ABSTRACT
Because governments have some control over the economic framework within which ethical purchasing occurs, principles for governments are more complex than for those of other institutions.
Governments can make sure their own purchasing follows ethical principles; and
Governments can also choose to encourage ethical purchasing in wider society.
Ethical purchasing by governments is then broken down into four main types:
Social procurement
Sustainable procurement
Buying from national producers
Solidarity purchasing, political purchasing, and sanctions
Various examples are explored, including those from the European Commission, the Japanese Ministry of Environment, and Chile Compra.
Approaches to facilitating ethical purchasing elsewhere occur in five main areas:
labelling, such as the EU’s energy labelling scheme;
disclosure requirements such as the Modern Slavery Act in the UK;
publishing data such as the US Toxics Release Inventory;
regulation of ethical claims, such as those carried out by the Nordic Consumer Ombudsman; and
education in ethical buying such as citizenship education in the UK.
Finally, it is noted that regulation can often be a better solution to some of the problems that many civil society ethical purchasing campaigns are trying to address.
