Homepage > SME's, Sustainable Procurement & Climate Change
The Suppliers Corner page has been set up in response to the ongoing demand from private sector organisations searching for local government procurement opportunities. The page links through to the procurement pages for all West Midlands local authorities and to their current opportunities pages including those who have eProcurement portals. The page also provides links to other sites advertising current opportunities such as Supply2gov, Compete4, FinditinBirmingham and many more. Link to Suppliers Corner
Glover Report - Accelerating the SME economic engine: 
through transparent, simple and strategic procurement
In Budget 2008, the Chancellor invited me to lead an advisory committee to provide advice for the 2008 Pre-Budget Report on action to reduce the barriers small and medium sized firms face when competing for public sector contracts and to advise on the practicality of setting a goal for SMEs to win 30 per cent of all public sector business in the next five years. He also asked me to consider the follow up to the 2003 Better Regulation Task Force and Small Business Council report Government: Supporter and Customer?
This report represents the results of the Committee’s considerations. To inform its work the Committee consulted widely issuing a call for evidence that received over 1300 responses, which provided valuable input from both businesses and public authorities. I also hosted a series of consultation workshops to hear the views of businesses and public sector procurers first hand and worked with different representative bodies to explore what actions would have the most impact. Download full Report
Sustainable Procurement is defined as…
"A process whereby organisations meet their needs for goods, 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."
Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands supports a range of sustainable initiatives across the region. This section will provide a range of information on sustainable development.
Sustainability Guidance on the OGC website
The Centre of Expertise in Sustainable Procurement has created a new area within the Policy and Standards Framework, bringing together both OGC guidance on sustainable procurement and operations and links to useful websites on the subject. This should make it easier for our stakeholders to find the guidance and information they need. Over the coming months you will see these pages develop further to include more guidance and case studies from across government.
UK Government Sustainable Procurement Action Plan
In the 2005 Sustainable Development strategy (‘Securing the Future’) the Prime Minister committed Government to “lead by example” when spending taxpayers money sustainably. The UK Government and wider public sector buys £150 billion worth of goods and services each
year. The Government commissioned a business-led Task Force to provide us with analysis and recommendations on how to achieve our goal in being among the leaders in the EU on sustainable procurement – ‘Procuring the Future’ sets out their findings.
National Sustainable Products Catalogue
Produced by ESPO in conjunction with Global to Local, this recently launched catalogue introduces an exciting new range of sustainable products, including -
• Microgeneration energy products
• Energy efficient products, including energy saving devices
• Products made from recycled materials
• Products and services for sustainable parks management, including
Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS)
Available to all Local Authorities and public sector bodies in the UK, it brings with it the following benefits -
• Full EU compliant competitive tendering process already carried out on behalf of customers
• Products specified to high standards of quality and sustainability
• Value for money provided with many discounts for quantity orders
• Product and services support Sustainable Procurement Task Force key commodity groups
The catalogue has been produced on behalf of the Pro4 group of Consortia and is supported by the Centre of Excellence and the DCFS.
For further information visit www.espo.org/pdfs/200711-sustainables.pdf
Call the ESPO catalogue request number 0116 2657927 for your free copy.
Public authorities are major consumers in Europe, 
spending some 16 % of the EU’s gross domestic product (which is a sum equivalent to half the GDP of Germany). By using their purchasing power to opt for goods and services that also respect the environment, they can make an important contribution towards sustainable development. Green public procurement covers areas such as the purchase of energy-effi cient computers and buildings, offi ce equipment made of environmentally sustainable timber, recyclable paper, electric cars, environment-friendly public transport, organic food in canteens, electricity stemming from renewable energy sources, and air conditioning systems complying with state of the art environmental solutions.
Local Government Sustainable Procurement Action Plan June 2007. Read More
Birmingham Strategic Partnership (BSP) sustainable procurement project
- Localise West Midlands (LWM) - 26/01/07
LWM has been commissioned by the Birmingham Strategic Partnership to undertake a project
to produce a sustainable procurement action plan for the BSP members. The project was funded following a review of the Community Strategy, which highlighted the potential of procurement,
and is intended to help meet commitments laid down in the Local Area Agreement (LAA),
where environmental sustainability is one of the cross-cutting themes designed to influence all areas of the agreement. Read more... (PDF, 3 pages, 100KB).
Case Studies
Government publishes suite of best practice case studies in sustainable procurement and operations
Case studies, some of which were presented in the recently released State of the Estate Report, have been collected from a range of departments and agencies to highlight some of the many positive actions that can contribute towards delivering sustainable procurement and operations. They have been selected on the basis of whether they are innovative and making a difference and whether they could be easily replicated more widely in central Government. Link to OGC to view case studies
Useful Documents
Report on the In-depth Identification of Emerging Technologies
Increasing energy efficiency always was and still is closely correlated with the development of new technologies. Therefore, if it is aimed to further enhance energy efficiency, considerable and targeted investment in innovative technologies is a major factor of success. First and foremost this is the responsibility of enterprises. However, according to empirical
evidence the coincidence of the enterprises’ technology-push with a correspondent market-pull by the consumers increases the success of an emerging technology significantly. Thus, due to the market power of the purchasing activities of public authorities, sustainable public procurement plays an important role in the development of highly energy efficient technologies by closing the gap between sustainable product development and sustainable consumption.
The Procura+ Manual: A Guide to Cost-Effective Sustainable Procurement
The Procura+ Manual is designed to provide clear, easy-to-understand guidance on how to implement sustainable procurement in practice. The manual provides practical implementation advice, presents guidance on how sustainability concerns can be integrated into the procurement process, a model for developing and managing the process, and actual purchasing criteria for six high-priority product groups (construction, IT equipment, cleaning products, food, buses and electricity) which are legally compliant and can be inserted directly into tendering documents.
This publication is available to download
