With global, national and local sustainability targets in place, public bodies have an important role in assisting with this response to the climate emergency and can make a real difference with decisions made both before and during procurement processes.
In this article, we look at sustainable procurement principles and how they can be incorporated into a strategic sustainable procurement policy that has a tangible impact on project emissions across all phases.
Jump to:
● What is sustainable procurement?
● The benefits of sustainable procurement
● Principles of sustainable procurement
● Where to start with a sustainable procurement policy
● How can Procurement Hub help you implement sustainable procurement?
What is sustainable procurement?
Sustainable procurement is essentially a process by which organisations try to meet their various needs for services, goods and works in a way that balances value for money, quality, and societal and wider economic benefits, while also ensuring that they minimise the negative impact on the environment and adhere to any regulatory compliance considerations.
Basically, it can mean spinning a lot of plates as part of the procurement process, taking all of these aspects into consideration for not only a short-term part of the project, but for its entire life cycle.
Sustainable procurement involves organisations making strategic, socially responsible and environmentally friendly decisions when purchasing from suppliers.
The benefits of sustainable procurement
On a strategic level, sustainable procurement can deliver benefits consistently in many areas, including financial, social and environmental. These potential benefits may include:
● Supporting the wider sustainability goals of the organisation and contributing to lowering overall emissions
● Reducing waste and the associated costs of dealing with waste
● Building a positive reputation for social and environmental responsibility
● Reducing project costs by incorporating efficiencies in all aspects of the process
● Helping to protect the organisation against potential future environmental compliance requirements, as they are already on the right path in this regard
● Encouraging innovation from partners in the way that natural resources are used
● Increasing diversity with partnerships and suppliers
● Improving resilience throughout the supply chain because the increased visibility can help see potential issues at an earlier stage
● Supporting local communities and businesses by keeping more partnerships local and helping to minimise emissions.
Principles of sustainable procurement
There are several key principles of sustainable procurement, which are not limited to environmental factors alone, but take a more holistic approach. These principles include:
Environmental procurement considerations
A sustainable procurement policy will seek to identify and minimise any environmental harm caused by the project. This can be done in a variety of different ways, such as by specifying eco-friendly products/materials and processes that need to be followed by partners.
This can include things such as using renewable resources, sourcing local partners to minimise travel emissions, reducing waste and prioritising efficiency in all parts of the supply chain.
Ethical and social procurement considerations
A sustainable procurement policy will take into account areas such as fair labour practices, protection of human rights, inclusion and diversity with their potential suppliers. This will mean ensuring that suppliers, and their supply chains, meet certain standards in providing safe working conditions and upholding legal and ethical worker rights and practices.
Economic procurement considerations
For public bodies and the involved stakeholders, a key factor in any sustainable procurement process will be cost and value for money, alongside developing the local economy, encouraging job creation and investing in communities. With a sustainable procurement policy, taking a long-term view is essential, factoring in the costs and value of the project end-to-end, not just any up-front or early-stage cost considerations.
There can be crossover between any and all of these principles at times, with various elements complementing each other and contributing to overall sustainability, social and financial benefits. For example, using local suppliers can not only benefit the immediate community socially and give a boost to the local economy, it can also help minimise emissions due to their physical proximity to the project.
Where to start with a sustainable procurement policy
What sustainable procurement actually looks like will certainly differ between organisations and sectors, so you might find it useful to undergo a procurement strategy review and development session with a specialist. This can help to identify gaps or weaknesses in your current strategy and highlight areas in which you can improve from a sustainability point of view.
There are likely to be a range of different areas to investigate that are relevant to sustainability, depending on the organisational and project requirements, but could potentially include answering questions such as the below:
● What are the current main environmental, social and economic impacts of the organisation’s activities?
● Which of your activities have the most significant impact?
● How are the organisation’s carbon emissions currently measured and evaluated?
● How are suppliers currently assessed from a sustainability perspective?
Once you have a clearer understanding of the environmental, economic and social impact of your activities and supply chain, redesigning the procurement process can begin.
The key to developing and maintaining an effective sustainable procurement policy is to:
● Ensure that your sustainability goals are aligned with the other requirements for procurement within the organisation e.g. regulatory compliance, demonstration of value etc.
● Build an action plan based on your audit of your organisation’s direct activities on how to make them more sustainable
● Decide what you will require of suppliers in terms of sustainability and how that will be managed by your organisation
● Determine how sustainability will be measured and reported on.
How can Procurement Hub help you implement sustainable procurement?
Procurement Hub is part of Places for People, the largest social enterprise in the UK, so we understand the importance of getting procurement right and the impact that public sector purchase decisions can have on the community, the economy and the environment.
Take a look at Halifax’s new bus station as a great example of what can be achieved through making sustainable procurement decisions that benefit local communities, public infrastructure and the planet.
Our specialist team offers a range of procurement consultancy services that can help organisations to develop and deploy sustainable and socially responsible procurement processes to help make real and lasting change.
We also offer a number of procurement solutions that can easily be tailored to your organisation’s needs. Our CIPS-qualified procurement team create robust, yet flexible solutions that are focused on maximising efficiency and delivering what our users need in a straightforward way.
Let us help you find a procurement solution.