Blog | Implementing sustainable procurement in practice
Procurement is something that affects us all – we all buy goods and services at home and at work, from small to huge scale. And we can all leverage this buying power to have a positive impact when it comes to sustainability.
The international standard, ISO 20400:2017 Sustainable procurement, defines sustainable procurement as “procurement that has the most positive environmental, social and economic impacts possible over the entire life cycle.”
Providing further detail, the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production refers to “the use of services and related products, which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimising the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardise the needs of future generations.”
UK Sport (UKS) is an arm’s-length body of the UK government focused on high-performance (Olympic and Paralympic) sport. Taking action on procurement is in the organisation’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy and we decided to bring together equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and sustainability in one piece of guidance.
1. Supplier questionnaire
Finding out a supplier’s approach to sustainability, both generally as an organisation and specifically in the delivery of goods and services to you, is a great place to start. You might be pleasantly surprised about what your supplier is doing, or you could use it as the start of a discussion on how improvements could be made. We included a questionnaire in our guidance which can be used for existing suppliers and for those submitting responses to tenders.
2. Tenders
In tender evaluation and contracting processes, we have introduced the following minimum requirements:
- Ask all suppliers to complete the EDI and sustainability procurement questionnaire (tenders of all values)
- Include a 10% weighting on EDI criteria and a separate 10% weighting on sustainability within the specification in the invitation to tender (ITT) document (tenders of £10,000 or more)
- The contract must be advertised to a wide range of diverse suppliers within the UK. This is the responsibility of the procuring manager (tenders of £10,000 or more)
An important action is to make sure that once a supplier has won a tender, they actually deliver on the sustainability-related items they included in the bid.
3. Training and support for staff
Before issuing the guidance, we tested out the supplier questionnaire and minimum requirements on a few live tenders. This highlighted that we needed to upskill contract managers to make sure they feel confident in what to look for regarding sustainability. What does ‘good’ look like and what should be expected in relation to the type and size of goods or services being procured?
We held a webinar for all staff when the final guidance was released, explaining the rationale and working through some examples. The guidance is a means to an end rather than the final action, and our next step will be to monitor that it is being properly implemented and revise as necessary over time.
Practical tips for museums
Curiosity is fundamental to making progress on sustainability – here are some tips to start with:
- Find the data – how much are you spending, on what and who with?
- Talk to your suppliers – ask what their sustainability practices and ambitions are and how they can align with yours.
- Talk to your colleagues – we know that museums are villages of professions and people generally know what could be improved in their area.
- Refuse, rethink and reduce – do you even need to procure in the first place?
- See what others are up to – are there examples inside and outside the sector that you could borrow, try out, amend and establish within your own organisation?
- Take a balanced approach – sustainability has so many facets, from environmental to social, and you’ll need to work out what’s important to your organisation. For example: is local sourcing going to be your focus, or fair trade, or carbon emissions, or perhaps provenance of materials? There can be some overlap but there can often be conflicts which you need to be prepared to work through.
Sara is the MA’s climate change trustee and chair of the Museums for Climate Justice Steering Group
16 July 2024