Sustainable procurement
Can be 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” (Procuring the Future’, Sustainable Procurement Task Force, DEFRA).
Ethical procurement
Can be defined as:
“a procurement process that respects fundamental international standards against criminal conduct such as bribery, corruption, fraud and human rights abuse, and responds immediately to such matters where they are identified” (Ethical and Sustainable Procurement, CIPS).
One of the Council’s key procurement priorities is to ensure continuous improvement in procurement decisions which are made against delivering sustainable and ethical trading. We seek to avoid adverse social and environmental impact in the supply-chain, the reduction of environmental impact from service operations and the purchase of products that meet recognised environmental standards.
We also aim to ensure that workers employed within the Council’s supply chain are treated with respect and have rights with regard to employment including the rights to freely choose employment, freedom of association, payment of a living wage, working hours that comply with national laws, equal opportunities, recognised employment relationship, freedom from intimidation and to a safe and healthy working environment.
Sustainable public procurement aims to make the best use of public money, helping us to achieve our overarching purpose and strategic objectives.
Sustainable procurement duty
The sustainable procurement duty, as outlined in the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, Section 9 is embedded within our Corporate Procurement Strategy (PDF 975Kb). It is also underpinned by the National Performance Framework and Scotland's Economic Strategy.
Before a contracting authority buys anything, it must think about how it can improve the social, environmental and economic wellbeing of the area in which it operates, with a particular focus on reducing inequality.
These duties are set out in The Equality Act 2010 and The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012.