Sustainable Procurement

The Public Procurement Strategy for Scotland outlines a vision and provides guidance for all public procurement in Scotland and references a sustainable procurement duty outlined in the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.

Glasgow City Council's Sustainable Procurement Strategy 2023 - 2027 was approved in March 2023. This sets out the vision, objectives and actions which will direct and govern procurement activities across the council. These reflect the key challenges and commitments of the Council's Strategic Plan, of which Grand Challenge 3 is to fight the climate emergency in a just transition to a net zero Glasgow, in addition to supporting a variety of council strategies and national and local policies.  One of the main objectives of the Strategy is "Support the Council's Net Zero, ecological and adaptation ambitions" and Action 5.06 is "Continue to support the delivery of the council strategy, policies and motions".   We will do this by ensuring our sourcing strategies and tender evaluation criteria align and support suppliers which have net zero ambitions.

Some key sustainable procurement strategic activity includes the following:

• The council follows the Scottish Government Procurement Journey including guidance on embedding climate considerations. More information can be found here on What Do I Do on Climate?

• The Council has embedded the Scottish Government's Single Procurement Document (SPD) climate change question (4c.7) into all relevant tenders.  This questions suppliers on their scope 1,2 and 3 emissions and climate plans.

• As part of every tender opportunity, the Council completes the Scottish Government developed Sustainability Test which looks to target various areas such as Climate Change, Materials, waste, hazardous Materials, Bio-security, biodiversity, heritage and water. Through this analysis we can look to incorporate changes to the specification, pre selection tender criteria, tender award criteria, contract management (KPI's).

• As part of the procurement process, officers complete an Initial Procurement Assessment (IPA) that queries if the procurement is required, costed and has budget available. This allows and ensures a review and approval is complete to determine if the goods, service or works needs to be procured or if alternative sustainable arrangements could be considered.

• Specific examples of our sustainable procurement strategy at work are :

• Peat-free compost.  Action 21 in Glasgow's Climate Plan is " Develop a Peat Free Procurement Strategy for the city council" , further explaining " The council will engage with procurement units to understand what products are currently used and procured. The council will engage with suppliers to establish that 100% peat free products will be required and what the best alternative products available might be for specific projects such as nursery and bedding plants. The Council will develop a peat free procurement strategy". The council previously purchased peat for plant collections such as carnivorous plants but since 2022 we use a replacement media of milled bark, coir and perlite. Glasgow City Council no longer purchases bagged peat-based composts and in 2024 the council has requested that the bedding order city wide is peat free.  (Note - as the council purchases all its plants and trees from external suppliers, it doesn't control the growing media the supplier uses within the Hardy Ornamental Nursery Stock (HONS) Framework and therefore trees/plants arriving  containerised may have some peat compost as part of the mix). 
• Fleet procurement - The primary focus of the Fleet Strategy 2020 - 2030 is the delivery of a green fleet to reduce emissions in line with the Scottish Government's targets and contributing towards the Council's climate change objectives. It includes a fleet procurement strategy that considers these objectives in-line with budget. An award for purchase of electric cars in 2024 supports the linkage between the Sustainable Procurement Strategy and other council strategies and policies.  An earlier case study on our Fleet procurement is available here.

More information on Procurement is available here.