Zero Champion - Sustainability from rhetoric to reality

Sustainable procurement action plan is go

Mar 6th, 2007
by Phil Clark.

After being chivvied along to release it at a recent conference at the ICE (and by myself on environment secretary David Miliband’s blog) the Government has now released its sustainable procurement action plan. A statement issued by DEFRA yesterday confirmed the aim to make the Government estate carbon neutral by 2012 and to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2020. There’s also a plan to set mandatory environmental product standads so that departments procure the most sustainable commodities. For the full plan go here.

I’ve had a look through the executive summary and here are the key points:

  • Leadership – There will be a ministerial committee in overall charge chaired by the Prime Minister. The environment secretary will be the lead minister and the head of the civil service will oversee delivery

  • Budgeting/accounting – There will be simpler guidance on the Treasury Green Book. Departments can raise their their case with Treasury if an affordability constraint appears to prevent them from choosing a sustainable solution. The Office of Government Commerce will look to embed sustainability in its Gateway procurement process
  • Raising standards – One real example given. From 1 April 2009 only timber or timber products originating from independently verified legal/sustainable sources or from a licensed Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) partner will be used for the Government estate – appropriate documents will be needed to prove it
  • Capturing innovation – The DTI will work cross-Government to stimulate innovation in public procurment. Good luck on that one.
  • Scrutiny – This main watchdog on this will be the Sustainable Development Commission, which will deliver a health check on how things are progressing next year

    • The plan will affect

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    Posted in: Politics.

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