SCOTTISH ENTERPRISE SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT STRATEGY 2016-19

Our Sustainable Procurement Strategy has been informed by the Scottish Enterprise (SE) Business Plan 2015/18, the Scottish Enterprise Procurement Strategy, Scotland’s Economic Strategy, the Scottish Government’s Sustainable Procurement Action Plan for Scotland and the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.

The Scottish Government has set itself a purpose to “focus government and public services on creating a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth” – and sustainability is at the heart of this.

The SE Sustainable Procurement Strategy aims to ensure that sustainability is considered throughout the entire procurement life cycle, meeting our legal and financial obligations, following best practice and achieving economic, environmental and social benefits.

What is sustainable procurement?

Sustainable procurement is “...a process whereby organisations meet their needs for good, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis in terms of generating benefits not only to the organisation, but also to society and the economy whilst minimising damage to the environment.”

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 creates a sustainable procurement duty on contracting authorities to consider how their procurements can “improve the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of the authority’s area, facilitate the involvement of small and medium enterprises, third sector bodies and supported businesses in the process, and promote innovation”; and to “act with a view to securing such improvements” where it is proportionate and relevant to do so.

This strategy sets out our approach to ensuring that this is embedded in our procurement processes.

The key themes of the Scottish Enterprise Business Plan 2015-2018 mirror the four principles for sustainable growth in Scotland’s Economic Strategy:

Investing in our people, infrastructure and assets

Fostering a culture of innovation Promoting inclusive growth Enabling Scotland to take advantage of

international opportunities

Sustainable procurement requires full consideration of environmental, economic and social impacts, as well as the financial and performance implications of procurement. This means considering the impacts of procurement decisions on local communities, the environment and society as a whole. We need to tackle the underlying challenges in our economy and labour market, in order to increase the competitiveness and sustainability of the Scottish economy while reducing inequality.

Economic considerations

A key driver of sustainable procurement is to increase the transparency of an organisation’s procurement activity. In order to do achieve this we will:

Publish a procurement strategy document which sets out how we will carry out our regulated procurements.

Produce an annual procurement report Publish a forward plan of upcoming

procurement projects Use the Public Contracts Scotland website

to advertise regulated contracts and publish contract award notices.

We will continue to advertise our contracts over the value of £50,000 via Public Contracts Scotland, which allows free and unlimited access to contract opportunities to all organisations regardless of their size. This will encourage competition, maximise supplier participation, increase supplier diversity, and encourage supplier collaboration and innovation. By using clear and precise language throughout our procurement process, we will ensure a common understanding of our requirements and promote a straightforward and accessible procedure.

We will continue to engage with SMEs and will ensure they have fair and equal access as suppliers by splitting future contracts into lots – where reasonable. Through our open process we will facilitate the involvement of not only SMEs but also third sector bodies.

In the interests of good supplier relations, SE is committed to prompt payment of suppliers, having implemented a revised payment policy whereby undisputed invoices will be paid within 10 working days of receipt.

And where appropriate to do so we will collaborate across the public sector in order to achieve economies of scale.

In order to achieve best value for money and to comply with the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 we will continue to award our contracts on the basis of the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT), considering a balance between price and quality in all procurement decisions. Value for money does not necessarily mean choosing the least expensive option – instead, it means selecting the most economically beneficial solution while taking into account the quality and the whole life costs of the purchase where relevant.

In addition, we will continue to identify and reserve contracts for supported businesses within our

procurement process where it is proportionate and relevant to do so.

Promote innovation

Innovation in public procurement gives us the opportunity to influence the market towards innovative solutions. This could be in the design or delivery of services or in the procurement of innovative goods and services. And we will continue to focus on outputs and performance-based specifications in order to encourage innovative solutions from our suppliers.

More widely, we will also work to promote the ‘procurement of innovation’ with our public sector partners, and assist other areas of SE in the use of both pre-commercial procurement and commercial procurement processes designed specifically with innovation in mind.

Environmental considerations

Environmental criteria are included in our requirements and our evaluation of tenders wherever relevant. As part of this strategy, we will continue to consider the whole life cost and environmental impact of construction projects as appropriate including:

Specifying high BREEAM ratings for sustainable design and construction

Encouraging recycling and the reuse of materials

Maximising the use of materials from sustainable sources in accordance with the government buying standards.

Considering EPC ratings during the procurement of construction contracts where relevant.

We want to be recognised as an environmentally responsible organisation. This will be achieved by reducing our carbon emissions and by working with others to share good practice.

We will endeavour to reduce our internal CO2 emissions by 42% by 2020 from a 2009/10 baseline.

Additionally, we will seek to reduce consumption of paper, energy, water and generation of waste where possible by recycling , and the reuse or reallocation of materials, using recycled goods and materials and considering Fair Trade products or similar wherever possible.

Social considerations

We will continue to strongly recommend that organisations with which we work pay the Living Wage, adopt fair working practices and get involved in their local communities.

The Scottish Government is committed to promoting sustainable procurement and tackling inequalities in Scotland, and we will continue to implement the relevant and proportionate application of fair and ethical trading principles in our regulated procurements.

We are subject to the public sector duty under the Equalities Act 2010 and have a statutory duty to pay due regard to elimination of discrimination and the advancement of equality. We will continue to treat suppliers equally and, where appropriate, we require suppliers to have an Equal Opportunities Policy and demonstrate their compliance with equal opportunities legislation

We are committed to maximising Community Benefits from procurement activities. Therefore in all our regulated procurement activity – where it is relevant and proportionate to do so – we will include a request for suppliers to commit to the delivery of community benefits as part of their contracts.

Procurement can be used as a significant mechanism to advance the sustainability agenda.

We will continue to apply best practice in order to meet our legal obligations and achieve wider economic, social and environmental benefits for Scotland.