A new toolkit launched today will help public sector spenders make more sustainable purchasing choices, enabling the sector to use its massive purchasing power to best effect and lead by example.
With an annual procurement budget of around £160 billion, the public sector is the largest purchaser in the UK. But often sustainability factors – such as the environmental and social impacts of the goods and services purchased – aren’t factored into spending decisions. Many procurement officers now understand the need for their decisions to support public sector sustainability goals. But knowing how to do this still remains a stumbling block.
That’s all about to change. The Sustainable Procurement Toolkit from Forum for the Future, supported by a full report, Buying A Better World, will help public sector buyers incorporate social and environmental factors into their decision making processes, alongside value, resulting in benefits for end users, tax payers and suppliers.
The toolkit is based on two years of research and pilots undertaken with the health service and local government in the East Midlands as part of the BEST Procurement Programme. The toolkit will help those with responsibility for spending respond to the expectations in national health and local government sustainable procurement strategies, published at the end of 2007 (see note 1).
- Buying A Better World explains the importance of incorporating sustainability thinking into buying decisions, and includes case studies and action planning tips for busy procurement officers.
- The Sustainable Procurement Toolkit has been designed to help them identify and prioritise the best opportunities for improving the sustainability on any contract or supply area. It gives guidance on how to select appropriate suppliers, develop specifications, award contracts and work with suppliers thereafter.
The NHS has already piloted the toolkit and David Wathey, Sustainable Development Manager at the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency is hoping to make it available to all NHS procurement organisations.
Deborah Fox; Director, Public Sector Programme at Forum for the Future, says the toolkit has huge potential to effect change:
"The time for promises is over. The public sector needs to lead by example and making better, more sustainable purchasing choices is a low-cost approach that will deliver considerable benefits. These will include a higher percentage of spend remaining in local communities, enhancement of local and regional economies, more opportunities for healthy diet and exercise and reduced greenhouse gas emissions”.
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To request a copy of the toolkit, contact Fiona Dowson at f.dowson@forumforthefuture.org.co.uk or call 020 7324 3666.
For more information, or interviews, please contact Imogen Martineau at i.martineau@forumforthefuture.org.uk or call 07944 401111.
Notes to editors
1. At the end of November 2007 both health and social care sector and local government published their responses to Procuring the Future, the 2006 report of the Government’s Sustainable Procurement Task Force.
Procuring for health and sustainability 2012: Health and Social Care Response
The Local Government Sustainable Procurement Strategy
Both responses have increased pressure on the health sector and local authorities to take steps to include social and environmental impacts of their spending.
2. Buying a Better World and the Sustainable Procurement Toolkit have both been developed by Forum for the Future as part of the BEST Procurement Programme.
3. BEST Procurement Programme is a suite of projects co-ordinated by Social Enterprise East Midlands, which featured organisations on the supply and demand side of procurement.
The programme is part-funded by the European Social Fund under the Equal Community Initiative Programme.
Funders of the project are: Greater Nottingham Partnership, Re:Source (NHS East Midlands Collaborative Procurement Hub); Nottingham City Primary Care Trust, Nottinghamshire County Teaching PCT and East Midlands Centre for Excellence.
Other local authorities and NHS Trusts in the East Midlands also worked with Forum for the Future on the BEST Procurement Programme.
4. Forum for the Future – the sustainable development charity – works in partnership with leading organisations in business and the public sector. Our vision is of business and communities thriving in a future that’s environmentally sustainable and socially just. We believe that a sustainable future can be achieved, that it is the only way business and communities will prosper, but that we need bold action now to make it happen. Find out more at www.forumforthefuture.org.uk
5. Report contents summary:
a. High-level recommendations for more sustainable public sector procurement.
b. Why buying more sustainably makes sense.
c. Tips for overcoming perceived and real barriers to sustainable procurement.
d. How to make progress on sustainable procurement including:
i. Developing effective policy and strategy
ii. Putting policy into practice including
- an outline of the sustainable procurement toolkit;
- suggestions for good organisational design;
- explanation of how to analyse spend and prioritise action;
- details of actions that can be taken throughout the procurement process to achieve better outcomes
e. A call to action and list of useful resources.
f. Summaries of pilot contracts undertaken with the NHS.
g. A crash course in typical sustainability objectives that can be achieved through procurement.
