Public Procurement and Property

Single Procurement Document (SPD) standardised statements to address climate change

March 15, 2023 by Melissa Reilly No Comments | Category Sustainability, Sustainable Procurement, Sustainable Procurement Tools

Our Climate and Procurement Forum leads work on helping public bodies and business to contribute to combating climate change.

In April 2022 we launched Single Procurement Document (SPD) standardised statements to empower organisations to address climate impact in their contracting.

This SPD update came from the work of our Climate and Procurement Forum. It was developed in consultation with representatives from the public, private and third sector to ensure that the views of public bodies and end users were fully considered.

To open the conversation with potential suppliers to the public sector about their greenhouse gas emissions and how they can be reduced, procurement professionals are encouraged to ask for climate information from bidders at the selection stage of procurements.

We have developed, standardised statements and accompanying guidance, including climate change plan templates, to facilitate this in the procurement process.

About the standardised statements

The SPD question 4C7 is used to ask bidders for public contracts to provide necessary environmental management information. The standardised statements allow public bodies to ask bidders for Scottish contracts for information about their climate capability in the form of a climate change plan.

A staged approach has been developed that asks for strong climate commitments from high climate impact procurements and lighter touch requirements for low value/ low climate risk contracts. This will encourage all bidders to address climate change where they may not already be doing so and ensures a Just Transition by keeping requirements accessible and proportionate for all bidders.

Sources of information and support

The standardised statements can be found on the Procurement Journey, as well as guidance for buyers in the Climate Emergency page on the Procurement Journey.

The Climate Emergency page on the Supplier Journey provides guidance for businesses on how to take climate into account when bidding for public contracts. Pre-filled example Climate Change Plan Templates are also available on the Supplier Journey.

Guidance on how to evaluate Bidder Climate Change Plan Templates is available on the Climate Change Guidance page of the Sustainable Procurement Tools.

The Supplier Development Programme (SDP) provides free support in all aspects of tendering to Scottish-based SMEs, supported businesses and third sector organisations. Working in partnership with all 32 Local Authorities, Scottish Government and other public bodies, SDP delivers this support through a programme of free training and events.

The Climate Literacy eLearning is hosted on the Sustainable Procurement Tools platform and can be used by both buyers and suppliers to boost their climate capability.

We welcome and encourage feedback as bidders start to produce their climate change plans and test our guidance in action.

For further information on public procurement in Scotland please visit www.gov.scot/procurement

Please email enquiries to scottishprocurement@gov.scot

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Tags: climate change, environment, single procurement document, SPD, Sustainability, sustainable procurement tools

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