Recently, the staff at Dolphin Blue began questioning the buying practices of our government, and evaluating their overall impact on sustainability. As more corporations continue to manufacture their goods in foreign countries, many tax-supported agencies have jumped on the "low-cost " bandwagon, creating a governmental bidding system with little regard to sustainability. To answer some of our questions, we consulted with our in-house expert, Dolphin Blue Founder & President, Thomas Kemper.
How does corporate outsourcing hinder the environmental health and welfare of our economy?
When we support the manufacturing of low-cost goods originating from distant places (i.e. China, Malaysia, Vietnam, India), the costs we ultimately incur are numerous, and detrimental to our natural world, local economies, and to the long-term health of our economy. Every time a tax-supported entity procures an item provided by giant conglomerates, we continue to chip away at the sustainability of our planet (incurring a heavy carbon footprint), our communities (by eroding the local, regional and federal tax base), and our economies (local, state, and national). Have you ever wondered why our roads, bridges, highways, school systems, county and state hospitals and park systems are in such disrepair, while the tax-supported jurisdictions responsible for their upkeep and maintenance are screaming that they are broke? How much longer can we continue to provide Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and favorable treatment to our largest corporations, so they can continue providing inexpensive foreign goods to the very tax-supported agencies that are responsible for maintaining the infrastructure and systems that are paid for, by us, the tax payers? As we, the payer of the taxes, continue to see unemployment rise, factories close due to unfavorable treatment, and the degradation of our natural resources' health (clean air, fresh water, soil quality, forest and food stocks), while our very own taxpayer dollars continue buying cheap, resource-depleting foreign goods, creating a huge burden on the sustainability of our planet.
Corporate outsourcing clearly damages our nation's infrastructure, but how do low-cost supplies produced in foreign countries harm our environment?
Products being procured with no understanding of our environment, affect our human health and global ecosystem in ways we are only beginning to understand. The use of chemicals, such as chlorine and chlorine-containing compounds, affect the human endocrine system, and compromises the immune system's ability to do what it was biologically designed to do. The havoc being wreaked upon the health of our children is a cost seemingly hidden in our out-of-control healthcare system, which continues to grow as the fastest sector of our economy. I saw this issue arising back in 1994, and made a personal and business decision to provide papers that are processed chlorine free, as well as being derived from 100% post-consumer recycled fiber and made in the USA with Green-e certified renewable wind energy. Thus, it is incumbent upon all of us, as citizens of our local communities first and foremost, to get involved in the decisions being made by our tax-supported government representatives, and demand that they purchase only socially and environmentally responsible products.
Many governmental agencies purchase their supplies at a low-cost from large corporate conglomerates. How does this practice create an unfair advantage for small businesses of all types?
Many of the corporate giants (whose supplies produce an annual revenue of $15 BILLION and upward ), have the financial ability to provide a catalog with as many as 45,000-50,000 items, of which only 5-10% of those products are actually certified as "green ". Although Dolphin Blue has the capability to provide a catalog containing approximately 4,000 items, ALL made in the USA, and ALL made with post-consumer recycled materials, other small businesses are unable to offer such a catalog when a tax-supported entity (municipality, county, state, or federal government) requests pricing from the vendor community. Consequently, if a small business responds without providing a full catalog, that small supplier is deemed non-responsive to the government agencies' Request for Quote (RFQ), giving the large giants a tremendous advantage in the marketplace.
When governmental agencies purchase products and services from corporate giants moving goods globally, with little regard to anything but profitability, the tax-supported entity is doomed and destined for failure. In my experience, very few government agencies leave the door fully open for those who qualify through the GSA contracting system, where buyers can select goods and services through a "best value " contracting criteria. While it is regrettable that some agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have granted monopolistic exclusive contracts to some suppliers, a true environmentally conscious buyer will go shopping elsewhere, seeking the products and services truly aligned with the EPA's stated, charted mission.
Is there a "Watch Dog " system in place to monitor and measure the environmental degradation, loss to society, or economic erosion of such "full service " catalog purchasing relationships?
Unfortunately, there is no program in place to monitor these relationships, and if governmental agencies continue to support the taxpayers who fund its existence, the tax-supported agencies will continue to thrive in the marketplace, while we continue seeing our planet's health degrade.
Yes, but don't some of the larger corporations offer "green " products?
Many "green " items being offered by the giants are not certified for the environmental attributes being claimed, and many of the so-called "green " products are not green at all. They are usually being shipped many thousands of miles to gain business at a very low invoice expense, which further degrades our planet's sustainability by imparting a very heavy carbon footprint on the health of our planet. What might that cost be, to our society, our planet, and, to future generations? We've already keenly aware of those costs. We see them around us every day. The longer we bury our heads in the sand, the more devastating the costs.
Additionally, many of the purchasing contracts do not require the products to be made in the USA, thus sacrificing American jobs for a few nickels. While these large "full service " catalog transactions are rampant among many levels of our government, there are many buyers within these agencies that truly understand the meaning of sustainability (meeting the needs of our generation, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs), and practice responsible procurement methods. For these buyers, I applaud and acknowledge your pioneering spirit. Thank you. You understand that we are all in this together, and without us working together to achieve a sustainable planet, we will only be continuing to paint ourselves into a very precarious corner. As citizens of our neighborhoods, local communities, country, and planet, we must be good stewards, and be responsible with all items, goods, and services we purchase. We owe it to our children.
Tom is founder and CEO of Dolphin Blue, an online retailer of environmentally sustainable green office supplies and green printing products.