Sustainable Procurement – Just Good Procurement

Procurement is not too complicated, it is the delivery of corporate objectives or public policy aims through a supply chain. Traditionally this has been primarily about cost/time/quality/safety but in the past 10-15 years this has increasingly included environmental objectives, social outcomes such as local labour or addressing risks such as those presented by poor labour standards deep in the supply chain, as tragically demonstrated by the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh.

For seven years I had the honour to be Executive Chair of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, overseeing the sustainability performance of the London Olympics and providing advice on whether the promise to deliver the “most sustainable Games ever” was actually being achieved through construction of the Olympic Park, staging of the Games and the long term legacy. A quick glance at my archived website will show London 2012 was not above criticism but in the main, exemplary standards of sustainability were achieved that took us to new levels in the way we think about our supply chains. The Olympic Park was likened to delivering two Heathrow Terminal 5 projects in half the time. There is no doubt that, as a public body, the ODA showed that supply chains can deliver ground breaking standards of sustainability whilst still delivering on time, within budget and in compliance with the EU rules. This was done through use of a balanced scorecard approach to selecting suppliers, zealous application of monthly performance reporting that left their contractors with no place to hide and no compromise when things got tough.

The approach taken by the ODA has been replicated by other mega-projects such as Crossrail, Thames Tideway Tunnel and most recently HS2. The recent publication of Government guidance for sustainable food procurement draws heavily on best practice exemplified by the ODA. However, at a level below the mega-project, application is less consistent.

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Shaun McCarthy is an independent advisor, author and speaker in the field of sustainable business policy and practice. He was awarded an OBE for services to sustainability and the London Olympics by Her Majesty the Queen in her 2013 birthday honours list. For more information on McCarthy, click here.