Sustainable spending or 'sustainobabble'? A new group of experts will try to sort it out

Joan Meiners
Arizona Republic
Shovels lie on the ground for volunteers to use at a tree planting event hosted by the Arizona Sustainability Alliance at Emerson Elementary School in Phoenix on Feb. 27, 2022.

Money can't solve everything. But a trillion U.S. dollars — that's a one with twelve trailing zeros — can make a sizable dent in a lot of problems.

That's the theory behind the Biden-Harris administration's new Acquisition Policy Federal Advisory Committee, which held its first meeting Thursday.

The 28 inaugural members were selected from more than 100 nominated experts in sustainable purchasing nationwide. They will work on creating pathways to ensure that federal funds managed by the U.S. General Services Administration are spent in a way that will make a dent in what many view as our biggest collective problem: climate change.

"Thank you for all the forward-looking work that you are doing to make sure that the over a trillion dollars in taxpayer money that we spend every year on acquisitions is done in the smartest way possible for our nation," said committee Chairperson Troy Cribb, who is also the director of policy for Partnership for Public Service, an organization that aims to improve government and strengthen democracy.

"I'm so excited that we're going to be coming together to really help our government make acquisitions in a way that addresses the urgent climate issues that we face and help embed sustainability considerations into the government's purchasing decisions," Cribb said during Thursday's introductory remarks.

Serving alongside Cribb is co-chairperson Cassius Butts, senior partner and chief strategy officer at Global Leader Group, a company that helps organizations structure leadership. Two spots on the committee are filled by representatives of federal agencies: Jennie Romer of the Environmental Protection Agency and Antonio Doss of the Small Business Administration.

Yassamin Ansari, Phoenix city councilwoman, speaks at the Earth Day rally held by the Climate Action Campaign on the state Capitol Senate lawn on April 23, 2022, in Phoenix.

Membership is rounded out by 24 experts from non-federal sectors, including academics from Bowie State University and Michigan Technological University, among other institutions; leaders from nonprofit organizations like Building Transparency and Rocky Mountain Institute; technical advisers from groups like General Dynamics Information Technology and Asociar LLC; representatives from the advocacy group Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries and the industry trade association American Chemistry Council; a founding partner of a consulting firm specializing in the aviation industry; and others.

Members of the committee, many serving two-year appointments, will donate their time and expertise as unpaid volunteers. Because they will be guiding decisions on how to award lucrative government spending contracts, each submitted documents outlining family finances and underwent an ethics evaluation to eliminate questions of corruption or self-interest.

If everything goes according to plan, the potential for climate mitigation through smart spending and motivating sustainability in production standards is so large as to raise questions of why a committee like this has never been assembled before.

“The U.S. has more opportunity than most countries to improve global supply chains, simply given the quantity of stuff that we purchase," committee member and Arizona State University sustainability professor Nicole Darnall told The Arizona Republic in an interview Monday. "We spend more than most countries on this planet, so as a consequence the opportunity for creating global change is really huge."

Offering hope: Climate experts say world 'is at crossroads' but offer concrete actions

Recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change underscore the importance of considering issues of sustainability in consumer purchasing, supply chains and development toward mitigating the effects of warming average global temperatures. The initiative also aligns with No. 12 on the United Nation's list of 17 sustainable development goals, which deals with responsible consumption and production.

But first the committee must decide how to organize such a massive restructuring of federal purchasing policies, and how exactly to define the term "sustainability."

Friends and funds

The atmosphere at Thursday's meeting, held via Zoom in recognition of the climate impacts of travel, was abuzz with excitement among members for the opportunity to leverage their specialized expertise on behalf of large-scale, real-world solutions, and also for the friendships they expect to emerge from this collaboration.

"I'm looking forward to working with each one of you and more importantly to your friendship," said Keith Tillage, a former star tight end for the Jacksonville Jaguars and owner of a commercial construction and project management company, Tillage Construction LLC.

Darnall, the lone representative from Arizona, told The Republic that she is especially excited to work alongside Leslie Cordes, the vice president for programs at Ceres, a nonprofit organization focused on "transforming the economy to build a just and sustainable future for people and the planet."

"She is a representative from one of the foremost NGOs that are pushing climate change objectives globally," Darnall said. "So she's going to bring a really important perspective."

Backstory:Arizona researcher selected for nation's first sustainable purchasing committee

Echoing this collegial spirit, Darnall's own perspective was solicited several times during Thursday's meeting. Steve Schooner, professor of Government Procurement Law at the George Washington University Law School, yielded his speaking time during a brainstorming session to the Arizonan in light of her specific expertise. In addition to teaching in the School of Sustainability at ASU, Darnall is also a co-founder and director of ASU's Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative.

"We know that, for very good reasons, we keep industry an arm's length distance between contractors and private sector and government as we think about procurement track contracts," Darnall said, speaking about safeguards against corruption.

"But one of the things that we're discovering across local governments is that those who think creatively about how they engage their vendors tend to be more successful in the outcomes they bring related to sustainability."

As a professor of management and public policy and director and co-founder of Arizona State University’s Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative, Nicole Darnall's research focuses on how large-scale spending could better support climate action and environmental sustainability.

