On the 9th September we hosted our latest member’s virtual sustainable procurement discussion group.  Many thanks to everyone who came along and shared their questions, challenges, approaches, lessons learnt, progress and resources.  Our discussion groups provide a unique experience to network and share with other members in an informal setting.  The group focused on a range of procurement issues including:

 

  • Sustainable procurement principles that members have or would like to develop
  • Understanding procurement baseline emissions (identifying emission hotspots)
  • Taking positive action (including supplier engagement)
  • What supplier questions/evidence/certifications support these principles? A comparison of members’ supplier instructions or code of conduct and how to simply this process.
  • What to do if a supplier does not meet your criteria?
  • How to enable your sustainable procurement policy to be practical and support a range of suppliers e.g. smaller/local
  • Is it better (with regards to both budget available and effectiveness) to have a designated sustainable procurement role or to spread responsibility and accountability throughout an organisation? If it is not viable to create a specific role, what is the best approach to implementing sustainable procurement through an organisation
  • Internal communication and buy-in of sustainable procurement strategy. How do you embed in your organisation’s culture?
  • How to develop and improve data collection and reporting to support further positive change.  How do you ensure data/information requested enables effective monitoring and reporting?
  • How does procurement connect into and influence the challenge of reducing scope 3 emissions and achieving net zero
  • Compliance and standards a recent example being: Sustainable procurement: the Government Buying Standards (GBS).
  • Specific procurement area e.g. catering (disposable coffee cups), holiday accommodation e.g. bedding, construction materials etc.
  • Developing a Fit for the Future supplier code of conduct.

 

You can find details of other Fit for the Future member discussion groups here.