Public sector leadership on the global climate emergency: guidance

6. Procurement

The Scottish public sector has a leadership role in responding to the climate emergency. The direction that organisations and procurement professionals can show in influencing emissions reductions is now at the forefront of government policy on the public sector and climate change. Policy highlights the role of procurement in creating a culture and ways of working that supports a circular economy and promotes strategic decisions on ‘whether’, ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘how much’ organisations buy. Carbon will be a factor in future procurement activities of all public bodies to help achieve the national carbon reduction targets.

Public procurement law and policy already reflects environmental considerations principally through the sustainable procurement duty of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. It requires public bodies to consider and act on opportunities to achieve socio-economic and environmental benefits in the course of their procurements. Public bodies are required to prepare an Annual Procurement Report to demonstrate alignment between procurement activity and the organisation’s Procurement Strategy, including compliance with the Sustainable Procurement Duty. Public bodies should engage with procurement colleagues and refer to their organisation’s Annual Procurement Report when preparing the Procurement section of their Climate Change Report, as there will likely be interdependencies between these reports.

Scottish Government are mobilising the significant annual public procurement spend and collaborating across the public sector on tools and guidance to support a green recovery and our wider climate and circular economy ambitions. Scottish Ministers also wrote to Chief Officers in the public sector with a specific call to action on supply chain emissions Annex B.

Scottish Government’s sustainable procurement tools

The Scottish Government’s sustainable procurement tools are available to all public bodies and include indicators and guidance to support Scottish public sector buyers to consider and act on climate change considerations.

The Sustainable Public Procurement Prioritisation Tool is designed to assist strategic planning and prioritisation of economic, environmental and social wellbeing considerations in public procurements to ensure an appropriate focus within organisational and category/commodity planning. All of this allows us to make best use of existing public procurement policy and law in Scotland and to identify opportunities to minimise negative environmental impacts through our procurement activity.

The Sustainability Test is a self-assessment tool designed to help buyers embed relevant and proportionate sustainability requirements consistently in the development of contracts and frameworks. It can be used in isolation or by reference to the results of prioritisation assessment, where undertaken. Life cycle impact mapping is located within the Sustainability Test.

The Climate Literacy for Procurers e-learning is intended to give procurers confidence to minimise risks and maximise opportunities associated with climate change.

The climate emergency is a very clear priority for tackling higher emission products and services with key areas of focus outlined in the Climate Change Plan update, including commitments to decarbonise the public sector fleet and heat. There continues to be significant investment in upskilling public procurers to be climate literate and to have an appreciation of how contracting activity can support net-zero aims for their organisation and Scotland as a whole. The role of procurement is well placed to use professional skills to capture and drive opportunities to contribute to climate change ambitions through procurement activity.

The Public procurement: priorities 2021 to 2022 sets out the priorities, high level aims and delivery statements for all public procurement leaders.