Vendor Relations Principles

On Our Line-Drawing Decisions

Because the gravity of harm and the directness of our relationship to it are matters of degree, and because the implementation of a policy requires us to draw sharp lines, we want to say a word about these line-drawing decisions.

The harms on which we presently focus in our priority list reflect our current most urgent concerns modified by consciousness of our resources. These priorities may change over time.

The 1% major vendor threshold, the one-third revenue threshold, the one-third ownership threshold, the one-third procurement threshold, and the two-layer rule, are arbitrary. There is some practical basis for them, but they are arbitrary in the sense that we could change them, within limits, without changing our ethics.

The basis for the 1% major vendor threshold is that it would be a hardship for us to investigate all vendors with which we do a small amount of business. The basis for the one-third ownership threshold is that owners with this much equity in a company tend to have a controlling interest, and those with less tend not to. The basis for the one-third procurement threshold is that companies which rely to this large extent or more on harmful enterprises make their customers into partners in the harm. Similarly, the basis for the one-third revenue threshold is that companies which rely to this extent or more on profits from armaments and other harmful products make their customers into partners in the harm.

While these line-drawing decisions might be revised without undermining our principles, we recommend that they only be revised prospectively and without particular vendors in view. It is better to have a rule we can implement than to open the door to divisive questions of degree for which there can be no principled answers.

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