Sustainable Procurement & Life Cycle Analysis

Heather Pearce

9th February 2010

Contents

Sustainable Procurement Strategy

Environment Agency Sustainable Procurement Strategy Model

Tools

Sustainable Procurement Risk Assessment

Life Cycle Assessment

Whole Life Costing

Developing a Sustainable Procurement Strategy

Procurement has a key role to play in achieving the overall vision and mission of any organisation.

Procurement can make a significant contribution to any policy goals of sustainable development and resource minimisation by ensuring that suppliers, contractors and the goods and services bought achieve optimum environmental performance.

Procurement has an additional role to play in minimising any reputational risk of social exploitation within the supply chain.

Procurement therefore has a significant contribution to make in promoting environmental and social awareness in the wider market place through its supply community.

StakeholderValues

Resource

Sustainable

Procurement

Strategy

Risk

Assessment

& Action

Supplier

Management

& Development

Integration into

Procurement

Process

Maintaining

Excellence

Sustainable

Procurement

Marketing

Staff Training

& Awareness

Org Values

SupportFramework

© Environment Agency 2006

Environment Agency Tools

Sustainable Procurement Risk Assessment

Commodity Guidance Document

Centres of Expertise

Sustainable Questionnaire

Managing Actions

Sustainable Procurement Guide

Supplier Development – Environmental Audit Programme

Sustainable Procurement Risk Assessment

Prior to starting a tender process, procurement teams should conduct three complimentary assessments. These assessments should be used to inform procurement strategy development. The 3 assessments are:

Commercial / Business Risk Assessment

Environmental & Social Risk Assessment

Market Influence Risk Assessment

Commercial / Business Risk Assessment

Is the purchase core to the business?Would recovery costs be high?Is there a limited number of suppliers?Do we have difficulty in describing and measuring what we want?Will the organisation suffer negative PR if supply fails?

These high level risk questions will begin to flag the commercial issues in the purchase being developed.

Environmental & Social Risk AssessmentDoes the purchase or the service provider have potential for high-energy consumption?Is the product made of, or does the service provider use unsustainable materials?Does the item or the service provider have potential to cause a pollution incident in the performance of our work?Are excessive emissions (land, air, and water) caused during the manufacture of goods used directly or by service providers?Is there a likelihood of a developing world supply chain?Is there an environmental/ social PR risk to the organisation in purchasing the product or service?

This will start to flag the degree of environmental and social risk present in the contract.

Market Influence Risk Assessment

Does this organisation brand/ reputation influence us?Is this organisation a customer that is easy to work with?Is this organisation an intelligent client that is informed in its dealings?Is this organisation efficient in its business dealings with us?Does this organisation pay on time?Is this organisation a key client we need to have in order for us to win other business with other organisations? Does this organisations total yearly business represent more than 0.5% of our turnover?Of the products/ services that this customer buys, is it the main customer of those products within our portfolio?Is this organisation open to change to make itself easier to work with?By working with this organisation do we become better?Do we operate in a saturated market? Are low switching costs operative within this marketplace?

These high level risk questions will begin to flag the ability of the organisation to influence the market

Assessment Results

The results of these three assessments are designed to:

Inform procurement decision makingBecome instrumental in the development of procurement strategies, action plans and/or the identification of an alternative product or service

In other words, the results of these assessments inform procurement as to the nature and extent of management resource required to manage business, environmental and social risks and which of the following areas to focus resources into:

Specification/tender requirementsSupplier selection/appraisalContract management and setting of (environmental) performance measures

Life Cycle Assessment & Record

STEP 1: Assess Life

Cycle using the Life

Cycle Record

Raw material… Use/Maintenance…

Manufacture… Disposal….

Life Cycle Assessment & Record

STEP 2: Use the Life

Cycle Record to Map

Impacts

Aspect / Impact

Raw material Manufacture Use Disposal Comments

Non-renewable/natural resource use

Energy

Water use & Pollution

Air emissions / VOC

Solid waste

Hazardous substances

Packaging

Noise

Developing world supply chain

Life Cycle Assessment & Record

STEP 3: Undertake a

Strategic

Environmental/

Social Risk

Assessment

Strategic Sustainability Risk

Answer Notes

Existing or forthcoming legislation or national strategy concerning product/service.

Yes / No

Industry subject to IPPC regulations

Yes / No

Commodity linked to or subject of “green” pressure group campaign

Yes / No

Developing world supply chain

Yes / No

Risk Assessment Outcomes

The risk assessment will help identify the environmental and social risks associated with the procurement exercise. This means the organisation will be able to rank commodities and either avoid or manage the risks effectively and will provide the key information to facilitate the development of future strategies.

The environmental commodity guidance was developed to assist procurement staff in the production of their contract strategies.

Whole Life Costing

Once the life cycle mapping has been identified from raw materials through to disposal, we can start to look at whole life costing of the product or service.

Tenders are evaluated taking into account cost, quality and sustainability criteria.

Cost is not simply the initial purchase price but should incorporate the whole life costs which include costs associated with maintenance, use and disposal.

Whole Life Costing – Constraints

Complicated Lack of knowledge of the supply chain and product life cycleSubjective ComparabilityReliability Time consuming Budget / finance complications (Capital Vs Revenue budgets)

Way Forward

Complicated – Start off simple and build up as you get more experienced Lack of knowledge of the supply chain and product life cycle – life cycle analysis and market analysis Subjective – organisations replacement policiesComparability – cost of use subject to supplier information which may not be comparable with competitors variablesReliability – not an exact science, you will never be able to predict how often and how expensive it will be when equipment fails.Time consuming – working out whole life costs takes time, especially complex requirements. Budget / finance complications (Capital Vs Revenue budgets) – work with finance and maintenance functions to try and resolve this conflict.