Public Procurement and Property

Tackling the Global Climate Emergency through the power of procurement

December 18, 2020 by Niamh Duncan No Comments | Category climate change, Scottish Procurement, Sustainability

In response to the First Minister declaring a Global Climate Emergency in April 2019, public bodies across Scotland have been collaborating to address the Climate Emergency through their procurement activity.

The Climate and Procurement Forum forms the nexus of this work and comprises procurement representatives from across the public sector. As well as working with colleagues in government and across the wider public sector on building economic, social and environmental considerations into procurement, our sustainable procurement policy team also provide the secretariat function to the Forum.

The forum is underpinned by five work streams that draw on the extensive knowledge and experience of public sector, business and climate experts from across Scotland.

The work streams, which reinforce the sustainable procurement duty are:

• Strategy and Objectives – To maintain consistency with developing existing policy and legislation.
• People and Capability – To ensure the sustainable procurement tools increasingly provide a ‘point of use’ guide for applying Climate and circular economy considerations in procurement exercises.
• Supplier and Market Engagement – To ensure that requirements relating to Climate in our procurement exercises are clear and relevant to the market.
• Operations – This group will be building on and supporting the good work being done across sectors.
• Monitoring and Reporting – Developing an accessible route to help public bodies across Scotland report on how they are meeting their Climate commitments and the benefits are being accrued.

Our aim is to make the best use of our resources to provide a consistent and robust approach to addressing Climate through procurement. Early products of this work include a Scottish Procurement Policy Note (SPPN) on Climate and Procurement and Climate Literacy for Buyers e-learning that will be available early in 2021.

Further information

Sector representatives will continue to communicate the work of the Forum and provide updates. If you would like more information about this work, including the sustainable procurement tools, please contact us at scottishprocurement@gov.scot

Tags: climate emergency, Power of procurement, public sector, public sector procurement, sustainable procurement

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