Shaun McCarthy is the director of Action Sustainability, a not for profit social enterprise set up to lead and inspire sustainable procurement.
When it comes to sustainability, are you part of the problem or part of the solution? Shaun McCarthy lays down the challenge
Being a person of a certain age that remembers exactly what happened in 1972 but can’t recall what meetings I went to yesterday, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with innovation in my personal life. I still love my vinyl records (listening to Neil Young’s Freedom now in case anybody is interested), I [...]
A target to reduce carbon emissions from government operations by 10 per cent in 2010 means the ambitions to reduce carbon do not match the ambitions to reduce the budget deficit.
In 2006, I decided to get out of corporate life and develop a “portfolio career”. Now I am a sustainability adviser, an official “watchdog”, a small business owner, trustee of two charities and a few other things too trivial to mention. Some of these roles are well paid, some aren’t paid at all. The recession [...]
Shaun McCarthy discusses why the term “carbon-neutral company” is “the least credible phrase of the decade”
One of the most difficult challenges we had was finding meaningful case studies. With a few notable exceptions; when we asked people for case studies they either came up with nothing at all or bland “happy sheets” promoting their companies or massaging the egos of the people involved (or both).
Long-term behavioural change requires a common language, understanding and systems. Sustainable procurement has no such common language, but one is on the way.
If you don’t have a good reason, don’t bother – but be prepared to go out of business.
It is interesting to reflect on the challenge posed by the Olympics to the construction industry. The fine efforts of the London 2012 team will reduce the carbon footprint from a predicted 3.4 million tonnes to 1.9 million tonnes.
In the next 50 years climate change will alter the way we live. The planet will start running out of oil and the world’s population will increase by 50 per cent. If we don’t act now, we will be stacking up problems for our children and grandchildren that will make the credit crunch and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico look like the teddy bears’ picnic.
Many of the solutions to these problems lie in our supply chains, and procurement professionals need to innovate to rise to this challenge. But with some notable exceptions we don’t tend to do this. Why is that – and what can we do?
