Field Notes
The working notes of Sam Howard, Director of Fourthmore.
Observations gathered while working with businesses. Published by Fourthmore.
Observations gathered while working with businesses. Published by Fourthmore.
Notes from the work
These are Sam Howard's Field Notes.
Ideas collected from meetings, procurement requests, customer conversations and the everyday realities of working with businesses.
Each note begins with something observed in practice before stepping back to explore the wider pattern.
Published on Fourthmore, then shared through LinkedIn, Instagram and Substack.
These are Sam Howard's Field Notes.
Ideas collected from meetings, procurement requests, customer conversations and the everyday realities of working with businesses.
Each note begins with something observed in practice before stepping back to explore the wider pattern.
Published on Fourthmore, then shared through LinkedIn, Instagram and Substack.
Field Note 06 · 17 September 2026
Sustainability Gets Real When It Reaches Procurement
The EU's proposed Public Procurement Act moves sustainability closer to the commercial decisions that determine how work is won and delivered.
Field Note 05 · 12 August 2026
The transition is working. That’s why it’s getting harder.
Why the next phase of net zero is less about proving the technology and more about making better business decisions.
Field Note 04 · 30 July 2026
AI Isn’t the Next Internet. It’s the Next Electricity.
Why governments are no longer investing in software—they’re investing in infrastructure.
Field Note 03 · 20 July 2026
Procurement Is Quietly Changing Small Business
The buyer is no longer only asking what you sell. They are asking how the business works.
Field Note 02 · 13 July 2026
The Founder Accidentally Became the Sustainability Department
When nobody owns the response, the work goes back to the person who remembers everything.
Field Note 01 · 10 July 2026
Pressure Visible. Structure Missing.
Most businesses do not start with a sustainability problem. They start with a question they were not prepared to answer.
LinkedIn
From the notebook
Short observations from the work before they become Field Notes.
Field Notes · 2 June 2026
When Sustainability Becomes Someone Else's Question
Most businesses don't start with a sustainability problem. They start with a question they weren't prepared to answer.
Instagram
Field Notes, visually
Images, references and small observations collected alongside the writing.
Field Notes · 6 April 2026
The Most Important Sustainability Decision Is Often the First One
Before there is a carbon report, a recycling scheme, or a cleaner claim, there is a decision.
Fourthmore
Continue the work
If these observations feel familiar, Fourthmore Start helps turn them into practical action.
Field Notes · 9 May 2026
When Growth Exposes the Gaps
In hospitality, sustainability doesn’t fail from lack of intent—it fails when decentralised operations are asked to deliver centralised answers.
Field Notes · 15 April 2026
Where decisions really get made
What gets presented isn't always what's driving outcomes.