Procurement Policy 2025 to 2029 - including the Social Value statement - Sustainable procurement

‘Sustainable’ procurement is not simply just purchasing environmentally friendly products. It is an approach whereby organisations routinely meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves VFM on a ‘whole life’ basis – in terms of generating societal and economic benefits, whilst removing or minimising damage to the environment.

The principles of innovation, waste reduction, re-cycling and the use of environmentally acceptable alternatives must be at the forefront of our thinking when specifying goods, service, works or when re-procuring existing arrangements. We also need to build biodiversity considerations into this thinking, raising awareness of what we can all do to deliver nature recovery.

We will do this by:

• supporting commissioners and project/strategic leads to consider and build sustainability into tendering activity
• educate and encourage officers to review behaviours (particularly in relation to consumable products) aiming to reduced unnecessary use and adopt alternative and more sustainable products
• minimise wastage by encouraging officers to consider whether a product or service is required before it is purchased or renewed
• specify, wherever possible, practicable and beneficial the use of sustainable products and alternatives
• where possible incorporate new low/zero Carbon (LZC) technologies into projects helping to drive innovation and a low carbon economy
• use more renewable, recycled and low embodied energy products and materials and limit waste going to landfill
• use the least environmentally damaging goods and services
• use circular economy products or companies where possible, to reduce waste completely i.e., companies that collect old products to reuse materials for new products or to recycle, any companies that you can return packaging to for reuse/ recycling, etc
• using whole life cost approaches when specifying and managing contracts
• address barriers to entry in order that SME, local suppliers and the third sector are very much encouraged to bid for opportunities
• influence suppliers to adopt and embed practices that minimise their environmental impact and deliver community benefits in relation to supply of products, their own operations and supply chains
• prevent risks to biodiversity and actively seek conservation and enhancement
• influence suppliers to measure, monitor and report on their environmental performance, and adopt improvement measures into their working practices and operations