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Wendy’s Wednesday Web Resource Sustainable Procurement
09/04/2014
I came across a great quote today, “It could be so easy to forget that procurement is not just a tool for saving a few bob. It’s a tool for affecting social change globally,” said Andy Davies, head of the London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC).
He was speaking following the LUPC 2014 conference, and warned of sustainability taking a back-seat during times of austerity.
Sustainable Procurement in its truest form, it simply good procurement. Efforts are being made globally to help keep sustainability in the forefront of procurement decisions.
For example, UNEP has recently launched the Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) programme which aims to “assist governments to redirect public spending into goods and services that bring significant environmental and social benefits”.
This is a huge initiative considering OECD nations spent an average 13% of GDP on public procurement in 2011, while in some developing nations this can hit 20%.
As clients’ procurement processes become more sustainable and shift away from a “bottom line-only” approach, their needs will change and suppliers should be prepared to adapt.
This won’t happen overnight, but by paying attention to what your client’s sustainability goals and targets are, suppliers can better align themselves to either maintain their spot in their clients’ supply chain or even win new work.
Basically, we should all being keeping an eye on how sustainable the products and services we buy and supply really are are!
Are you a procurement professional looking to embed sustainability into your process?
Why not click here to watch a quick 2 minute video which highlights the basics of sustainable procurement!
Are you a supplier looking to learn more about the sustainability objectives of your clients to know how to better meet their needs?
You can start by clicking here to access the sustainable procurement policies of the School’s partners, including Skanska, Willmott Dixon and Galliford Try! If you’re interested in learning more about procuring sustainably, please feel free to peruse the resources below…
(Please note you will need to be signed into your School account to access these resources – if you are having trouble logging in, please contact us!)
- Prioritising your sustainability impacts – Heat Mapping e-Learning module: A 30 minute introduction to the Heat Mapping process – a simple way to visualise your sustainability priorities within your business.
- Green Public Procurement: Outline of Green Public Procurement and toolkit.
- Improving public procurement for construction SMEs: This report examines the barriers facing SMEs when attempting to secure public sector construction contracts and makes a number of recommendations to clients and industry on how these barriers could be overcome (report is accessible at the bottom of the page).
Wendy Carwardine
Project Manager
Action Sustainability | 377 Camden Road | London | N7 0SH
T: 0207 697 1984 | M: 07801 797 485 | F: 0207 700 0061
Email: wendy@actionsustainability.com | http://www.actionsustainability.com/
http://www.supplychainschool.co.uk/ | Follow us on Twitter! @supplycsschool and @action_sustain
Local Government Association
Improvement & Innovation Bulleting 28/03/2014
Improvement and Innovation
Local Government Procurement Report
The House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee published their report on Local Government Procurement on 13 March.
The LGA, in consultation with councils, regional Heads of Procurement, finance and legal officers, is in the process of drafting a national procurement strategy for local government that will be launched at the LGA Conference in July. We are pleased that most of the recommendations of the report have been captured at the drafting stages of the new strategy. We will be providing a formal response to Clive Betts MP, the chair of the select committee shortly.
The main recommendations of the report are:
- Local government must step up to the mark and get better value from the £45 billion it spends each year procuring goods and services.
- Councils and the Local Government Association to invest now to ensure procurement skills are embedded across councils. This requires in-depth skills from all staff involved in designing, commissioning and managing services, not just procurement officers.
There are also recommendations on how councils can:
- improve collaboration through joining up procurement to deliver savings
- add social value and support small business by letting contracts not just on the basis of price, but on the basis of wider social value
- cut costs to business by implementing a proportionate approach to charging businesses
- tackle fraud by being pro-active throughout the lifetime of a contract, not just at the tender stage
- manage outsourcing by taking adequate steps to ensure effective control of contracts being delivered by private and third sector organisations.
For more information on the recommendations and how the LGA will be playing a part in helping councils improve their procurement process please click here.
© GBE NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan *
29th July 2014 – 20th March 2020
See Also:
GBE Past Events
- LUPC 2014 conference
- UNEP has recently launched the Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) programme
- Prioritising your sustainability impacts – Heat Mapping e-Learning module
- Green Public Procurement: Outline of Green Public Procurement and toolkit.
- Improving public procurement for construction SMEs
GBE Jargon Buster
- GDP
- GPP
- LUPC
- OECD
- SPP
- UNEP
- Green Public Procurement (GPP)
- Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP)
© GBE NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan *
29th July 2014 – 20th March 2020
