Going green is even more important in a recession
I delivered the second set of three environmental policy/action planning workshops yesterday for Compete North East – the aim being to help small and medium size companies get in shape to respond to the environmental aspects of tenders and requests for proposals. The workshops went really well again, but one of the introductory speakers – from a public sector buying organisation – made a statement I thought was a. misleading and b. dangerous advice for the attendees. He said that environment and sustainability had dropped off the radar somewhat due to the recession, but were coming back.
I didn’t get a chance to ask him exactly what he meant, but I couldn’t disagree more with the statement as it came out. Here are the facts:
- Public sector bodies are typically awarding 10-15% of potential assessment scores to environment and sustainability;
- The public sector is buying much less due to the Government’s austerity drive, so competition for contracts is fierce.
The only conclusion you can draw from that is that securing as much of that 10-15% is vital to give a supplier a chance of beating competitors. If you’re up against Usain Bolt in the 100m, the last thing you want to do is give him a 10m head start. So don’t give greener competitors a similar advantage – make the commitment, take action, stay ahead of the pack.