Key Objective 1 - Consider the carbon footprint and environmental impact of all products and services bought by the Council over their lifetime
This cannot be ‘one-size fits all’ and will require a multi-tiered approach. The size and complexity of the goods/service being procured will decide which approach to use.
For example, we may want to mandate an energy efficiency rating when procuring White Goods. A complex building project with multiple strands of contractors working simultaneously on the other hand, will require a thorough and well-considered approach to address any environmental and carbon impact of the work. The responsible officer must explain how climate emergency and carbon reduction has been addressed and these considerations must be challenged by the Strategic Procurement Team as well as our senior management and directors prior to any approval being granted.
Measuring carbon
We will want to consider how to measure the amount of carbon produced for a product/service and take a decision that if the reading for an amount of carbon produced is above an agreed value, then the product/service should not be allowed to be procured unless adaptations can be made to reduce this figure. We will work closely with our colleagues in the Sustainability Team to make recommendations for how this can work in practice and to consider the various tools available to measure carbon.
Staff training and agreed standards
It will be vital to this key objective that staff are aware of the agreed standards and methods of procurement. It cannot be the responsibility of the Strategic Procurement Team alone to ensure these standards are maintained. All staff responsible for placing orders and raising contracts must be trained and understand their obligations under this objective. Given the importance of tackling the Climate Emergency this may require a new procurement operating model with the establishment of a central buying team to obtain goods and services on behalf of services that are compliant with our buying standards.
We are taking action to achieve our key objectives
To consider the carbon footprint and environmental impact of all products and services that we buy over their lifetime, we will take the following actions:
- Action 1: Communicate this Procurement Strategy to all staff responsible for procuring goods and services including updating relevant Procurement intranet pages with details of the objectives
- Action 2: Engage with our Sustainability Team to consider Climate Emergency issues in appropriate procurements
- Action 3: Climate Emergency considerations to be built into all procurement Needs and Business Cases.
- Action 4: Create an Environmental Buying Policy for low value goods and services i.e. energy efficiency ratings, minimum standards etc to be enforced by centralised buying arrangements
- Action 5: Identify all existing contracts where single use plastics may be used and ensure Contract Managers eliminate them from the contract