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Making sustainability the new normal

Operating more sustainably as an organisation through sustainable procurement. Lieke Walvoort, student Facility Management at Saxion, wrote her Bachelor thesis on enhancing sustainability in the UT’s procurement process.

What does the procurement department do?

Procurement concerns all contracts for all services and products delivered to the UT. It is a good start to include sustainability criteria in all these contracts and monitoring compliance. The purchaser advises the client - the one who pays -, and the latter takes the ultimate decision.  Both parties are responsible to integrate sustainability into this process. Implementing sustainable procurement is about selecting the right sustainability criteria for this specific service or product and monitoring that all commitments are being met.

Phases of the tender process

Lieke researched the sustainability criteria that were included in the European open and selective tender in 2018. These tender processes have a value between €50.000 and €214.000 or higher than €214.000. The procurement process of these projects consists of five phases: preparation (project plan), specification (programme of requirements, tender awarding criteria, request for quotation), selection (assessment of preliminary awarding of tender), contracting (final decision to award contract), and implementation.

The ideal course of action for sustainable procurement

In the preparation phase, market research is carried out where information can be obtained from the frontrunners in the market. This information should be used to draw up a checklist of criteria to form the framework for the tender. In this phase, the Green Hub could contribute with possible sustainability criteria. The next step is to determine whether these criteria become optional or requirement. In the specification phase, the programme of requirements is drafted describing the sustainability criteria, optional of required. In the selection phase it is determined to what extent sustainability criteria will be used for awarding the contract by means of weighting factors. The contract phase will specifically indicate which sustainability criteria will be monitored. Finally, the implementation phase will monitor whether these sustainability criteria are actually being complied with. If needed, adjustments are made during quarterly meetings.

Reducing the CO2 footprint by 15%

One of the goals of the UT strategy, Shaping 2030, is to reduce the CO2 footprint by 15% in the areas of food, water, waste, travel and energy consumption. Criteria referring to these themes will be considered in the tender processes.

What should suppliers pay attention to, to meet our optional and  required criteria?

Suppliers need to register their data so they can quantify the impact of their activities (by means of a CO2 footprint) and share this data with the UT. Suppliers need to take steps to implement measures to lower their impact. Their focus can be on, for example, ensuring that packaging material is reusable (to create less waste) and minimizing transportation by clustering product deliveries.

Suppliers should assess their value chain and aim to ensure their products are produced more sustainably by using less energy, water and raw materials. Reducing the consumption of raw materials could be realised by using products that are reusable, products that can easily be disassembled and repaired or products that can be recycled. These factors must be taken into account in the design phase of products, which is something the UT also lectures on. Hopefully, UT students will contribute to solving the challenges in this area.

Stimulating suppliers to become more sustainable

There are many developments in the field of sustainability. In order to address these, contracts should be include agreements to encourage suppliers to make a positive impact for the duration of the contract. Even when, at the time a contract is signed, it is yet unknown what these developments will be.

Advice

Lieke concludes her thesis with an advice. This advice contains a step-by-step plan for selecting and implementing sustainability criteria, a checklist with an overview of generic sustainability criteria that can be applied to all tenders, and a proposal to create awareness about sustainable procurement so these tools are actually applied. The procurement department at UT is going to further this work. They will implement the advice step-by-step within the various procurement processes. All this forma part of the UT's strategy towards Shaping 2030.