Lessons from Harry Potter
Why sustainability advocates are eyeing your inventory
Business in Vancouver Issue 953, January 2008
When a handful of Canadian forest activists met with JK Rowling in 2003, she was already one of the world’s most famous authors. And even then, a few books shy of today’s billionaire status, she was clearly on the way to becoming its richest.
But they didn’t ask for money. They were after something far more valuable: her supply chain.
Due to JK’s influence and a progressive publisher, the last three Harry Potter books in Canada have been printed on ancient-forest friendly (no old growth) paper. Other publishers have joined in; the most recent book was printed on eco-friendly paper in sixteen countries, saving 197,000 trees (a forest twice the size of Stanley Park). Meanwhile, the impetus of JK’s well-publicized choice helped tip 300 other publishers to adopt ‘green’ paper policies worldwide.
There’s magic in these numbers, and it’s not just about trees. For sustainability activists, it’s about targeting change where there’s big impact – the global flow of goods channelled by corporate purchasers. For your business, it’s another new measure of value imposed by an increasingly conscious society. If nutritionists tell us, “you are what you eat,” businesses are now viewed, at least in part, as “you are what you buy.”
As is usually the case with market-shaping forces, you have two choices. Ignore it, or get on with it. Either way, it will touch your business.
Neglecting this trend will not cause immediate hardship. But it will catch up with you – gently, through a shifting range of choices available when you purchase, with increasing information to decipher about the production process or content of your inputs. Or less gently, when a customer starts asking questions about your purchasing policies (because of their sustainability procurement program) and you risk losing business because you can’t answer. It could be more jarring: a product you depend on is pulled suddenly from the market when it’s discovered that it includes carcinogens, or endangered plant material, or that it was removed illegally from contested aboriginal land in Brazil. Worst case scenario: you wind up like Kathie Lee Gifford, the former TV host and promoter of eponymous name-branded clothing, splashed on the front pages because you didn’t realize your product was made with child labour. She didn’t know because it never occurred to her to ask.
Better to move now. You may capture benefits as a first-mover in your industry, or you may find, as sustainability purchasing advocates argue – that you’ll get better quality, cost savings, and stronger supplier relationships once you view your supply chain through a sustainability lens. At the least, you’ll mitigate risk, and you won’t face a too-steep learning curve when this trend really catches on (as it will). It’s likely you’re already partly in the game – most companies have started to think about recycled content in their copy paper, toxin-free office carpet, and have fielded at least one request for fair-trade coffee in the lunchroom. Many are already well beyond this point.
As with many sustainability trends, there’s a better-marked path than there was a few years ago. Check out the Sustainability Purchasing Network at www.buysmartbc.com. A project of the Fraser Basin Council, it holds free events and learning circles. Their website offers research, tips, and presentations you can use to do your own learning or convince your managerial colleagues. Metro Vancouver also offers a Sustainable Purchasing Guide through its Smart Steps website (www.gvrd.bc.ca/smartsteps). For a sample purchasing policy, you’ll find the City of Vancouver’s Ethical Purchasing Policy on-line.
And for some purchases, you can outsource the sustainability workload. From office products to company logowear, there’s a new niche of suppliers who do the legwork and deliver an ethical glow bundled with your order. It won’t magically make you a billionaire, but you can share a little of JK’s market-shifting power.
Nina Winham (nina@newclimate.ca) is principal of New Climate Strategies, specializing in helping clients build value through a shift to sustainability.
