Part II - Can We Ignore Social Sustainability in Procurement?

(Continued from Can We Ignore Social Sustainability in Procurement?.....)

Moving on, the Swiss led Marrakech Task Force, probably noticed (I guess), and corrected the above anomaly in EU approach to greening their procurement. They have constantly been talking about both environmental and social impacts of products and services during their life cycle. The UNEP’s initiative, which is based on experiences of Marrakech Task Force on SPP, on integrating environmental and social concerns in public buying, is rightly called SPP. The UNEP led initiative is relatively new and will take time to make its presence felt in this area. But again, I am still to find a convincing answer to why EU does not talk about social sustainability. One plausible answer could be that social issues are a lesser concern in EU than in emerging nations.  I agree that social and ethical issues, being less tangible, are difficult to apply in procurement process due to differing cultural and political interpretations.  Also, measuring the social impact of consumption is a difficult proposition.

But these challenges have not deterred some MNCs in integrating social concerns in their global supply chain. As early as 2003, Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) came into being and created Code of Conducts for vendors, who are willing to improve working conditions of workers. Not to forget, Social Accountability International (SAI), which came into existence in 1997 and whose mission is to promote ethical working condition, labour rights, corporate social responsibility and social dialogue. Now there are many MNCs in Europe and North America, who insist on compliance of code of conducts/social standards by vendors in their supply chain. Does this mean that corporate people care more about social sustainability than their counterpart in government?  There is no yes-or-no answer to it but they have definitely brought issue of social sustainability in focus even in research universities. For example, professors at University of Tennessee, Knoxville are busy building business case around social sustainability by integrating social and ethical concerns in supply chain.

The focus currently on environmental sustainability, I believe, has more to do with its correlation with climate change. The climate change impacts are for real and something that people are experiencing themselves in their day-to-day lives. People are now demanding urgent actions. And, therefore, such demands have become a prime driver for integrating environmental sustainability in public decisions. Focusing on environmental sustainability is a part of mitigation effort to reduce climate change impacts. Given, its non-discriminatory nature, environmental degradation happening in one part of the globe would have adverse impacts on people across globe. Therefore, a developed country, though environmentally sustainable, cannot feel safe. It is equally important that other non-developed nations also take adequate measures to mitigate negative impacts of climate change. That is why one sees more conventions, workshops and conferences on environmental sustainability now! Contrary to this, to my mind, earlier many believed that social sustainability, per say, to be a local phenomenon with little or no global impact. For example - hardly anybody is likely to get affected in Europe due to simmering tension prevailing in a garment factory in Bangladesh over unsafe working condition within factory’s premises! But now, consumers would not buy this argument in today’s interconnected flat world, where supply chain extends globally. The point in case is Apple-Foxconn episode. Already having caved-in at Wall Street, Apple could not withstand pressure coming from its consumers, who no longer wanted to use products that have been produced unethically.  Apple had to agree to a probe by the independent Fair Labour Association (FLA) in response to a crescendo of criticism that its products were build on the backs of mistreated Chinese workers. I believe, such stakeholder’s pressures would help researchers build a business case around social issues and provide traction to social sustainability in sustainable procurement.

Looking forward for more discussion on social sustainability…