegates voted for their favourite, and the result was very close between the three candidates, with Lancaster University winning by a short head. Like many other universities, Lancaster declared a “climate emergency” in 2020, and then set a target to become net zero by 2035. A member of the leadership team has led a programme to address emissions in areas such as business travel, and clearly, procurement has a huge role to play in a ..read more

We are already seeing the effects of climate change with more extreme weather in many countries, including record heat, rain and floods, forest fires and more. So the latest report from the UK’s National Audit Office, published last week, is timely. Titled “Government resilience: extreme weather”, it looks at how the country is taking steps to mitigate the risks around climate. “Given the cross-cutting nature of these risks and their impacts they require coordinated action to be taken across government and beyond. The report sets out how central government coordinates, leads, supports and assu ..read more