Entries by Bob Willard

Decoding Sustainable Procurement and Its 4 Starter Subsets

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Occasionally, you may find yourself in confusing, even confrontational, conversations about various incarnations of sustainable procurement. Advocates for Sustainable Procurement, Social Procurement, Green Procurement, Net-Zero Procurement and Circular Procurement sometimes appear to be competing with each other. That’s not helpful. We need all of them. To promote collaboration rather than contention, we need to decode Sustainable Procurement and its four starter subsets, and show how they complement each other.


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4 Drivers of Carbon Footprint Reductions

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My previous blog explored four ways to calculate a product’s carbon footprint / embodied carbon. Let’s suppose we do that. That is, we figure out the total product-related greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by all tiers of suppliers and transportation providers in the product’s cradle-to-gate supply chain. Let’s also suppose that buyers want to purchase products that have the lowest carbon footprint / embodied carbon. That is, they want their suppliers to reduce their GHG emissions that contribute to the product’s carbon footprint. There are four drivers of supplier GHG reductions that buyers can orchestrate to cause suppliers to reduce their GHG emissions, resulting in their products having lower carbon footprints. 


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Carbon Footprints – Net-Zero Accelerators or Decelerators?

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In its 2020 Global Supply Chain Report, CDP famously found that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a company’s supply are 11.4 times larger than GHG emissions from its operations. Some companies misinterpreted the startling 11.4 ratio as a signal that they should prioritize taking action on their indirect upstream supply chain-related emissions, even before taking action on their own direct operational emissions. Also, since carbon footprints of purchased products are added to the buyer’s GHG inventories in the year they are bought, buyers want the carbon footprints of purchased products to be as low as possible. So, it makes sense to prioritize buying products with the lowest carbon footprints … unless it delays and distracts from taking action on operational emissions. Ironically, carbon footprint calculations are at risk of being more of a decelerator than an accelerator of reducing GHG emissions to net-zero.


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5 Circularity Solutions To Achieving Net-Zero Carbon Footprints

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Best-available climate science warns that we must reduce our annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50% by 2030, and by 100% by 2050. Organizations that sign-up for these net-zero targets track their annual direct and indirect GHG emissions. Annual indirect GHG totals include the carbon footprints of products that were bought by the organization that year – that is, the GHGs that were generated throughout the supply chain during the production of those products. We need carbon footprints to be as low as possible. Ideally, they should be net-zero. That sounds like mission impossible. Maybe not. Happily, there are five circularity solutions to achieving net-zero carbon footprints in a given year.


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7 Ways Net-Zero Public Procurement is a Super-Leverage Point

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A refreshingly upbeat, hopeful report on the climate crisis was recently released: “The Breakthrough Effect: How To Trigger A Cascade Of Tipping Points To Accelerate The Net Zero Transition.” It was published in January by the Bezos Earth Fund, SystemIQ and the University of Exeter. It describes ten timely tipping points that provide "an opportunity to rapidly increase the deployment of zero-emission solutions and drastically cut global emissions.” The report also identifies three “super-leverage points” ‒ opportunities for actions that have relatively low cost or difficulty, and a relatively high chance of catalyzing a tipping cascade. I would humbly suggest that they missed a fourth super-leverage point: Net-Zero Public Procurement.


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7 Benefits to Any COP Government of Net-Zero Procurement

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(For a quick refresher on Net-Zero Procurement, see the previous blog, “3 Superpowers of Net-Zero Procurement.”)

In 1994, 198 national governments signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is a treaty to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system" and stabilize greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere. Ever since, at each annual Conference of the Parties (COP), these governments / parties have renewed their commitments to stabilizing climate change. COP27 will be held in Egypt, November 6-18. The parties will sign a statement at the conclusion agreeing on their actions. Here are the seven benefits to any COP government of Net-Zero Procurement (N-ZP), that support its inclusion as an action item in COP27’s closing agreement:


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3 Superpowers of Net-Zero Procurement

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Net-Zero Procurement is an untapped super market force that could save the day for humankind, or at least fix climate change. Net-Zero Procurement (N-ZP) is defined as obtaining the best value for money when purchasing the most climate-friendly goods and services from suppliers who are the most committed to science-based net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) targets, in support of the buyer’s / customer’s stated organizational purpose and strategic net-zero goals. There are 3 superpowers of Net-Zero Procurement.


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7 Uses for the New / Improved Master Slide Decks

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Announcing: New / Improved Master Slide Decks

I’m often asked which of my many tools and resources for sustainability champions are the most useful. The answer is easy: my Master Slide Decks. The six slide decks are a goldmine of over 900 slides with topical insights and context about accelerators and barriers to progress on sustainability issues in the business community. There are 7 uses for the new / improved Master Slide Decks that make them my most valuable resource.


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5 Reasons Net-Zero Procurement Can Achieve System Change

Greta Thunberg coined the sign-worthy call to action: “System Change, Not Climate Change.” Good idea. But how can we transform the system that has brought us to this precipitous climate emergency? We’ve been unsuccessfully inching our way toward system change for years, mostly on the margins. There are five reasons that Net-Zero Procurement is a force for system change that can succeed.


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“Sustainability” vs “ESG”

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Once upon a time, I began presentations on sustainability-related topics with a snorkel in the terminology swamp. I’d compare and contrast about a dozen terms in the “sustainability” alphabet soup – CSR, SDGs, CR, 3BL, 3Ps, 3Es, etc. Then I’d declare that they were all close enough to be synonyms for “sustainability” and move on.  After a while, I stopped doing that. Now, I find it necessary to do it again, primarily to clarify “sustainability” vs. “ESG” usage these days.


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