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Sustainable Procurement Strategy

Background

In his Review of Public Procurement in Scotland, John F McClelland CBE identified Corporate Social Responsibility as important for the public sector and responding to this requires that sustainable procurement is placed at the heart of the reform agenda, hand in hand with the drive to raise standards and practices in public procurement.

One of the major challenges facingScotlandis facing Scotland is how to incorporate sustainability into our every day activity to benefit society, the economy and the environment. Total spending in the public sector amounts to around £8bn a year inScotlandand in Scotland and this spending power gives us an opportunity to achieve sustainable growth objectives through making sustainable choices and encouraging sustainable products and services.

Summary of the Sustainable Procurement Policy

RoS’s Sustainable Procurement Policy:

• applies to all parts of the organization
• covers Registration operations and support services such as Estates, Procurement, Communication and Marketing and IT: and
• is consistent with the Scottish Government’s commitment to sustainable economic growth.

Through improved procurement practices RoS will aim to minimize the adverse impact of their own activities and those of their suppliers on the environment. They will work with colleagues and suppliers to ensure that, where practical and economically viable, the goods and services purchased are manufactured, delivered, used and disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner.

The Procurement section will offer education / support and encourage staff to work in an environmentally responsible manner and to play a full part in developing new ideas and initiatives to support sustainable development. We will communicate openly with staff and partners / suppliers about environmental policies and procedures and strive to implement best practice.

RoS published its initial Sustainable Procurement Policy 30 August 2005 and this has been revised to its current version in 2017. This strategy supports the implementation of that policy.

Development Principles

An organisation's approach to sustainable procurement should be based on underlying sustainable development principles.  There are many and varied statements of these.  RoS has used the following in its policy statement:

• A whole organisation commitment to making more sustainable choices is required to deliver sustainable procurement. This means identifying more sustainable ways of meeting requirements and designing sustainable procurement specifications accordingly. The approach should address the social, economic and environmental implications of product and service choices. It should embrace whole life costing and address how aspects such as design, manufacturing materials, operating costs, energy consumption, waste and recycling options support a more sustainable approach.
• Work in partnership with our suppliers and contractors to minimise the environmental and social impacts of our supply chain.

Implementing policy

Environmental and social procurement strategies need to be focused upon the areas of purchasing and supply that generate greatest risk.

We want to deliver outcomes that are appraised against:

• People – key procurement staff fully trained in the principles of sustainable procurement
• Policy, Strategy and Communication – agreed and communicated overarching sustainability objectives and strategy
• Procurement Process – key sustainability impacts identified
• Engaging Suppliers – targeted supplier engagement programme in place
• Measurement and Results – sustainability linked to individual procurers and linked to development objectives/outcomes

It should lead to:

• Contributing to Scottish Ministers’ Purpose of ‘’increasing sustainable economic growth’’
• Improved management of the environmental risks arising from the products and services we buy. In this context environmental risk means risk of non-compliance with the organisation’s wider environmental policy.
• The embedding of environmental, sustainability and social considerations into routine procurement decisions
• Consistent with considerations of cost-effectiveness, affordability and value for money

RoS’s sustainable procurement strategy will follow Scottish Government’s Sustainable Procurement Action Plan and the 10 Steps to Sustainable Procurement. We will use a Delivery Plan to plan and track progress against these 10 steps.

10 steps to Sustainable Procurement

1. Commitment within the organisation
2. Making the commitment public
3. Organisational buy-in
4. Benchmarking and progression
5. Prioritising
6. Specifying sustainably
7. Sustainability in the procurement process
8. Working with suppliers
9. Measuring performance
10. Publicising your successes

Adoption of the Action Plan and fulfilling its 10 steps will contribute to successful progress against not only Best Value obligations, but also both the Procurement Capability Assessment (PCA) and the Best Practice Indicators (BPI).  Improved sustainability in procurement activity will also make a significant contribution to Climate Change targets.

It is important to note that sustainable procurement does not relate solely to environmental issues but also includes social issues, for example equalities, diversity and fair and ethical trading and economic issues, for example opportunities for small and medium sized enterprises and Third Sector organisations to successfully compete for public contracts.

Having undertaken an extensive data gathering exercise in relation to this subject, the scope for sustainable procurement is vast.  The key message appears to be to start simple, keep it practical, train and support staff, achieve some quick wins and enhance over time.  Experts stress that prior to implementing any Sustainable Procurement Policy, a degree of preparation/training requires to be undertaken by Procurement.

A proactive approach to environmental procurement requires continuous review and enhancement.  It should also be stressed that a successful policy requires the buy in and commitment of the organisation. Budget holders, senior management, internal customers and stakeholders are but a few. In addition we will need to secure the buy and commitment from our suppliers.

The way forward

Using Scottish Government (SPD) Sustainable Procurement Action Plan as our approach to delivering sustainable procurement, undertake the following:

1. Draw up a Delivery Plan for the 10 Steps to Sustainable Procurement
2. Undertake a self-assessment against the Flexible Framework.
3. Develop an action plan to attain Practice Level 3 status on the framework.
4. Undertake self assessment against Practice Level 3 criteria.
5. Ongoing improvement plans and self assessments.

Delivery Plan

 This is the key document for taking forward our strategy. It will provide detail on specific targets and how we intend to deliver sustainable procurement to defined timescales, how we will address risk, process integration, marketing, supplier engagement, communication, measurement and review processes.