Sustainability

Sustainability is high on the corporate business agenda, presenting a significant opportunity for the procurement specialist to implement a procurement sustainability strategy.

The stimulator can be British Standard 8903 – 2010. This is a GUIDE dealing with the principles and framework for procuring sustainability, The British Standards Institute refer to BS 8903 as a daughter standard of BS 8900.

Brian Farrington Limited are procurement specialists who have devised a set of Metrics to evaluate current procurement actions against criteria determined by BS8903 and, equally importantly, facets of procurement performance omitted from BS 8903.

It is already evident that the robustness of procuring sustainability will become a PASS/FAIL facet of public and private sector pre- qualification processes. The traditional Tick Box approach is being replaced by more probing and qualitative judgements.

The bland “Do you have a sustainable procurement strategy?” with a tick box Yes/No will in future require evidence that such a strategy is aligned to an organisational strategy- always assuming that there is the latter! The penetrative requirement for demonstrable method statements showing how procurement have applied a strategy into the supply chain will currently challenge many procurement departments.

We have encountered the view that there is a conflict between procuring sustainability and making savings. This is flawed logic. Through life costs should be a focus for procuring I.T. for example. The refreshment strategy and end of life disposal are material considerations, often ignored at the tender evaluation phase of procurement.

Brian Farrington Limited have designed for procurement specialists an integrated approach to position performance. Together with your procurement, we will apply our Metrics of Excellence and reach a provisional finding. A training programme will then be provided to explain how to fully implement BS 8903, ensuring the implementation applies to each procurement category.

The next stage of our process is an evidence gathering methodology to identify any gaps in current practice, finally making recommendations to implement BS 8903 and to engage with the supply chain. We then agree to re-apply the Metrics of Excellence in 12 months’ time to track progress.

So! What is in it for your organisation? It will be a boost to the Corporate image. It will drive down costs. It will facilitate winning contracts where sustainability is a prerequisite. Above all, it will show that procurement does take initiatives that are for the corporate good.

We welcome contact from you. A dialogue about our Metrics and our integrated programme will help us to pin down how we can help you. Please contact r Ray Gambell on 01744 20698 or send an email to [email protected].

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