That is exactly the type of work the GSA hopes will come out of the industry subcommittee, to be formed after Thursday's meeting, said Jeff Koses, GSA's senior procurement executive in the Office of Acquisition Policy.

Creating ways for industry members to respond to the increased need for sustainability and expanding the focus on supplier diversity and issues related to modern labor and fair wages will likely be among the first topics taken up by members appointed to that subcommittee, Darnall told The Republic.

Two other subcommittees will be formed, but appointments have not yet been announced.

Equitable emissions cuts: Climate report draws arc toward environmental justice

Also related to Darnall's recommendation to the group, a policy subcommittee will consider what processes will be needed to support sustainable vendor certifications and selections, specifically by creating language that can be embedded into requests for bids. In those requests, the government advertises that it needs a company to supply a particular product and solicits competitive bids from that industry. Right now, applicants are not required to submit information on the sustainability of their practices, but the policy committee aims to guide changes to that.

A workforce subcommittee will also address topics related to the type of workforce that will be necessary to deliver on sustainability goals and the training needed to help suppliers and procurement officers understand what sustainability is, why it's important and how it connects with the purchasing process.

It turns out, that alone is no straightforward task.

"There’s a mysticism around sustainability," Darnall said in Monday's interview. "I think it’s going to be really important to provide clear definitions of what sustainability is and who it’s for. Sustainability isn’t just about the environment. It’s about people and creating pathways for equality and access and opportunity for everyone, in addition to supporting the broader economy."

'Sustainobabble'

Critics of less-than-razor-sharp environmental goals like to invoke the term "sustainobabble" to mock unfocused efforts to clean up the way products are sourced, used and disposed of.

In April, Darnall spoke with The Republic about the problem of greenwashing, when products are marketed as "green" or "environmentally friendly" without any clear evidence or pathways for verifying those statements. It becomes a widespread issue when eco-conscious consumers want to use the power of their dollars to support environmental goals but can't seem to do so amid all the false messaging.

What to know about 'greenwashing': We can’t purchase our way to a cooler climate, experts say. Not even on Earth Day

The Federal Trade Commission has identified the area of greenwashing and green products as the No. 1 source of consumer misinformation. It developed guidelines to “pull in the reins in terms of what information companies can put out there,” Darnall said. 

The Environmental Protection Agency has also stepped in with a list of preferred labels it determined meet some standards for sustainability. But Darnall has seen little enforcement or consistency around what sustainability means.

"Even the most motivated consumers would struggle to find the time to make sense of all this,” Darnall told The Republic in April.

While the term greenwashing mostly refers to marketing around small-scale spending by individual consumers and the new committee is focused on high-level federal purchasing decisions, the definition of sustainability is an ongoing discussion in both arenas.

But that doesn't mean it's meaningless babble. Darnall considers it an exciting step in the progression toward real climate action and being responsible global consumers.

"Everything that is purchased within the federal government has a carbon impact," Darnall said Monday. "If we can rethink how products are procured, it has implications for how they're ultimately produced and how they're ultimately used. And so the potential to reduce climate impacts are pretty significant."

Action at home: Democracy can lead to climate change solutions, but it may be up to states to act first

Truly considering the sustainability of production, not only in terms of environmental impact but also whether human resources are being consumed at an unsustainable rate, also means thinking about diversity and equity in manufacturing, Darnall said. That's part of what makes defining sustainability so tricky, and so critical.

"One thing we know within the broader sustainability space, is when we include more diverse voices into the conversation, when we learn more, we share a broader range of information that leads to better decisions, and we've seen that time and again across all sectors," Darnall said.

She has seen more progress at the local level than at the national level, with some cities, counties or states taking the initiative to infuse sustainability into their choice of vendors. One of the primary contractors employed by the city of Tempe, for example, is a cleaning company that uses products that meet environmental sustainability standards. This discovery, made after the contract was awarded, has spurred that city to look for this quality when it spends other funds.

Richard Sigler protests Wells Fargo's financing of fossil fuel emissions outside a branch in downtown Tempe.

The initiation of the advisory committee is a momentous step, in Darnall's opinion and that of many members at Thursday's meeting, in extending sustainable values and criteria into a much larger purchasing space.

But it comes halfway through the Biden-Harris administration, with approaching midterm elections casting doubt on the longevity of a slim Democratic majority that may be more likely to advance initiatives like this.

Getting heard: A grandfather politely ties himself to a bank door to protest fossil fuel investments

Still, while the future of the committee hangs in the balance, members see hope in this national recognition of the need to officially define and implement sustainable spending standards.

“Our work won’t go away," Darnall said. "The lessons that we learn, the recommendations we put forward, that work will still be there. The question of whether another administration will continue to move forward those recommendations is real. And it remains to be seen what will happen."

Joan Meiners is the climate news and storytelling reporter at The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Before becoming a journalist, she completed a doctorate in ecology. Follow Joan on Twitter at @beecycles or email her at joan.meiners@arizonarepublic.com.

Support climate coverage and local journalism by subscribing to azcentral.com at this link.