PROCUREMENT


THE FUTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR


Sustainable procurement is not a new concept, but it can be a misunderstood one. With both the public and private sectors looking for ever increasing efficiencies in tough economic times, sustainable development, and the wider issues of corporate responsibility, could easily be overlooked as a costly ‘nice to have’, or an area to merely comply with legislation. EMCOR Group (UK) was the first Facilities Management company to be awarded British Standard


BS 8903 for Sustainable Procurement. Here, Head of Procurement, Paul McDonald, discusses how sustainable procurement can be implemented practically and efficiently to both protect resources for the future and deliver much sought after tangible benefits for the public sector, such as cost savings and risk reduction, in the here and now.


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SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT Jim Leape, Director General of WWF International says: “We are living as if we have an extra planet at our disposal. We are using 50% more resources than the Earth can sustainably produce and unless we change course, that number will grow fast, so that by 2030 even two planets will not be enough.”


He is not alone in thinking this way, as many influential people believe a more sustainable development model needs to be established. An essential component of this will be the pursuit of sustainable procurement. The publication of the European Union’s (EU) 2004 public sector procurement directives has helped to push sustainability – and more specifically, sustainable procurement – further up the UK’s social and economic


PUBLIC SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY • VOLUME 4 ISSUE 2


agenda. The public sector’s extensive property portfolio provides fertile ground to put theory into practice. The public sector stands to gain from many potential efficiencies that can be gained from property management activities. The most obvious places to look are: energy usage; cleaning; maintenance; waste and water management and safety and security. The pursuit of efficiencies in these aspects is relevant both when buildings are already in place or at the design and construction phases. Facilities management professionals can help deliver on the “whole life” equation as “whole life costs” can be properly envisaged and accounted for in a way that encourages longer-term thinking. The latter is often a key theme when it comes to the requirements of the public sector.


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