Coop News January 2022

us navigate what was a difficult time making
publishing work."
Things have come a long way since 1989
and Ethical Consumer has played a key role in
raising awareness, campaigning and advising
businesses. As more and more businesses
started to look at acting ethically in markets, the
need for education and training on the topic also
increased.
Mr Harrison's latest book, The Handbook of
Ethical Purchasing: Principles and Practice,
aims to help businesses operate ethically. The
book covers a range of issues, from how to set
up ethical supply chains to how to sell to ethical
consumers. It also includes practical examples,
some of these from the co-op sector.
"The co-op movement itself has played a role
in nurturing the creation of this book," adds
Mr Harrison, explaining that the book could be
useful to those running or managing a co-op.
"Although the co-op movement has Principle
Six (co-operation among co-ops) which
encourages buying from other co-ops, we know
that co-operatives do actually think a lot more
about their supply chains than just this."
The book touches on the link between co-ops
and the support for the fair trade movement in
some European countries.
Co-ops have helped to increase the market
share of Fairtrade products, particularly in
now the more mature ethical markets, where
sometimes S0o/o of all products are Fairtrade,
such as bananas in Switzerland.
Co-ops are also mentioned in the book in the
context of their business model.
"They're not always trying to maximise their
profitability. So they're often quite good at
incorporating ethical issues, because they're not
always thinking 'I need to pay the shareholders',"
he says.
Mr Harrison thinks co-ops and other
businesses should also measure and track the
positive impact they have on supply chains on
a regular basis: "It's about talking about the
positive impacts you can do from purchasing if
you get it right".
He adds: "We worry a lot about palm oil,
modern slavery and child labour, and all
those things that are part of the current
ethical consumption discourse. If as a
business your supply chain is ethical, then
you need to measure the impacts of that
because sometimes institutions forget why
they're doing something - because everyone's
always measuring the bottom line, which
is money.
"When someone comes in and says, 'Oh, we
could cut the cost here', if you're not measuring
your positive social impacts as well, then when
pressure to cut costs does come along, you
haven't always got concrete arguments to why
that might not be such a good idea. So I'm really
into encouraging buyers to measure and record
their positive social impact."
As to where ethical businesses will be
in 10 years, he thinks it will become even
more mainstream as climate change will put
increasing pressure on businesses to operate in
a more environmentally friendly manner.
"The advantage that co-ops have is not having
that shareholder primacy," says Mr Harrison.
"This gives them the edge because it really is
unhelpful to have a single minded focus on
profit if you're trying to run an ethical business."
The Handbook of Ethical Purchasing:
Principles and Practice can be bought online
at rout/edge.com
Rob Harrison,
Co-founder of Ethical
Consumer
JANUARY 2022 I 49