1. Sustainable Procurement Project
Jimmy Brannigan
ESD Consulting Ltd

2. Sustainable Procurement Project
In this session we will:
Explore our understanding of sustainable procurement
Introduce some of the drivers and barriers to sustainable procurement
Introduce the project
Research
Activities
Questions and discussion

3. What is sustainable procurement?

4. What is sustainable purchasing?
“Sustainable purchasing is all about taking environmental and social factors into account in purchasing decisions. It’s about looking at what your products are made of, where they come from and who has made them.”
“It’s even about looking at whether you need to make the purchase at all.”
Purchasing for Sustainability, Guidance for Higher Education

5. What is sustainable development?

6. What is sustainable purchasing?
Looking for opportunities to reduce the negative environmental and social impacts of your purchasing choices though.
What you buy
How you buy it
Who you buy it from

7. Impacts of an institution
Inputs
Outputs
Information
Services
Products
Wastes
Suppliers
Energy
Materials
People
Operations
Environmental and social impacts

8. Current management focus
Impacts and Opportunities (Environment)
High
Environmental
Footprint
Natural
Resources
Transportation
Manufacturing
Product
Distribution
Consumers
Low
Supply Chain

9. Current management focus
Current Management Effort (Environment)
High
Environmental
Footprint
Natural
Resources
Transportation
Manufacturing
Product
Distribution
Consumers
Low
Supply Chain

10. Current management focus
Mismatch between the two
High
Environmental
Footprint
Natural
Resources
Transportation
Manufacturing
Product
Distribution
Consumers
Low
Supply Chain

11. What is sustainable purchasing?
Opportunities exist at all stages of the procurement process
Identifying the need
The specification
Supplier qualification and appraisal
Tendering and tender evaluation
Contract management and contract review
Accounting

12. What are the drivers for sustainable procurement?

13. Policies and Strategies
LSC Sustainable Development Strategy
HEFCE Sustainable Development in Higher Education

14. The business case – why do it?
Employee
expectations
Stakeholder
demands
Benchmarking
Customer
requirements
Risk
management
Legislation &
Standards
Business
efficiencies
Impact Reduction
(environmental)

15. What does it mean for universities and colleges?
Increasing pressure to become more sustainable
Increasing pressure to balance the environmental alongside the social and economic considerations
Opportunity through vast purchasing power to drive innovation

16. What are the barriers to sustainable procurement within your institution?
Initial brainstorm - sommunicating

17. Barriers to Sustainable Procurement National Audit Office
Whist there is a high level of commitment to national targets; there is often a low level of understanding of the exact requirements, therefore creating an ‘implementation gap’ – the gap between policy and practice.
Even with a high level commitment in the shape of policies and specific targets, this becomes heavily diluted by the time it reaches the Procurement Departments. A lot of the sustainability issues are lost and replaced instead by ‘best value’ often easily translated to cheapest price.
Whilst many organisations have ambitions to procure more sustainably they often find implementation is difficult and complicated. The National Office of Statistics Review of Sustainable Procurement within Government Departments was carried out in In the report a number of challenges were identified which whilst not specific only to the public sector are commonplace. Some of the key challenges identified in the report have been summarised below.

18. Barriers to Sustainable Procurement National Audit Office
The link needs to be made between sustainability, efficiency and cost savings.
Procurement staff are often not trained in sustainability issues and do not understand how to achieve the targets. It is often the case that the will to procure in a sustainable manner is strong, yet the procurement teams are unable to complete the task. This often includes a basic misunderstanding of the term ‘sustainable procurement’.
In conclusion, the main findings of the National Office of Statistics Review are that sustainable procurement is not currently integrated into departmental procurement strategies. This is the case in many public sector environments and is suggest that there are some core reasons for this. Three of the reasons can be summarised as:

19. Barriers to Sustainable Procurement National Audit Office
Lack of knowledge in this area has often resulted of the seeming lack of understanding of the role of sustainability in risk assessments.
In conclusion, the main findings of the National Office of Statistics Review are that sustainable procurement is not currently integrated into departmental procurement strategies. This is the case in many public sector environments and is suggest that there are some core reasons for this. Three of the reasons can be summarised as:

20. Barriers to Sustainable Procurement National Audit Office
In Summary
Lack of sustainable procurement training and guidance
Poor understanding of targets and requirements
Taking a short term view.

21. Sustainable Procurement Project

22. What support is available?
DEFRA Environmental Action Fund- 3 year project
Advice on how your college or university can implement Sustainable Procurement
Training for your sustainability and purchasing team
Access to advice and copies of all guidance materials and case studies developed through the project
Reduce the impact of participating institutions (including students)

23. Steering group FIREBUY Higher Education Funding Council for England
Crescent Purchasing Consortium
Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium
North Eastern Universities Purchasing Group
Sun Microsystems
Blackpool and Fylde College
Higher Education Funding Council for England
Learning and Skills Council
Learning and Skills Network
NUS Services Limited
Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply
University of Hull
Office Depot

24. Project partners Bicton College Blackpool and Fylde College
Nottingham Trent University
Pershore Group of Colleges
Suffolk College
University of Hull
University of Northampton
University of the Arts London
University of the West of England
South Tyneside College
University of Bristol
University of Durham
University of East London
University of Gloucestershire
University of Hertfordshire
University of Plymouth
University of Southampton
Wigan and Leigh College
Worcester College of Technology

25. Research – Where are we now?

26. Structure Split into 3 areas Management and policy framework
How purchasing is organised
Understanding of current practice

27. Management Framework Policies Individual responsibility
63% Environmental Policy
79% Purchasing Policy
16% Sustainable Development Policy
5% CSR Policy
Some specific policies 25% Energy, 31% Recycling, 21% WLC
Individual responsibility
84% Environment
73% Environment within Purchasing

28. Management Framework Management Commitment 68% Management committed
Based on what? – Commitment to this project
If not why not – cost, no resources it will cost more money etc
Environment or SD Team in place
63% Meets regularly
31% Have looked at procurement
53% Have some student involvement

29. How is purchasing is organised?
Central purchasing team
73% Yes
sometimes very small - 1 average around 4-5
Devolved purchasing
89% Yes
20 – 1000
Purchasing guidance
47% Provide guidance on SD/Environmental issues

30. How is purchasing is organised?
Percentage of purchasing spend centrally controlled
31% below 50%
69% above 50%
Do you have responsibility for any specific purchases?
79% Yes

31. How is purchasing is organised?
Have you been trained on sustainable purchasing?
20 people from 19 institutions (12 from one institution!)

32. How is purchasing is organised?
Are you a member of a purchasing consortium?
94% Yes
79% Said the consortium has env / soc policies in place
Confusion as to how this has influenced specific commodities

33. Current practice
Do you include environmental and social considerations in any of your purchasing decisions
89% Yes
Have you used a risk based approach?
10% Yes
26% Said students had influenced purchasing decisions

34. Current practice Supplier engagement
42% Engage with suppliers on environmental and social issues
47% Use some form of questionnaire

35. Summary Some good practice Lots of activity in a variety of places
Opportunities to share between institutions
Lack of general awareness
Environmental focus rather than sustainability or CSR
Challenge of devolved purchasers

36. Current Activities Guidance being developed on:
Developing a business case
Using cross functional teams
Risk based approach to procurement

37. Current Activities Training has been developed:
Train the trainer – communicating sustainable procurement
Risk based approaches to procurement
Developing a sustainable procurement policy and strategy
Supplier engagement for sustainability
Social issue in the supply chain

38. jbrannigan@esdconsulting.co.uk www.eauc.org.uk
Questions