Recycling and cutting your carbon are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to your environmental footprint. The bulk of your impact on the planet comes from the choices around what you buy. In fact it makes up around 70%, according to AUT Senior Lecturer Anne Staal who is an expert in supply chain sustainability.
How is this possible?
Think about your workplace and try to picture every item in it, such as furniture, stationery, company cars, technology, computers and anything you make or sell. Then think of all the different parts used to make it. How was it made? By whom? Where did the raw materials come from? Who sourced them? Then for each item, try to imagine how many businesses were involved in getting that product to you in its current state. Sometimes hundreds of businesses may have touched a product before it gets to you. Now include service providers like cleaners, electricity and water. This is your supply chain.
With that in mind, you can imagine how many businesses your organisation affects through the things you choose to buy. Think how your different choices may impact those businesses. On the decisions they make, and what they choose to buy and invest in.
This is why what you buy often has a bigger impact than what you do. It’s because it affects what thousands of other businesses do!
Okay, but how can a business ‘buy better’ and reduce its impact?
By asking questions.
It’s that simple. Asking questions about the product or service you are considering buying and the business you are buying it from (and making decisions based on the answers) is at the heart of what that scary, chunky term ‘procurement’ means in practice.
The goal of procurement is to ask the right questions that help you make an informed decision on what to buy.
How does asking questions help?
The most obvious way is that it allows you to ‘vote with your dollar’. Whenever you can afford to, buy the product or service from the business that answers your questions best.
However, the simple act of a customer (or potential customer) asking a business about their sustainability practices in itself makes three things happen:
- First you force them to think about an issue. You make them aware it's something their customers want and are asking for.
- Second, in order to answer your question they will often need to gather some information about what they do currently. If they go away and do this, it is often the first step towards being more sustainable, understanding current practices, and starting to measure impact.
- Third, they may then change some of their practices to meet the standard you are asking for.
In short, by asking questions you send sustainability ripples through that organisation.
How much power do my questions really have?
That depends on how much influence you have over the businesses you buy from. Many businesses have more influence than they might realise.
If you buy a lot of something from a business or you have a good relationship with them (perhaps you know them personally - this is New Zealand!), then you have a good chance of making change.
Of course a small business asking a big car retailer (for example) for sustainability information can feel pretty powerless. But as someone who looks after procurement groups with leaders from Aotearoa New Zealand’s biggest companies, know that simple act alone is awesome. You may be just one of many voices asking for change, but those voices add up and make waves in marketing, leadership and strategy.
So asking questions is all I need to do?
Not quite. You must ask questions that help you decide what to buy. Let the business know that is the reason you are asking. Then buy based on that information whenever you can.
What questions you ask depends entirely on what is important to you, your business and your employees. Are you passionate about fighting climate change? About the welfare of workers? About eliminating modern slavery? About buying local? Then ask the businesses you buy from what they are doing about it!
To be most effective, ask the question based on what you are trying to achieve. Know what your bottom line is (answers you won’t accept) and know what best practice looks like (what you are hoping to see). The more specific the question the better.
The goal of procurement is to ask the right questions that help you make an informed decision on what to buy.
For example, if you care about climate change don’t ask “what are you doing to be sustainable?”. This kind of question screams ‘tick box exercise’ and that you don’t really care about the result. Most won't bother to respond.
Instead try: “Our business cares deeply about climate change and is committed to only buying from businesses taking action to reduce their emissions. Do you measure your carbon emissions? What actions do you take to reduce emissions?”
In this case you might decide your bottom line is they need to be measuring their carbon emissions for you to purchase from them. And the best practice you are looking for is for them to be taking actions to reduce emissions that are certified by a third party.
What if it's a business I have to buy from?
We understand Aotearoa New Zealand is a small market and there may be limited options for certain things. You also may be locked into longer term contracts or have a longstanding relationship you don't want to lose. That's okay. If a business you want, or need, to buy from doesn’t meet your standards right now there are a few options. You can ask them to meet that standard over time in order to keep your business, e.g. be carbon certified within the next 12 months. If you are able, you might offer to help them with financial assistance or sharing knowledge. For example you might help pay for their first year of certification or offer to work with them to develop a more sustainable solution together. Finally, if none of these things are possible know that asking the questions in the first place has started to put change in motion. Ka pai!
Ready to jump in or are you left wishing there was a faster, easier, simpler way to do this?
Good news, there is. It’s just launched and is called Docket - your free sustainable supply chain toolbox!
Designed collaboratively by the Sustainable Business Network, business and government experts, Docket allows any business to assess their sustainability across the six hottest sustainability topics: carbon, waste, regenerating nature, modern slavery, worker rights and health and safety. It shows businesses what best practice is, how they measure up and where they can go to improve.
The best part about Docket, however, is that once you’ve completed your own assessment you can pass Docket on to the businesses you want to buy from. So businesses in your supply chain can also do the self assessment and will be able to answer all your questions about sustainability as well as know how to improve. It's an instant, easy, free way to create ripples of change right across your supply chain!
Think back to how many businesses are needed to power your workplace. Imagine if we could get each one using Docket! Why not? It's free and shareable at the click of a button - like a game sustainability tag! It's the only free tool like this and because the government and businesses have co-created it you know the definitions of best practice and links to support can be trusted.
So buy better! Take on your biggest sustainability impact - what you buy - by asking the right questions or simply by using Docket.
Happy shopping!
