At Ethical Consumer we believe that introducing social and environmental issues into government purchasing decisions should be a priority. 

There are six main reasons for this.

i) The general public will tend to ignore any government attempts to encourage responsible purchasing more widely if it is clear that governments are not themselves already acting on their own advice.  Getting consumers around the world  to respond to sustainable consumption initiatives has not been successful to date for this reason.

ii) Powerful institutions with large budgets can persuade companies to address ethical issues very quickly.

iii) Research carried out by governments on which products, processes or companies to favour can be placed in the public domain to inform consumers and private sector buyers.

iv) Government purchasing can stimulate markets and lower prices for innovative ethical and environmental products like solar cells or alternative fuels

v) The requirement for consultation (see below) may encourage interest and participation in the political process

vi) It is likely to be economically inefficient for society to absorb social and environmental costs after the event. For example, it may be better for public sector organisations to buy exclusively renewable energy now, rather than pay for the costs of addressing climate change later on.

We believe that the best way to take this forward would be a Public Sector Responsible Purchasing Act, and we first raised this idea in our 2001 Manifesto for Change.

We stated that the Act should apply to all public sector institutions including national governments, the civil service, local and regional governments, quangos and public sector providers like educational institutions, health and social services.

The primary purpose of the Act should be to clarify the law on ethical purchasing, since many government institutions are currently cautious and uncertain about the legality of ethical procurement initiatives.

The Act should specifically address the 1988 Local Government Act (s17), the EU requirements for 'Best Value', and the WTO Treaty on public procurement and clarify which ethical procurement decisions are permissible.

The Act should state a general aim that all public sector procurers should consider the social and environmental impacts of purchasing decisions.  On condition that:

a) the policies seek to help achieve nationally agreed goals (such as renewable energy use targets) or existing treaties (such as the ILO convention), OR

b) the institution's stakeholders have been consulted and can be shown to support such a move.

The Act should also reserve the right for the government to require public sector bodies to meet targets for responsible purchasing yet to be set.

Progress

Considerable progress toward these goals was made in the next few years.

In 2004 the European Court of Justice clarified the EU Procurement Directives, designed to provide value for money, protect against corruption and integrate environmental considerations into public procurement procedures.

The UK Government established a business-led Sustainable Procurement Task Force to bring about a “step-change” in public sector procurement practice, with the ambition that by 2009 the UK would be recognised as amongst the leaders in sustainable procurement across the EU. The Task Force published its report, “Procuring the Future”, in April 2006 - we reviewed the report in detail in  EC103.

In January 2007 the government formally responded with the Sustainable Procurement Action Plan, which set out the goal of achieving “a low carbon, more resource efficient public sector” with climate change mitigation and natural resource protection stated as the highest priorities. These measures will influence £60 billion of central government spending.

Problems with the progress so far

The intention to promote “low carbon resource efficient supply chains” is to be welcomed. However, concrete proposals, such as to “consider the use of renewable energy resources” are weak and many targets are timid.

For example, planned reductions in carbon emissions from government vehicles of 15% by 2010-11 compare unfavourably with the EU targets for car producers to improve fleet carbon emissions by 25% by 2012.  And the Plan’s target for reducing carbon emissions from government offices has already been superseded by the statutory targets for 2020 proposed in the Climate Change Bill.

The Plan also relies heavily on offsetting to achieve “a carbon neutral office estate,” as well as offsetting government flights rather than planning to reduce air miles.

Furthermore, while ECRA called for ethical procurement, what the government is planning is sustainable procurement. As is worryingly often the way, while environmental principles are applied there is no concern expressed for workers’ rights or other issues in the supply chain.

While it is encouraging to see how the plans for ethical procurement are evolving, we are still some way from our goal of making it a requirement of, rather than just a possibility for, all public sector purchases.